What is left behind

A comic book store in Donggyo-dong, Seoul

Four come across as special to those born in 80s and 90s

By Baek Byung-yeul, Lee Kyung-min, Park Ji-won, Nam Hyun-woo

Time flies like an arrow. Yes, it may be cliche, but it really is true.

Children who grew up with Hodori, the mascot of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, are now in their late 20s or early 30s. And the feverish 2002 Korea-Japan FIFA World Cup has been a story of 11 years ago.

As time passes, we leave many things behind that eventually only become objects of reminiscence. For those born in the late 80s and early 90s, here are four things that you may have passed by while becoming an adult.

Comic book rental stores

Lee Ji-hyun, 27, a high school teacher, says comic book rental shops were always a part of her school days. "Rushing into the shop and selecting comics was a sneaky but exciting part of those days," she said.

Lee, a self-professed "greatest fan" of comic books, said they were a "secret medicine" for the people as well as being useful for education and recreation.

Actress Park Bo-young who is known for her beautiful eyes without double-lid

Along with drastic changes in the media, however, the comic business in Korea is now in decline, and is no longer the people's favorite entertainer, succumbing to "webtoons" and Internet comics.

According to Daum, one of the country's biggest portal sites, the number of visitors to its webtoon service increased 30 percent in 2012 from the previous year, as the market continues to grow.

"Many university cartoon majors now seek to sign contracts with leading cartoon websites, rather than doing so with publishers," said a graduate from the Cartoon and Digital Content Department at Sangmyung University.

A comic rental shop owner, surnamed Ji, recently shut down his 15-year-old store located in Sadang, southern Seoul. The middle-aged man said he decided to change it into a restaurant due to a continuous plunge in revenue.

"The shop used to be packed with people wanting to rent comics. My shop was like a town saloon and residents gathered there to discuss issues regarding the district," he said.

"I think that as smartphones have replaced printed books, customers stopped coming by my shop to rent new comics. So I closed it. It is not simply the shutdown of my store. I would rather say that it is the shutdown of face-to-face relations," he added.

Eyes without double-lids

In "Portrait of a Beauty," a masterpiece painted by Shin Yun-bok, a great folk painter in the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), beauty is portrayed as a woman with a flesh body shape, round face and slanted eyes. It was hard to imagine people with double-eyelid eyes at that time because people in East Asia rarely have them.

As standards of beauty become more Westernized, however, Koreans prefer to have double-eyelids. Thanks to the modern surgical techniques and cheaper costs, now people can have them for 1 to 2 million won.

According to data from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, a total of 29,050 double-eyelid operations, also known as blepharoplasty surgery, were performed in Korea as of 2011. This is the seventh-largest number in the world.

Many statistics indicate Korea is a hotbed of plastic surgery with some saying it can boost their confidence.

"I was a little nervous before I had the surgery, but I am now 100 percent satisfied with the result. I am so happy that I have broad eyes," said 33-year-old businessman Lee Sang-hoon.

A playground in Seoul

Playgrounds

Children are losing their playgrounds, or rather, are being driven away by urban development.

On March 23, three 14-year-old boys, Huh Yoon-jae, Yoo Sung-min, and Jang Dong-gun were riding their bikes near Baebatgol Children's Park, Jeongneung-3-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul.

Unlike most Korean children these days, who opt to spend their playtime in front of a computer, they were perky lads looking for a spot to work off their energy with a basketball.

"I like playing with a ball rather than computer games," said Jang Dong-gun catching his breath.

According to data from Statistics Korea, the per capita area of urban parks in Korea has decreased from 9.4 square meters in 2007 to 8.3 square meters in 2012. The figure marked the second-lowest among developed countries following Japan's 4.4 square meters.

At the park, they could barely run around as there was little room for them to move. Merely throwing and catching was all they could manage. It wasn't a basketball, but looking for of enough space not to hit an object.

When asked whether they want hoop stands in the park to play real basketball, after some 10 minutes or so, they rushed back to their bikes and hopped on them. Right before they left, one of them answered, "We do. That's why we're leaving. We are going to a nearby middle school. The playground there is much bigger."

MP3 players and PMPs

Iriver's MP3 player iFP-380T

With the rise of smartphones, most items which used to load your pockets have been integrated into the mighty gadget.

While some items such as home keys, cigarettes and cosmetics obviously cannot be converged into smartphones, other things like cameras can.

Consumers are also ditching MP3 players and portable multimedia players (PMPs) whose sellers are struggling to find a way to survive the black hole-like suction of smartphones.

"We don't sell PMPs anymore," said a salesman at the Lotte Department Store in Myeong-dong, downtown Seoul. "Sometimes, there are a handful of Apple fans looking for iPods, but I think it's good to say almost no customer looks for MP3 players or PMPs."

Iriver, which has been one of the leading MP3 player manufacturers in Korea, stopped releasing new models in 2012 and is eyeing other segments such as portable high-end hi-fi players or video data recorders for cars, known here as "black boxes."

"As the market shrinks due to the paradigm shift in the portable devices industry, manufacturers at home and abroad are struggling," said Jung Duk-hee at the strategy and planning team of Iriver.

In the first three quarters of 2012, MP3 players and PMPs sales accounted for 15 percent of the firm's total sales, down 23 percentage points from 38.5 percent a year before.

Maybe it is too early to predict the devices' market will disappear, but it seems that the once-cherished devices are passing from of peoples' minds and will likely end up remaining only in antique stores.