[Rain mention] Insider’s City Guide to Seoul.

— Cloud cover by: Stephe, Managing Editor ^@@^

Well, ain’t that the truth? If you haven’t heard of Rain, you’ve been living under about twenty rocks somewhere out around Alpha Centauri. For real.

What an amazing place, Seoul. I so look forward to visiting there in the future!

Maria Teresa Bilotta for The Wall Street Journal. Rooftops in Bukchon Village.

The Wall Street Journal/Life & Culture/Journal Concierge 3/2/2012 — written by Jieun Shin

Seoul, Korea

Seoul changes so quickly that navigating it can be a serious challenge if your map is more than a year or so old. It’s not uncommon for locals to get lost in areas they thought they knew.

The city has been in rebuilding mode for 50 years—to restore a war-torn land in the 1960s, thanks to ambitious urbanization projects in the ’80s and ’90s. Today, hundreds of sites are undergoing government-led reconstructions. But redevelopment isn’t the only reason for the city’s fresh feeling—once-staid Seoul has become a continental trend leader. You’re out of the buzzstream if you’ve never heard of pop star Rain. International fashion brands are serving up their boldest designs out of borderline-outrageous buildings. Rem Koolhaas’s Prada Transformer, an event space, opened in 2009; major projects by Zaha Hadid and Daniel Libeskind are in the works. Brand-new cafes and galleries seem to be everywhere…

» You can read Jieun’s article in its entirety on the WSJ news site HERE.