Street Art Hongdae: Day 2, Nintendo

Sometimes you reach the edge of the world just before it comes to take you home. So I was walking to the lip of all I knew, Hongdae’s graffiti ending at an overpass into an un-spotted city.

One left turn and I was in a children’s park, then tumbling down a hill. Turned up on a street I thought I’d never seen when an image brought me back. Mario and Luigi, the world’s Italian uncles; the first and best game bought for most grey brick Game Boys.

So simple the idea, it must be seen elsewhere: telephone poles painted to the classic green tubes from the video game. There’s been some great Mario-themed street art all over the place, but this is the first I’ve stumbled into in RL.

I ran back and forth across the street documenting every one. And when they finally let up my walked had curved some circle and taken me back to the main artery of Hongdae. Home base: always closer than it seems.