Posted Monday, May 15, 2006; 20:00 HKT
When you do it for the first time, you stand there for mere seconds, thinking "I can't believe this," before scurrying for the cover of your fashionably minimalist bedroom. The second time, you force yourself to linger a little longer and at least take in the view. But well before your stay at the Park Hyatt is over, you have accustomed yourself to standing naked in a bathroom that comprises nothing but glass on three sides, situated above one of the busiest intersections of one of the busiest cities of the busiest continent on earth. Sustaining it all is the questionably held faith that the thin panes in front of you really are reflective.

Attaining the physical and aesthetic heights required of statement buildings, and lapped by vast tides of Gangnam district traffic below, the Park Hyatt occupies one of the choicest sites of the South Korean capital. It is the work of fashionable Japanese design house Super Potato, and the firm's brightest bolts of inspiration were surely the Park suite bathrooms—translucent aeries that lord it over the unknowing populace. As you gaze upon the deskbound data slaves of office towers opposite, or down at the drones in buses, you feel both vulnerable and decadent in a way that is deliciously addictive. Handsome or horrible, fit or fat, just strip off, climb in and shout "Hello Seoul!"

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