Seoul searching

I just got back from a long weekend in the Republic of Korea and have a million pictures to share. And so the suspense doesn't kill you, I didn't eat dog. (I never really expected to encounter it, but the idea really freaks out my mom... so naturally, I can't resist talking about it)

One of the most interesting things about Seoul is that the city is full of "national treasures" and landmarks, palaces and city gates, that are thrust into the middle of a surprisingly western city. (Literally the middle... like this picture of the Western Gate which stands on an inaccessible island in the center of a very busy intersection) Seoul had wide streets and sidewalks, unbelievably clean subway stations and some of the tallest, glossiest skyscrapers I've seen in a while. It also seemed as though, no matter where we were, there was a lot of variety in the types of shops and restaurants. Finally, although many people said that I would feel like I was still in Tokyo when I went to Seoul, I found the two cities to be quite different. Tokyo feels much more crowded and rushed (to me).

The only thing that I didn't take pictures of was the delicious food that I ate--Korean as well as other much missed favorites (warm baby spinach salad, hummus, falafel, amazing pasta). I also did a bit of shopping on my last day, so my experience definitely supports Seoul's reputation as a great place to eat and shop.

Enough talk...

The DMZ (Demilitarization Zone)

This is a hazy picture of "Propaganda Village" on the North Korean side of the DMZ. Reportedly, the town is like a movie set -- no one actually lives there, the houses and office buildings are all hollow shells maintained by a small workforce and until 2004 they blasted political propaganda 24 hours a day. One of the more interesting things about this "village" is the flagpole. The world's tallest at 160+ meters, it was built to be taller than the 100m flagpole in a parallel South Korean village ("Freedom Village," which is inhabited by about 280 South Koreans) and supports a 600lb flag that is so big, it has to be taken down when it rains or it will tear from its own weight.

this concrete slab is a physical representation of the demarcation line between North and South Korea

The soldiers in this picture are South Korean soldiers who work with a small unit of American soldiers in the Joint Security Area of the DMZ. The sky blue buildings are property of South Korea (but some are shared with North Korea for the purpose of holding meetings, etc) and the building in the background is a North Korean building where we saw a handful of soldiers coming in and out during our tour.

standing with a South Korean soldier in the North Korean side of a shared building... if I walked out the door behind us I'd be standing, unwelcomed, in North Korea

"The Bridge of No Return" over which prisoners of war were given the choice to cross or remain in the country where they were detained, it was a one-time offer for a one-way trip (it is also very close to the site of an altercation in the 1970s where UN soldiers were attacked by North Korean soldiers and 2 UN soldiers were hacked to death with axes)

The Palaces
(I made my best effort to not confuse these sites, but make no guarantees about my accuracy)

this is the gate to Changdeokgung (palace/garden) which was inhabited by members of the last Korean Royal Family until sometime in the past 15-20 years -- its a UNESCO World Heritage site as of 1997
lately I try to take more pictures of me standing in front of things... mostly for my mom

living quarters of aforementioned members of the last Royal Family

building at Gyeongbokgung (palace), which was probably my favorite spot in Seoul (I think that's where this was...)
Another building at Gyeongbokgung -- I like the skyscrapers in the background... this palace was the perfect example of old Korean culture stuck in the middle of a metropolitan city. If you stood in one spot and looked around you, in 3 directions all you could see over the palace walls were countless skyscrapers, but in the remaining direction the backdrop is composed of untouched mountains, its beautiful.

Gyeongbokgung

the palace gate at Gyeonbokgung

view over the Gyeongbokgung wall into downtown Seoul

I think this is still Gyeonbokgung... did I mention this was my favorite place?

a "floating" pagoda at, you guessed it, Gyeongbokgung

The Shrines
Jongmyo (shrine)
the main hall is the 'longest single traditional structure in Korea'... except for the Japanese tourists who walked into my picture, this entire shrine area was eerily empty while we were there

The Gates
once the only access points through the wall that protected Seoul (poorly) several hundred years ago, these gates now stand awkwardly in the middle of crowded intersections... when I took this picture dozens of firetrucks were racing by to extinguish whatever was making the smoke you see in the background and I also took a picture of some 50 motorcycles illegally parked in the intersection -- it was an odd scene (I think this gate is Dongdaemun "The Great East Gate")

this is Sungnyemun Gate (or maybe Namdaemun "The Great South Gate"... it depended on the map), which was only reopened in early March 2006 and continues to hold a ceremonial changing of the guards -- it was the only gate with guards posted when we visited

Dongnimmun "Independence Gate" stands at the head of a park containing several memorials and a political prison built and operated by the Japanese during their occupation -- it is supposed to be Seoul's Arc de Triomphe

The Temples
Between lunch and shopping at a large underground shoppingmall, COEX, I wandered up to Bongeun-sa and was the only tourist walking around this beautiful temple complex. Similar to some of the small, community temples that I stumbled across in Bangkok, I really liked this place because it is a little bit more rugged and worn from constant use. The other temples and palaces are beautifully preserved national treasures, but their doors are closed and their beauty feels put behind glass like a museum exhibit -- look but please don't touch.

There was no one at the tourism booth when I arrived and the brochure rack was out of English guides, so I picked up a Japanese map and tried to make the best of it. After I took the picture below, I wandered up to the temple door to listen and see if there was a prayer service in progress. A little woman came up behind me, took my elbow and gestured that I take off my shoes and follow her in. She showed me where to stop and pray as we entered, then took a cushion and prepared to pray. Before she started she caught my eye, make camera-picture-taking gestures and smiled, so I snapped a few pictures of the remarkably bright, golden room and left as quietly as I could.
beautiful murals on the outside of the temple hall I visited

a close-up of some of the many gold figurines that lined the walls and lit up the room
some of the temple doors


there were a ton of these lanterns when I was there -- combined with the string of colorful lanterns on the ground in the first picture, I couldn't tell if they were setting up or cleaning up a festival of some sort... either way, I thought they were really pretty


There is only enough room for a few people to stand or kneel inside each of these buildings, but there was a prayer service of some nature taking place inside several of them. This particular building is commemorates the Lotus Sutra. Inside another, the Panjeon ("Building of Scriptures"), is a collection of 3,479 woodblock carvings translating 13 sutras, which are supposed to be phenomenal, but were locked away when I visited.

"The Great Statue of Maitreya Buddha" which stands 23m tall

The Streets and Parks
This scene is outside Jongmyo (shrine) -- the park was populated almost entirely by old men playing chess, making calligraphy, dancing to street bands, etc. In another random interaction, a strange (nearly toothless) old man approached me and spontaneously offered an excellent English explanation of a nearby statue memorializing a Korean patriot who fought against the Japanese occupation. His speech reached its pinnacle with "He is our Korean Superman!" ...then he walked away.


though we missed the game, we accidentally wondered into the pep rally being held in front of City Hall during the Japan-Korea WBC elimination game... even though Korea lost, there were still a large number of people hanging around singing patriotic songs and celebrating in this huge courtyard (someone even gave me one of those blue KOREA spirit sticks that everyone was waving during the games)


pickled ginger??

Shiny Facilities
don't get me wrong, living in Japan has made me accustomed to astonishingly clean public facilities, but some of things in Seoul amazed me nonetheless -- like this image on the door of a public bathroom stall, which gently lights up behind the artwork when the stall is locked

the exterior facade of this shopping mall seemed to be made of a billion glass balls that were continually changing color and making pretty designs

a giant LCD screen on a the wall of the tunnel in the subway station closest to our hotel

glistening floors on a subway station platform... have you ever seen something like this??

a building near the COEX complex

Sophisticated Interactions with Stone Sculptures
this is the first picture I took in Seoul... the horse is one of two standing outside the 800th antique shop on the main street in Itaewon


SDcard Surprise
when I switched to my little 16mb emergency backup memory card, I found these pictures taken from the clocktower during senior week at Cornell...

...sometimes I feel a little bit homesick for Ithaca

survey says...

This spring I'll be traveling a bit outside of Japan (Korea and China), so I have to decide just how adventurous I plan to be with my eating choices. I've eaten a lot of weird things in Japan that I never thought I would (such as shirako), but this issue really raises the bar. To help me decide, I'd like to take a survey... please answer in the comments section of this post.

Would you eat dog?

workin' hard...

The shokuinshitsu (staff room) at Minami junior high school -- also known as: "have I seriously been sitting at this desk for 7 hours?"

While I don't always have a ton of classes, I usually have something to do... not this week. Wednesday and Thursday are final exams and I am restricted to the teachers' room. During the first semester I was able to lesson plan and fuss around during exams, but my JTE and I have planned our final lessons already and my time passing method of going upstairs and playing with the kids is also useless because they're less fun when they're stressed. For example, on Monday I ran around with this little toy from The Nightmare Before Christmas (it's one of Jack Skeleton's heads.) I may have mentioned this before, but anything Disney is a sparkling beacon of wonderfulness here and even boys hang Mickey Mouse charms from their Buzz Lightyear pencil cases. Paraphernalia from Nightmare is no exception and might even be extra cool because it has more of an edge to it than, say... the Little Mermaid. So anyway, holding this toy innocently in my hands as I walk around draws junior high school students like you wouldn't believe. Of course, they all want to see/hold my little toy, so while they gather around with excitement and curiosity I draw it up to eye-level to give them a better look, then SURPRISE! I squirt them in the face with water. heh heh.

And with that little lesson on effective methods of cross-cultural communication, I'll return to my regularly scheduled programming -- staring at the wall and chain-drinking green tea.