Directions to the Big Alpha in Namdaemun Market

I recently searched very hard to find magnetic tape which I could attach to the back of my teaching materials in order to stick them to the whiteboard. After I finally found some at Office Max and brought it to school, I realized our whiteboards aren't magnetic. I didn't even know such a thing existed.

Anyway,I realized I had to buy my own magnetic whiteboard, and since my local 4-story daiso didn't carry them I was forced to journey to the alpha in namdaemun.

I googled "directions to Alpha namdaemun" and the first set of directions were from the local stitch n' bitch. Second result was a reference to the directions from the first site. Third result was a mormon blogger who explained that those directions are totally useless. The fourth result was Fat Girl in Seoul, who gave pretty good directions but counted the streets in a kind of bizarre way. So here's my take on how to get there:

Go out exit 5 of Hoehyeon station and go basically straight, the street will angle slightly right and you just follow that angle. It will be pretty obvious you are in the market, because there will be lots of decorations overhanging the street and no cars, plus tons of street food. Walk past 5 alleys/streets on your lefthand side. (I'm counting anything you could walk down as an alley). The sixth turn on your left will be the correct street. You will see this on your left:

And this on your right:

Walk down this street, and you will see a huge yellow sign on your right. That's the alpha!

Open until 8:00 every day except Sunday!

The selection is pretty good, but the focus is definitely on office supplies and not on children's toys or stationary. Also, there weren't earring backs, which I was really disappointed about.

Anyway, there is apparently no such thing as a small magnet board, but there is an option to buy a giant black magnet (90 cm by 60 cm) and foam board, and then glue the two together! So yeah, I made my own magnet board. Pretty, pretty crafty!