When I first got a DS, I was surprised to see that my wife, June, seemed even more in love with it than I was, and that’s saying a lot. I soon decided to surprise her with one of her own, but she figured out my plan before I carried it out. Good thing, as she said she had a feeling a new, sleeker version would come out before long, and that she wanted to wait for it instead.

As always seems to be the case, good things come to those who wait. When the DS lite bomb dropped in late January, I sighed and turned green with envy at the thought of the bright screens and sleek form factor my wife would enjoy with her new DS while I’d be stuck with my tattered (yet still beloved) original. Any feelings of envy, though, were far overshadowed by the thought of giving my wife her very first Nintendo system as a gift, and I was glad it would be the ultimate version of what is quickly becoming the coolest platform of all time. Having a new Mario Kart partner doesn’t hurt either, mind you.

So I showed June the three colors, and asked her which she would like. I thought she’d be into white, like me, but from the very first moment she was sold on navy. Very good, then. It would be months until I’d be able to get one, and I knew that if I mentioned nothing about it in the interval, she’d more or less forget and it would be a real surprise present. Great.

We were to leave for our annual trip to the US at the beginning of April, and my plan was to track one down in Seoul and give it to her the night before our departure. Soon, however, I realized that the buzz over DS lite in Japan was reaching epic proportions, and I began to worry about whether or not I’d be able to find an import unit before we were scheduled to leave. I considered waiting for the US release, as we’d be in the States until mid-May, but GDC came and went with no news. Added to that, there was no guarantee that navy would be offered in the US, and once June gets her mind set on something, it’s that and nothing else. I checked out the online importers, but between jacked up prices and an insecure shipping schedule, things didn’t look good.

Time ticked by, and tons of work suddenly poured in, completely tying me up for weeks. Before I knew it, a few days were left to go before our departure, and I was still at square one, not to mention exhaustively busy with travel preparations. My only remaining choice was to go back to the original plan and find the time to descend into the madness that is Seoul’s notorious Yongsan Electronics Market. In my nearly five years in Korea, I’ve somehow only managed to go there once, and then it was nothing but a walk from a taxi drop-off to the subway station at midnight.

As I’ve mentioned many times, Nintendo has virtually no presence in Korea, even though everyone knows who ‘Super Mario’ is. Go figure. I’d heard that even at Yongsan, tracking down Nintendo products is rather tricky. With three days left to go, I jumped on the subway after a meeting and rushed over to Yongsan. It was 7 PM, and I had literally eaten one thing all day – an orange before I left the house at 6 AM. So I was basically running on desperation.

As soon as I got off the train, I made a call to the owner of the only video game store I know of in my area – Seoul’s northern suburbs – and asked him where my best bet was to find a DS lite. He told me to locate ‘Dukobi Shijang’, or ‘Toad Market’. So I asked around at the information desks, etc., but no one had a clue. They also informed me that nearly everything in the area would be closing shortly. More good news.

I couldn’t believe the scale of the place. The new station is epic both in size and design, and there were countless exits with signs leading to this market and that. I was clueless. To try and get a grip, I went to a nearby observation window, but it didn’t help much. Looking down, there were countless buildings, all aglow with neon lights and teeming with people, each one a multi-level market in and of itself.

I decided to go in the direction that most people seemed to be heading, into the biggest of the building-markets, the one directly connected to the station itself. Once inside, I was greeted by bright lights, smiling but slightly shady-looking clerks ready to wheel and deal (price negotiation is Yongsan’s trademark), and thousands upon thousands of digital cameras and camcorders. Each of the clerks runs their own shop, so to speak, though it’s hard to see where one ends and another begins. In the buildings, each floor focuses on a different type of product, and it’s all rather odd and overwhelming, but a lot of fun to stroll through.

Time to stroll, however, I didn’t have, so I started frantically asking around about Toad Market, trying to find someone who knew of it. I did find a few younger folks who knew the place, but they gave up halfway through giving me directions, as it was just too complicated to explain how to get there. They told me to try the seventh floor of the building I was already in, so up the escalator I went.

Regardless of the fact that things were starting to close down, the seventh floor turned out to be a lot less lively. Great spaces of the floor were without tenants, and there was hardly a patron to be seen. The clerks, mostly guys in their twenties vegetating on the game and system of their choice, didn’t pay any heed to the few customers that were there. In the glass display cases at the front of each shop were PSPs, DS units and countless games, all of which appeared to have been thoughtlessly thrown in, and it was unclear whether they were new or used. I asked the first clerk if he had any DS lites, and all he did was laugh. Every guy I went to had the same reaction, telling me I wasted my time coming there.

Just as all hope seemed to be lost, I looked across the way and saw something incredible – an official Nintendo store. In Korea. I couldn’t believe it. I rushed over, was greeted by the nice clerk, a girl, and was quickly disappointed to learn that it wasn’t a store, but a showroom…and that all the girl knew about DS lite was that it existed. In Japan. At this point, I basically gave up all hope of finding a navy DS lite. Still, it sure was nice to finally feel some Nintendo love in Seoul. The little showroom was decked out in the same style as the original Utada Hikaru DS ads, with Japanese DS kiosks displaying a variety of games, and some GameCubes on nice LCD displays. Coming to the realization that my hunt was at an end, I decided to play some Starfox Assault, curious as to why it had received such a lukewarm reaction. I ended up playing for twenty minutes, and loving every bit of it (gonna buy it now), but that’s another story…

It was 9 PM by this time, so I said thanks and took my leave. I decided to give Toad Market one last try. Remembering the general direction I was told it was in, I navigated tunnels between buildings and underground walkways, eventually coming out into a dark, rundown area that felt extremely shady. People were still everywhere, street vendors were selling dried octopus, and there seemed to be lots of passageways leading underground, with traffic coming and going. I had no idea where I was, so I asked a guy next to me if he knew where I could find Toad Market. “You’re standing right in front of it”, he said. I was speechless. He told me to follow the people going underground. I descended into a huge opening under a building, and sure enough, there was a tiny sign that basically read “Toad Market – Video games Galore!”.

There was no ceiling above, just a plastic tent-like canopy…which didn’t make any sense, as it was inside another building…but whatever. So I got past hordes of mobile phone and PDA merchants and finally saw a game shop on my left. I immediately approached the clerk and asked him if he had any DS lites, and to my utter shock, he said yes, showing me his white model. I asked if he had any in navy, and he said yes again. I felt nothing but complete, pure relief. He sent someone to get it from the basement. As I waited, I tried his lite out, and I was happy. He told me it was gonna cost me 225,000 Won, or about $225, but I was still happy. We chatted about games, both lamenting the fact that PSP-crazed Korean kids have no idea how much fun DS is. It was really neat to find a Nintendo fan in Korea, and he said there were lots like him in Toad Market. As we talked, I started to realize that the guy he sent was taking an awfully long time. Then the phone rang. The clerk looked disappointed. He hung up and told me that all they’d all just gone. I felt gutted.

It was 10 PM, and I found something to eat and took the two hour ride home. Two days later, on the night before our departure, I went again to give it another try, and again he told me they were in stock. But then he went to fetch one and came back empty-handed, saying they’d sold out moments earlier. So much for that. I swear, the elation/disappointment/exhaustion of the Yongsan experience shortened my life by a year each time I went.

The next day we flew to Japan, where we’d stay the night before flying to Chicago. I’d informed Vinnk of my plight a few weeks earlier, and he told me to try and find a Yodabashi Camera near the hotel. Again, no luck. The nice folks at Nikko Narita Hotel told me that there was no location close by, and even if there was, there was no way I’d be able to find a DS lite.

We got to my parents’ place on Saturday the 8th, and I went to Lik-sang to see what the current situation was. Greeted with the news that navy units were shipping within 24 hours, I ordered one, which was probably what I should have done from the beginning. Come to think of it, though, I don’t think I’d change a thing. After all, it was my first real Rebel in Korea experience, and that’s something I wouldn’t trade for anything.