It sure is a small world. A few weeks ago, I got an email out of the blue from none other than Gabe Swarr, Nintendo Artist Extraordinaire and iam8bit legend. He hung out with Nick in LA and mentioned that he’d soon be going to Seoul to oversee some Nickelodeon animation, so Nick gave him my contact info.

Gabe and I first touched base a couple weeks ago, but my schedule’s been absolutely crazy since being back in Korea, and his hotel was a good two hours from my place, so meeting up wasn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world. It was originally our plan to visit Yongsan Market, the lone stronghold of Nintendo over here that I talked about in Playing Nintendo v20, but time unfortunately didn’t allow that.

Last Tuesday night I finally got to meet him at the subway station near his hotel in south Seoul and we hopped onboard the metro and rode up a couple stops to Apgujung, an exclusive but cool area south of the river where everything is shiny and new and all the movie stars get their nose jobs done. Anyway, we first hit up one of my favorite restaurants for some Sam-gyup-sal (a delicious pork barbeque with kimchi), a nice cold beer, and lots of Twin Peaks talk - turns out we’re both rabid fans. The food was incredible, but the smoke was so bad that I suddenly burst into tears by the end of the meal! That’s me on the right, struggling to keep my eyes open.

After dinner, it was DS time, so we walked to Dosan Park, a serene little spot to wind down and one of my favorite parks in the city. I was in for a real shock - I had no idea Gabe’s DS was the one and only Optimus Prime job. Wow. I must say, it looks even better in person. I felt like I was holding a priceless relic. My silver DS with taped on sketch looked a bit crude in comparison, to say the least.

We Crossed, played some MK, then some NSMB, and then I got to try Kirby: Canvas Curse for the first time (=happy Rumas). Before we knew it, it was time to get back to the subway station.

It was too bad we couldn’t hang out more, but it sure was an unexpected treat to have a Rebel meet-up all the way out here in Seoul. Thanks for the good time, Gabe! Come back soon!