There was only one company visit today to Naver. This company is basically the Google of South Korea. Its site is used by 90% of the population as a search engine as well as a one stop shop for most of their internet needs such as social media, video, and shopping. Naver also invests heavily into developing AI to improve customer’s experience. The services they have developed include recognizing text within images, using facial recognition and audio to separate background noise, and the ability to focus cameras on a moving target without having to manually do so. Their programs are incredibly interesting and they’re already moving to be available to the public by hopefully next year. After hearing about their AI systems, they took us on a tour of their headquarters. In order to provide a healthy environment for their staff, Naver supplies most of their needs in house. The employees have access to a gym, post office, convenience store, and doctor all within the building.
After Naver, all of us split into smaller groups to explore the city. Several of us went to lunch with Dr. Yun to one of his favorite spots. This restaurant serves gamjatang or pork bone potato soup. This dish became one of my all time favorite foods almost immediately.
After lunch, we explored Insadong and found fish shaped bread or 붕어빵. Then it was off to Gangnam where we stumbled upon Tiger Sugar Bubble Tea. This shop had a line of dozens of people waiting so we had to try it for ourselves. I got a brown sugar boba and pearl milk tea with cream. This bubble tea was one of the best I’ve ever had and I’m so sad that there are no shops near me in the U.S..
Myeongdong was next on the list because we wanted to try all the street food there. As you can see in the gallery below, we tried a lot of foods. All of them were extremely good, but my favorite was probably the honey nut pancake.
In order from top left to bottom right: potato spiral with onion powder, candied strawberries, honey nut pancake, fish shaped bread, and teriyaki chicken.