Our Top 10 BL 만화
WARNING! If we marked the last list as 18+ NSFW this is SOOOOO NSFW that we are glad we are sharing this in the middle of a quarantine. Seriously some of the images shared are extremely sexual. If you are not comfortable with such scenes this list is not for you.
Another Tuesday, another list. And this list is a doozy. Now that we introduced you to BL Dramas, we are going to introduce you to another BL genre. We had brough it up in the last list. 만화, are in the simplest terms, a comic book. And while not many BL drama’s come out of South Korea, 만화 are a totally different story.
Another thing you could gauge from our last list is that we like the sexy stuff. Fluff is nice, but the down and dirty is what we’re about for the most part. This is what we call Yaoi. All Yaoi is BL but not all BL is Yaoi.
These are our favorite BL 만화’s. Let’s Go!
10. Window to Window (창 너머 창) by Lee Aru
This was the first series we ever read, finished, and wished we had more. Ginu and Yubin were best friends ever since they were little kids. But Yubin is in love with Ginu. And does *ehem* to himself while thinking of Ginu. Bad part is Ginu see’s him doing it from his window across the way. Which turns out to be not so bad as Ginu is curious about what Yubin was doing and why and a friends with benefits relationship starts. What Yubin doesn’t realize is that Ginu has liked him since even before they really knew what “being gay” meant. And while their friends with benefits continues, things start to change between them. This was our first experience with yaoi. We were more so into the BL dramas before we knew yaoi and bl 만화’s existed. So our eyebrows raised, our temperatures rose, and our hearts pounded as we read through these sex scenes. We were hooked. The roll play one got us the most. So fair warning.
9. Puppy Love (퍼피러브) by Eumnya
This is a newer 만화having only been released, at the time of us writing this, two months ago. We usually try to steer clear of the overpowering, ‘ownership’ tropes. It just isn’t our thing. We can’t even tell you why we clicked it, but we did. And we were not disappointed. Seoyoon is a young man who is social media famous, but due to trauma in his past, he rarely goes outside and avoids all kinds of real life social interaction. He receives a DM from a man, Yeonwoo. A vulgar comment that is usually ignored but for some reason Seoyoon chooses to respond. The next thing you know Seoyoon is sending lewd photos and doing everything Yeonwoo asks of him. Even making Seoyoon his ‘pet.’ Yeah, we know, it sounds weird, but come to us after reading Killing Stalking. We can’t even share many images from this title as it is very VERY sexual. The reason it made it on our list is because we see that Yeonwoo, while dominating and making Seoyoon his pet, seems to have genuine feelings for Seoyoon. Since this is a newer title, we don’t know where the story may lead but we are excited to find out.
8. Pian Pian (피옌피옌) by Haesin Young
This is another new one to the scene. And while not a lot has happened in it yet, we have a feeling it’s about to. Sooha is the lowest of the low on the totem pole at a famous chef’s, Chef Calix, restaurant. Choosing to go into food as his profession was all due to seeing Chef Calix on tv when he was a bit younger. He started to develop a crush, not that he wanted to admit it, but he did. Seems like a pretty normal story, until you find out that in this world everyone has their soulmates initials on a part of their body, and Sooha has it on a pretty indecent place. He had chosen to never show anyone until he meets his soulmate. BUT, he keeps having very vivid sexual dreams about his boss, and at one point those dreams become a reality. That’s as far as the plot has gone. Our hope is these two are in fact soul mates and get to do all the things together!
7. On or Off (온 오어 오프) by A1
This one was recommended to us by a friend @dyani_robles who has an amazing YouTube channel AND a super awesome website @thebelulineup. Follower her for tons of awesome K-pop content. When we first started reading, we will admit we didn’t like the artists style. Still cannot say we’re the biggest fans of it, but when the story is that good you tend to forget how it’s being drawn. Yiyoung is part of a start up app company. The company gets the chance of a lifetime to present their app to a massive corporation and the head decision maker, Kang Daehyung. Unfortunately, Yiyoung is so flustered by the attractiveness of Daehyung he messes up the presentation. To try and save his ass, as well as help the team, he tries to talk to Daehyung outside the office walls. Daehyung, mistakes his approach as flirtation and angry that Yiyoung would stoop so low, sleeps with him with the promise to take a look at his proposal. Although he has no intention of actually doing so. Shockily, he accidently reads the proposal and finds it was the best and hires the company to create the app for his business. The story and relationship grow from there, but this is another unfinished story. Not a lot of sex has happened, but the characters are enjoyable enough with their growing sexual tension that when they finally do have tons of sexy time we will all be screaming “thank you lawd!”
6. Love Shuttle (애인셔틀) by Im Ae-Ju
Another trope we tend to avoid is omegaverse (men can get pregnant and such). Not for any particular reason but it just never interested us. This was another suggestion from our girl Dyani and we are, once again, glad we stepped away from our norm. Doyun is an Omega , who looks, and acts like an Alpha, but hasn’t ‘gone into heat.’ At his age, this is not common and his family is concerned that there might be something gravely wrong. Cue Taehan. Doyun’s sworn alpha enemy, for reasons that tbh weren’t that serious or worth getting so mad over, but we look past it because the story still is solid. Taehan, happens to be the one who sends Doyun into heat, and while he hates it, he loves it. And Taehan, we believe had a crush on Doyun since day one of them knowing each other, although not confirmed. The first season ended with a cliffhanger, and the second season started NOT even discussing said cliffhanger, but we’re here for the new couple that seems to be blossoming and pray that we find out what happened to Doyun and Taehan.
5. Sign (수화) by Ker
We wished this had more sign language in it because we probably would’ve become fluent. This story is about Go Yo, a deaf chef/coffee shop owner and Soo Hwa, a young man who was desperate for a job. Go Yo tends to never speak but when he hires Soo Hwa, who hasn’t learned all there is to sign language, he is forced to use his voice. The crazy thing is, his voice is sexy AF and makes Soo Hwa’s little Soo Hwa excited. The kicker? Go Yo gets turned on by Soo Hwa’s sign language. This is a very light, cute, sexy story, with a little bit of darkness but not enough to make it crazy. They are currently on the second season which is focusing on the best friend of Go Yo, and the boy he’s been crushing on for a while. It’s been a very cute story so far and we hope we will enjoy it, but we doubt it will be as much as the original couple.
4. Fanboy and Robot Idol by Young Dream
We found this one when we were scrolling Instagram and a scene popped up on our explore page. We read it and lusted after the art. So much so that we went on a quest to find the 만화. It took a little digging and several app downloads to finally find this masterpiece. This one is also tame. No sexy bits (shame) but still sweet and funny. Callum is a robotic popstar. Yep you read that right. A robot. He gets shunned by the world when he is blamed for murdering several humans. His creator tells him he needs to learn about humans and he can’t return home until he does. Ron Lee is a massive Callum fanboy. To the point his ex-girlfriend breaks up with him because he was more in love with a robot. Guess who finds Callum, battery almost drained on the side of a coffee shop? You guessed it! Ron. There are several versions of Callum and one of them escapes and finds solace with Ron’s boss. There is a bad guy who truly is scum but for some reason, there are parts you hope he gets redeemed because you feel bad for the guy. They story isn’t finished and hasn’t been updated in quiet some time which breaks our hearts because shiz was just starting to go down but we hope the author comes back to provide us more love.
3. My Suha (나의 수하) by Chahyun
Suha is the secretary to Park Jiwoon, a mild-mannered man who is Director of a massive company. Suha works hard at his job, and makes sure that Park Jiwoon is taken care of. Outside of work, he is much more carefree, trying to find a decent lay and always coming up short. While he does look at his boss and think, “damn, he fine.” (and when you see Jiwoon you will too), he knows not to cross the professional line. That changes when they accidentally run into each other at a gay bar. Hilarity ensues, but then something even better happens. Sexy time! The reason we chose this secretary/CEO trope over all the others was the fact that Jiwoon, while a freak in the sheets, is not a douchebag outside the bedroom. Jiwoon has a past, that Suha is also part of but we don’t know to what extent yet. This story is still not complete, but we will say it moved up the ranks of our favs very fast with the relationship growth, the sex scenes, but oddly one of our favorite things is all the suits Jiwoon wears.
2. Room To Room (방 건너 방) by Lee Aru
The sequel to Window to Window is focused on the friends of Ginu and Yubin. Dowan and Chamin who wind up living together after Chamin’s girlfriend breaks up with him. Little does he know that Dowan is in love with him. And little does Dowan know that Chamin starts taking medication to sleep that turns him into a sleep sex-er. Dowan is a muscled god and little Chamin, well, he is so skinny and tiny that as you read you worry Dowan might break the poor kid with how hard he goes. But their sex scenes are some of the best and we loved every second of it. There are some points where the story gets a little confusing (like when the author throws in a bad guy for only two chapters, that doesn’t really do much and you never hear of him again) but other than that the story is solid, and the sex…well you will have to read to understand just how good it is.
1. U Are Here by D. Jun AND IN A SURPRISE THAT SHOCKED ALL OF KOREAN FROM CONTEXT… A NON YAOI 만화 CAME IN FTW! Yes, you are reading that correctly. U Are Here is a sweet romance story of a boy (Yu Yang) afraid to fall in love and a boy (Li Huan) who wants nothing more than to shower him in love. It wasn’t love at first site. In fact, it was more so hate. But after constantly being thrown into situations together, they bond here and there, and Yu Yang, the boy who is openly gay, but also scared to fall in love again, realizes that the quiet anti-social freshman is actually a sweet, strong, and a little broken in his own way. They realize they can help heal and mend each other’s broken hearts. The story is adorable but real and the artwork is our favorite. These characters stick with us and keep us wanting more.
There you have it! Our top 10 만화! If you want to know where to read these feel free to reach out to us on Instagram @koreanfromcontext OR our Twitter @koreanfrmcntxt
Travel NYC like Kino and Hong-seok of PENTAGON
We truly must thank idols for going to places we have always wanted to go, but never had reason to go near. While we might’ve complained about one or two locations, even we have to admit we had some fun in Times Square.
We digress. New York is known for the many different bridges that go in and out of all the boroughs. The Verrazano, The Manhattan, George Washington, and even the Outerbridge Crossing. But one seems to have grown in popularity in recent years. And a lot of idols have made this place a stop on their trips.
Cue PENTAGON.
Now we did say a lot of other idols have gone to this particular spot, including Ren of N’uest and all the ‘members’ of PLT, to name a few but we chose Pentagon as we had found certain spots they had chosen to photograph the famous location in a more artistic way.
Fun Fact: we are not as artistic, and had to work with the maddening crowds of a gorgeous summer day, and couldn’t wait until the middle of the night because we were on a time crunch as Sammie had gotten sick as a dog half way through the day.
Just over a mile long, and one of the oldest suspension bridges in the US, the Brooklyn Bridge is where not only cars can cross from Brooklyn to Manhattan, but above the cars is a pedestrian walkway and bike path. And it is the site that, by cloak of night, Hong-seok and Kino chose to visit in their short time in NY.
We loved walking the expanse as the wind cooled out heated skin. The contrasting views of downtown Manhattan and the ever-growing DUMBO area of Brooklyn sitting at opposite ends of the bridge, is fascinatingly beautiful.
We do plan to explore the spot at night very soon so we can say we traveled NYC exactly like Hong-seok and Kino of PENTAGON
1TEAM ‘Make News Like Extra! Extra!’ in NYC for their Hello! Just One U.S. Tour
After only debuting a year ago, 1TEAM, consisting of rapper and songwriter BC , leader and vocalist Rubin (루빈) , vocalist Jin Woo (진우), vocalist Je Hyun (제현), and finally, the maknae and the other rapper of the group, Jung Hoon (정훈), is already conquering the North American Tour circuit. With their unique blend of hip-hop, EDM, and alternative R&B, it was no surprise they were able to fill the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn with hundreds of screaming Team Ones on March 8th 2020.
As the lights went off, the shrieks got even louder as the fans screamed their lungs out for 1TEAM to hit the stage. We could feel the energy pulsating through our own bodies, and also as our eardrums felt they were going to pop from how loud the crowd was. The boys descended the side stage stairs, and hit the main stage, and somehow the cries got even louder.
The beginning of “Make This,” their title track for their most recent comeback, started with its deep, dark, EDM sound and fans recognized it instantly. If we told you we remained professional, we’d be lying. We were bopping along with the crowd, singing along as our camera decided it was going to have its own little fanatic mental breakdown.
While we tried to calm our camera down and let it know the boys were in fact real and in front of it, our hearts continued to race as we watched the amazing dance moves we had seen on our computer screens come to life before our eyes. Oh, and did we mention that most of their opening outfits were made of see through material. We didn’t? Well now we did. Composed of dark black or bright white lace the blouses left little to the imagination of Team Ones.
And once we got our camera to somewhat cooperate with us, they were on to their next song from their most recent mini album “Love it.”
Throughout the entire show they talked about how grateful they were to be on tour, and how excited they were to see the different famous places of not only NYC, but also their other tour locations. They interacted with fans picking different people in the audience to sing their favorite songs. They loved the fans and the fans loved them.
They had another outfit change and our hearts throbbed at the chill, hipster vibe their red and white ensembles gave off. Rubin even flaunted his gorgeous tattoos when he pulled the sleeves down of his dope silk varsity jacket. Which, tattoos on idols? We. Are. Here. For. It.
They continued the show with other tracks of theirs like, “TAK!,” “Countdown,” “’Bout U,” and one of our favorites, the song that got us to stan HARD for these guys, “Vibe.” Every song was filled with more and more energy, like they were simply building it all up to have it explode in the next song. Their energy was unparalleled to other shows we have been to recently. We couldn’t help but shake our butts and tap our feet in the back of the venue as we watched them kill it on stage.
Besides their own songs, like every group that comes to the US, they showed off their bilingual skills by singing some popular American music. Songs included Maroon5’s “Girls Like You,” Justin Biebers “Yummy,” and our personal fav Post Malone “Sunflower.”
We have always talked about our appreciation for MyMusicTaste and StudioPAV and how well they put together shows. This was no different. The reason we always love their shows is the fact you get time to interact with the members via Meet and Greets, and Hi-touch possibilities. Fans who had VVIP got to spend some time with 1TEAM and even got signed posters. And VIP’s got Hi-touch where they got to greet the members of 1TEAM.
The concert was one for the books. 1TEAM walked out going 100 and walked off after their encore at level 9000! We hope you guys can see them this tour, and if not please check out all their music videos and join us Team One’s. You’ll “Love it.” 😉
Travel NYC like Dae-hwi and Dong-hyun of AB6IX
As KCONNY 2020 is steadily approaching we decided to revisit the good ol’ days of KCONNY 2019 when a solid group by the name of AB6IX came and tore the roof down, and also enjoyed some unique sites of NYC.
While a lot of groups chose to visit our top ten least favorite places in NY, AB6IX went off the beaten path and chose less chaotic, more true midtown vibe. No flashing neon signs, or lights so bright you can’t tell is it’s morning, noon, or night.
Bless these boys. They chose, just a few avenues over from Times Square, the quiet, business populated area of midtown that is Lexington Ave.
We actually love this area. It’s close to where Sammie’s mom used to work in the Chrysler Building, and right near one of our favorite buildings Grand Central Station. It’s also famous for a gorgeous that location that is currently under major construction as Lotte has bought the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
And this is exactly where Dae-hwi and Dong-hyun went to take some adorable NY corner shots. At the corner of 49th St. and Lexington Ave. these two cuties stood exploring the unknown quiet chaos of one of the heavily business district of New York.
So after you climb the red stairs of the TKTS booths like Stray Kids, or the roof top bars like Pentagon and GOT7, you can enter the calm, cool, of the regular masses of the New York employer and employees and say you travelled NYC like Dae-hwi and Dong-hyun of AB6IX.
Travel NYC like, NCT127, The Boyz, and others
We have done one of these before. A spot that several idols have visited, and even actors have visited in NYC. Today we are offering you another such location. This place is fairly new to New York. Only being open to the public for almost a year at this point. We had actually seen it while it was being built and had no clue what the heck it was. We were so confused. A weird upside down pyramid, honeycomb looking thing with stairs? Huh?
But sure enough when it was revealed to the public as a climbable peace of art, we wanted to go! And sure enough The Boyz and NCT127 wanted to as well. We actually posted on Instagram when we first went, before Travel NYC Like ___ was a thought in our minds.
Meet The Vessel. Located between 10th and 11th Ave and 32nd and 33rd St, this 15 story, stair climbing honeycomb maze with amazing views of the harbor, and the newly built Hudson Yards resides.
The views truly are unparalleled and once at the top, as the wind hits your face you fell an the sense of accomplishment is amazing. You can take breaks going up, finding new angles to observe the city and new sights you may not have noticed before and enjoy the fact that you have now travelled NYC like The Boyz, NCT127, and others!
(Edit: sadly this location is also home to a very tragic event that happened this weekend. RIP young soul, may you no longer be in pain)
Stray Kids District 9 Unlock at Hulu Theater Unlocked Our Cold Dead Hearts
On January 29th, 2020, Stray Kids came to New York City to show the city that never sleeps what they are made of. And clearly they are made of talented singers, rappers, and dancers.
Now before we dive into the pandemonium of the show, we would like to admit something. Please don’t leave this page when you read this. We swear we will make it up to you!
We were not that into Stray Kids before the show. Hold on, hold on, HOLD ON!
But the second the show started we realized what we had been missing out on and we now stan. HARD. We are truly Stays now.
Ok so now let’s crack into the show. We did know several of the songs they performed, like “District 9” and “Double Knot”, which we have always liked but when we saw the performance live it was a whole new level of appreciation. These dudes are some of the best dancers we have seen live. Who knew one could body roll in that many positions? Seriously, if you made a drinking game with simply the amount of times they body rolled throughout the concert…well let’s just say you would most likely need your stomach pumped from alcohol poisoning.
And to add to the body rolls, they were climbing on each other, jumping over each other, and not like a normal frog hop. No, no, no. We can’t remember which members it was but the one was standing straight up and another member split jumped over him. With the shortest member still being over 5 and a half feet tall that is insanely impressive.
As they performed so many other bops that we now have downloaded and added to all our playlists like, “I am YOU,” “Question,” and “YAYAYA,” the lights coming together with the cinematic large screens exploding with color and aesthetic visuals, told a story of misfits finding a place to call home amongst each other. “Stray Kids everywhere all around the world,” as they repeated all throughout the night sent an energy through the whole place of love and understanding.
And like every group who tend to change their style and sound for an album or two, Stray Kids performed some of their ‘softer’ bops side with “Get Cool” and “Astronaut”. Once again, the dancing for these blew us away. They even had 3RACHA, their rap sub-unit, and their vocal line perform singular songs.
So as we weren’t huge Stray Kids stans prior to this concert, we were unfamiliar with who were the main vocalists, rappers, dancers and all that jazz. Let’s break down what we figured out about the members. Umm…Felix? Who said a boy with that baby face could have a voice deeper than T.O.P from Big Bang?! Oh and when he decided to flaunt his nice abs?! Boy! Big oof! And then the boy stood there and did the Renegade dance…COME GET YOUR MAN STAYS!
Followed up by Hyunjin who would go hard in his verses, while body rolling in a see through shirt leaving little to our imaginations, and literally had everyone in the venue screaming, us included. Han was no different. Seducing the crowd with his voice and the way he would look into the crowd? Lawd have mercy!
And Changbin’s speed when rapping? Good God, we wanted to get on our knees and apologize for sleeping on all the talent in this group. And the disrespectfully gorgeous and melodic voices of Bang Chan, I.N, Lee Know and Seungmin? We are deeply apologetic to these boys and we hope they will forgive us.
The thing that got us, besides the amazing singing, and rapping during “MIROH,” and “갑자기 분위기 싸해질 필요 없잖아요 (gabjagi bun-wigi ssahaejil pil-yo eobsjanh-ayo- You don’t have to get in a fighting mood suddenly) (Awkward Silence),” was how sincerely happy they were as Stays sang their songs along with them, danced with them, and cheered them on during their ments. That’s what really sold us on becoming Stays ourselves. All the members looked touched as they looked out to the crowd and spoke from their hearts about their excitement of being in New York again.
As they were wrapping up the normal part of the concert (as in not the encore we ALL know will be coming after they make their change into their tour shirts) they played the first song we ever heard from them, “Hellevator,” which was their pre-debut song which was when we saw so much potential in them that it’s baffling to even us that we didn’t keep up with them.
These guys put on a show that caused us to stan them and become Stays, if that doesn’t sell you on their stage presence, music, and talent, well we don’t know what will. If they are coming to a city near you, get tickets immediately. Stray Kids are a group of talented young men, who have so much heart and raw talent, you wont be disappointed. Check them out in this District 9 Unlock tour, and like us, unlock your cold dead hearts.
Travel NYC like Seungmin and Hyunjin of Stray Kids
Stray Kids went a lot of different places while being here in New York. And since they’re coming back NEXT WEEK, we decided to do one more before they arrive. Some of the spots we loved (Like when they visited The Roxy hotel, and DUMBO) and some we legitimately try to stay as far away from as possible (like Penn Station and now this new spot).
This spot is actually somewhere we had talked about and been to when ASTRO came to town. Yes, that’s correct. We went back to Times Square. JUST. FOR. YOU! To a section we actually have never even been close to if we’re being honest. We had seen it in videos, pictures, and we knew where it was but since it was in Times Square we avoided it like the plague.
Famous from the Alicia Keys and Jay-Z music video for “Empire State of Mind” those bright red stairs actually hold TKTS, an infamous Broadway ticket selling broker. We say infamous because they say they sell tickets cheap, when really they are the same, if not more than face value for the tickets. Fun fact if you come to NY and want to see a show…don’t go there.
The spot has now become an Instagram mecca for the tourists who come to see Times Square. And the boys of Stray Kids hopped on that bandwagon. And what they do, we do. And we have to admit…
It was pretty cool. Actually really cool. Yes, we will admit that something in Times Square was worth going to see. Between Broadway and 7TH Ave, on 47th St. you will find these large red stairs to climb up and see the enormity of Times Square. And you can snap your shot and check another location off your list as you have now travelled like Seungmin and Hyunjin of Stray Kids.
Queen’s Channel Sits on a Throne of Quality Content
Queens Channel on YouTube has amassed a following with her cute reactions to MV’s from predominantly Asian artists and dance videos from all over the world! We met her almost two years ago and we knew she was some of the good people. We got to sit down and chat with her at KCON to discuss everything KPOP!
Back in 2012, her mom was the one to be the ultimate fangirl of K-pop. “TVXQ and Super Junior were the ones she was really into. And so I would listen to them with her. From there I got hooked and started finding more groups.”
Queen made it her own. She had always been into dance and seeing all the amazing choreography of the artists made her want to follow along. And so she started actually doing it. Watching videos and following along until she was a pro just like them.
And honestly her dancing is some dope stuff. She also freestyles which blows our minds. (for reference: We can do the cha cha slide…) We asked her what her favorites song at the time was to dance to. She responded fairly quickly, “BlackPink’s 뚜두뚜두 – ddudduddu. It’s just a great song to dance to.”
With all of this behind she still hadn’t made her debut on the internet. What pushed to her start her YouTube channel? Once again, her family had a large influence on that. They brought it up with her growing passion for dance and her love of watching the videos, why not share that with the world and find other people like her. “I wasn’t sure at first, because I was still in school and wasn’t sure I had time. But I decided to give it a try and before I knew it, the channel grew a life of it’s own and now I’m doing YouTube part time.”
Now that YouTube has become a part time career for Queen, we wanted to know her favorite aspect of the channel. She loves making the videos, reacting to new music, practicing dances, all that kind of stuff. But she loves the interaction with all the people who have been there to watch her grow into what she is today, a channel with almost 10K subscribers and a loyal fanbase (us included) who wait patiently for her next videos. She says she is, “forever grateful for the love and support.”
And in true Korean From Context form, we asked the most loaded question we have asked in every interview so far:
What’s the Korean phrase you want people to know?
It did take her a little while to think of one. There were so many she wanted to choose from but she finally chose one that is probably the most rational. “저기요 (chogiyo -excuse me) If you need to get someone’s attention politely it’s your best bet.” After wrapping up our interview we spent the entire two days of Kcon NY together meeting new people and old friends, eating delicious food, and bonding over our love of kpop, kdramas, and Korean skincare. She is one of the kindest most generous people we have met and here at Korean From Context, we are so insanely proud of everything Queen has accomplished and recommend you check out her work. Below is one of her many videos. If you like what you see head over to her channel and hit that subscribe button. And def check out her Instagram @ji_q111) where she posts previews to her new dance videos!
Travel NYC like Young-Jae of GOT7
Going into 2020 we were determined to find some of the places we thought were impossible to locate. And GOT7 seriously has the hardest NYC spots to find. (click here to see where Jin-young chose to spend his time) And our girl Emi at @prince.sanie on Instagram sent us some of the truly tricky ones.
In our last article, we mentioned our love of rooftop bars and how they are a totally cool way to see the city. Well even Young-Jae enjoyed the sights of New York City from one of our favorite spots. Now when we looked at the photo he posted we were definitely perplexed as to where he was. We had only been to a few roof top bars and none of the buildings around it looked familiar.
Then one day, we were going to meet up with Sammie’s mom and we just took a cool picture down the street our office is on. When we went to look at the picture to edit it, we noticed something. The big blue building and its odd shaped top. Zooming in we noticed some other similar buildings.
We found it! Right outside Time Square, is a slightly hidden, very bougie, and a seriously amazing smelling hotel called Knickerbocker. And guess what they have? A garden oasis in the middle of the concrete jungle, perched on the 18th floor, aptly named St Cloud Bar. Look out onto the tourists a huddled together to watch street performers, enjoy a slightly expensive drink (if you’re 21+ obviously), and look up to see that you too can travel NYC like Young-Ja
Travel NYC like Kino, Yuto, Jinho of Pentagon
After Sammie’s wedding, we needed some serious R&R. And what better way to relax is to go into the frenzy of New York.
There are many things we love about NYC (we know our last two posts probably say otherwise). We love the sights and sounds, but what we love even more is seeing the sights and hearing the sounds from a different vantage point than on the street.
Rooftop bars are everywhere in Manhattan and they all offer different, breathtaking views of the city that never sleeps. We chose to hit up one of these many bars to celebrate her matrimony, while also deciding we needed to start planning our trips to Korea and Japan.
The one Pentagon to chose to visit happens to have a view of the building we work across the street from. A famous staple of New York. The Empire State Building.
A building that at night has different themed light shows to dazzle the people who take a second to glance up at its magnificent wonder of architecture.
Located on the 20th floor is 230 Fifth Rooftop bar. The location that Yuto, Jinho, and Kino decided to spend their day and night enjoying drinks, some food, and best of all taking in the view of NYC, after there concert in the city. Which we got to see! Click here to see how the lit up the city skyline when they performed.
And you guys can do the same. If you’re 21 or older you’re all good. If younger you need a parent or guardian. But have a drink and take in the amazing views as you travel NYC like Kino, Yuto, and Jinho of Pentagon.
