Technology
The technological advancements there was a running theme throughout my trip. My first night I thought I was turning on the air conditioning right before bed, but I accidently turned on the heated floors, making it 90 degrees in my room when I woke up. I walked across my floors like you walk across a beach in July! Got that figured out, but in the process also turned off my hot water and had an icy shower. Yeah, by 9am the front desk staff thought I was an idiot...

Most places had western style toilets, but we did occasionally run into Eastern ones. The first time I used one was so exciting, but yeah - that wore off real quick. Check this out (and yes, you have to squat):

Less gross and way more cool was their answer to the umbrella problem. Koreans are very fussy about people walking into buildings with dripping umbrellas (I don't blame them), but who wants to leave their umbrella at the door to be stolen? Well, two answers. Umbrella locks and bags. The bags are far more common. At department stores, they actually have people manning the bags to make sure you use them. Just stick your umbrella in, and pull. Kinda like getting a bag for your produce at the grocery store.