Transcript of a travel-vlog style YouTube video by Nate Buchanan documenting an early-morning fish auction in Seoul. The speakers (Nate and Kara Buchanan) narrate their late-night/early-morning journey to the market, confusion about buses, arrival at a newer and older market building, detailed observations of the auction process (trucks unloading fish, buckets, weighing, auctioneer), and closing reflections about the intensity and authenticity of the experience. The auction peaks around 3:00–5:30am and the speakers emphasize the chaotic but organized nature of the market and their admiration for the workers.
Chapters
Well, we've officially Jim Jilbanged.
What good is castle?
Oh my gosh. That is crazy.
It is 2:45am we just left. Now it's time to go to the fish auction.
We're gonna try to figure out how to catch the bus back over to the auction and get there in time for it to start.
I'm feeling a little delirious right now.
It's gonna be the greatest auction ever. This seems like such a good idea. This morning when we had just woken up and now that it's three, we're.
Like, oh, yeah, we're gonna rest all day and then we're gonna be out all night like the Koreans do. There's so many people still in there.
We were both so tired. Alright, let's go. I just don't get it to the auction. Why?
It's Thursday. It'.
You just want to get off. Let's just get off. Let's just get off. Really? Yeah. This was not the number bus that was on Google maps. We've been standing there for like 20 minutes and a bus came up going in.
Going in the direction that we wanted to go. So we just hopped off. No clue if this is right.
We got so lucky. It dropped us off right where we wanted to be. There were two stops in between that station and here, and it stopped at the station that we wanted to be at. I'm sure it has something to do with it being nighttime and different numbers. I assume N stands for night. Okay, let's go see an auction.
So don't think there's an auction going on right now. Looks pretty much the same as it did six hours ago when we were here, except there's a few more carts, all the fish.
And some motorcycles. So I was reading on the Internet that there's like an old traditional fish market, which is where we are now. But they built this like new super nice building that they're like trying to get the vendors to move over to. So not all hope is lost. I'm thinking maybe the auction has moved over to the new building. It's looking good. There's lots of big trucks rolling in. I assume they either have lots of fish or they're about to buy a lot of fish. Really hoping we're about to see an auction.
I just expected to walk in and hear people like, yelling. Alright, I see a lot of activity going on this one. The new fish market looks a lot like the old fish market. Slightly brighter, nicer floors, nicer ceiling, but it's got all the same stuff.
I hear it. There's people talking really quickly. I think we're here.
They just have this giant box of fish and all the fish are trying to jump out and they're trying to throw them into the crates. And it's just maddening. This is exactly what I hope to see. We're staying up all.
A bishop Auction is like this weird bucket list thing that we've both been trying to do for so long. We tried to go in Tokyo last January and we missed it somehow. And like, this is it. It's like so fast and everyone is yelling. Fish are flying in the air. It is so exciting. I don't even know why I'm so excited right now.
What good is castle.
And your.
Sa.
So here's what I've learned so far about the fish auction in South Korea. There's big trucks. He brings a whole bunch of fish from the fisherman. There's a bunch of big trucks. A guy has this huge buggy. He gets in the truck and fishes out all the fish into this big bucket. He rolls the big bucket into this room and they throw all the fish into individual smaller buckets. Then a guy comes through and weighs them right? So much they weigh on a piece of paper. Slaps a piece of paper on the fish. The auctioneer guy drives up in his little cart.
And he's like.
And everyone's like.
And then you buy the fish. I don't know how you get the fish. The guys come and pick up all the buckets and move them to another spot. And the process keeps happening over and over again. It's the most organized chaos I've ever seen in my life. Like everything is just going nuts. But like, if you're in the way, you know it. They know what they're doing.
It's much less stressful up here. Down there. You like, never knew when a cart was going to come to run you over. You were the only ones up here for the first time. You.
So it is about 5:30 in the morning, which is when the metros open back up. It sounded like the fish auction was starting to slow down a little bit. So we're heading back and calling it a night or. Or morning. So if you want to come to the fish market, I'd say it's still going strong till like 5:30. So you don't have to get there at 3 unless you want to stand there for two hours like we did.
But it's better at 3 because they're. You're like getting run over by people. Everybody's Just going nuts.
The auction was like everything I hoped it would be, plus more. We did not see another tourist in the entire building. We were just there like getting to observe the locals. And it was awesome.
It really was. They worked so hard. Like they were working.
Just imagine like trying to pick up a 50 pound weight that's slippery and that's trying to fight you because it doesn't want to be picked up and do that hundreds and hundreds of times. That's what those guys were doing at.
3 in the morning.
Super impressive. I have a lot of respect for those guys.
So many fish.
How are there any fish left in the ocean?
Like the old market is full of fish and I thought that was a lot. And then we went over there and.
Then you go to the auctions. It's insane.
Good night. I'm glad we did this.
We're almost back. 6:10am it's light outside.
Going to bed.
This is crazy. I've never stayed up until I got light again.
Really?
No. Wow. I used to be one of those kids that like when you did the spend the night parties. I just wanted to go to sleep so I'd feel good the next day. Have energy to do stuff. Used to make me mad when everybody tried to keep me up.
