Belated Post 1: Being Touristy

Today we decided to be really touristy and hit a bunch of palaces and museums. The first stop was Deoksugung, another one of the five main palaces built by the Joson Dynasty.



It turns out that Gyeongbokgung, the first palace we visited, was actually the main one, so this site, while impressive was nowhere near impressive as Gyeongbokgung. One interesting thing about this palace was this stage/pavilion, designed by a Russian architect in the late 1800s with blended elements of Korean and western style architecture.



From there we went to another, even smaller palace, Geonghuigung, which was kind of nice in that nobody else was visiting it at the time; very serene. We also visited the Seoul History museum, the national palace museum, and the Seoul museum of art. This involved aw lot of walking, so it was time for lunch! We dined on Budae jigae, "army base stew"; this dish first came about during the korean war when food was scarce -- people would take hot dogs, spam, whatever was left from us army bases and make a Korean-style stew out of it. The resulting dish is still popular today; and pretty tasty



This meal was in a traditional shoes-off-sitting-on-the-floor-style eatery, and I found that it is very difficult to stay in a cross-legged position for long periods of time without your feet falling asleep if you are not used to it! After lunch we went to a large central plaza near gyeongbukgong and saw two large statues commemorating important Korean heroes. The first is King Sejong, who promulgated the official use of Hangul, the Korean alphabet. Before this point everyone was using Chinese characters, but these were rather difficult to express meaning in Korean and only high officials were literate. So the king tasked a team of scholars to develop a writing system that was more efficient.



The second statue is of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, A naval commander famous for his victories against Japanese naval incursions in the 14th century. He is also credited with the design of the "turtle ship", a massive ship in the shape of a turtle with a dragon's head, equipped with cannon that greatly helped in the defeat of the Japanese.





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Amusing photo of the day!
We found another haechi statue!

Last two days were pretty long; I will blog about them when there is more time and I'm not so tired

Highlights: tons of museums and palaces to the point where we are quite touristed out, me wandering around in Seoul alone without getting lost! And delicious delicious delicious best Korean BBQ ever.

Kukkiwon and Gangnam!

Internet at the hostel was pretty terrible last night so I'm a bit behind, but now we are in a cafe with fast Internet so I can fill everyone in on yesterday's activities.



Today we took the T south of othe river to Gangnam (literally: "south of the river"), a bustling district home to lots of large office buildings in addition to cares, shops, and restaurants. Stacie had the day off today from her LSAT class and the plan was to meet up with her at 1pm' but first we had a mission: Gangnam is also home to the Kukkiwon, the World Taekwondo Headquarters!



Kukkiwon is located at the top of a hill; there isn't actually much there except for an indoor amphitheater for practices and demonstrations, a cafeteria, and a museum, but getting to visit was way cool, nonetheless. Normally on wednesdays the premiere Korean Taekwondo demo team the flying tigers, practices here, but unfortunately they are on a world tour. However, since there was nothing going on at the time it did mean that we could take pictures like this:



One of the highlights was the visit to the Kukkiwon shop; in addition to some other souvenirs and Taekwndo supplies, they have some very good quality uniforms with free screen printing of whatever you want on it! on the front it says 사우자 (sah-ooh-jah) (the Korean pronunciation of "sauza". A very close spelling, 싸우자 (ssa-ooh-jah) actually means "let's fight"



And on the back!



Yeah, so that's pretty exciting. We met up with Stacie after finishing our Kukkiwon visit and went to go eat some Korean shabu shabu, hotpot



after which we took a tour of some of the big buildings in the area. This marvel of engineering was pretty cool but must have been a pain in the neck to design.



Stacie was also really really excited to take us to a Sticky photo place. This was quite possibly the pinkest store I have been in in my life, and I doubt Chris and I would have wandered in there on our own. Basically it is a photo booth chain store where you take some silly pictures with friends, have the chance to draw on them or add sparkles/pictures/designs, and then they are printed out as stickers. Stacie was much better than Chris and me at adding sparkles.





It was a very hot day in the city so we decided to cool down with some shaved ice, a very popular cafe dessert; the ice comes in a big bowl with various toppings. Ours had walnuts, red bean, and coffee flavoring.



After walking around some more we thought about going to see a movie, but the times didn't really work out.
Stacie: what do you want to now? Oh, we could go to a cafe with Dr. Fish
Chris: Dr. Fish?
Stacie: yeah you know, the fish that eat the dead skin off your feet!
Us: ....!?

Clearly this was an opportunity that could not be passed up. And so here we have it, fish eating my feet



It was actually really really really ticklish, especially for the first few minutes before you got used to it. Apparently it's supposed to be pretty good for foot hygiene. The cafe with the dr fish is not all that common and more of a novelty, but it was a pretty interesting experience. We chilled out in the cafe for a bit longer and then went to another part of town to eat at one of Stacie's favorite Chinese restaurants. Apparently it is the original Korean-Chinese restaurant and pioneered a lot of the iconic dishes of that particular type of cuisine. I had a delicious spicy seafood noodle soup with mussels and oysters and we shared a plate of (also delicious) fried breaded pork and some kind of mushroomy fungus in sweet and sour sauce.



Thanks Stacie for showing us around Gangnam!
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Amusing Photo of the Day!



Taekwondoists gotta eat too...

Seoul N-Tower and some history lessons

This morning we visited Namsan, a small mountain in southern Seoul, and home of the Seoul N tower, a popular tourist destination.



There is a cable car service that can take you most of the way to the top, but being more hardcore than that, we elected to climb up the 1.3km-worth of steps. The path is heavily frequented and well-maintained with most of the way being cut granite. There are also numerous exercise areas along the way complete with the standard pushup/situp stations you might expect but also some complete sets of barbells for lifting.


The top of the tower is extremely touristy, since it's pretty easy to get there by cable car. We were greeted by Haechi, the official mascot of Seoul. Haechi dates back to the era of the Joseon kings, we actually ran into some yesterday guarding the gates of Gyeongbokgung palace:



It is said that these mythical beasts are creatures of justice with the ability to distinguish between right and wrong and know a person's true motives. If a person entering the palace had the intent of assassinating or harming the king, the statues were supposed to come to life and impale the intruder with the spine on their backs. this guy seems much friendlier though:


We went up into the tower and got a pretty good view of the city, but it probably wasn't worth the $9 price of admission. This area is an extremely popular date location, and almost all the tourist spots and souvenirs reflected this. The long-standing tradition is for you and your date to go up the mountain with a lock, write a note or your names on it, attach the lock to any available surface, and then throw the key off the mountain. Apparently the quantity of keys littering the mountainside became a serious pollution issue because they now ask that you no longer throw the key off the side of the mountain.



Despite the touristy atmosphere we had a great lunch at a Chinese restaurant that served some top-notch noodle soup dishes. Namsan also has some historical significance; for a long time it was the end of the line of beacon fires that would warn the city of an enemy invasion. Lighting one through five chimneys indicates a different threat level, from "all clear" to "battle has been joined". Historical re-enactors currently guard the area and we had the opportunity to briefly join in their vigilant protection of the city.



We hiked down the mountain via a different route and walked a ways to the nearby Ahn Jung-geun Memorial Hall, built to commemorate a Korean patriot noted for his efforts towards Korean independence, especially the 1909 assassination of Ito Hirobumi, the Japanese governor-general of Korea and one of the main architects of the Japanese invasion / colonization. As can be expected, he was tried and executed by the Japanese colonial government but is revered in Korea as a martyr and national hero.



We weren't really sure what to expect from the memorial, but it turned out to be a very impressive museum detailing Ahn Jeun-geun's life. A devout Catholic, he spent a good deal of time in exile in China trying to raise an army to liberate the Korean peninsula; he managed to win a few encounters but it seems that his forces dissolved after one battle where he refused to execute the Japanese POWs, citing international law and setting them free instead. He then formed a secret society called the Danji League dedicated to winning Korean independence -- at its inception the league members chopped off the first digit of the right ring finger to prove their loyalty to the cause; and then wrote a postcard with the blood



A blown-up version of the blood-postcard is in the background. To be sure, the memorial was all about Korean national pride and full of propaganda terminology, but it was an interesting historical lesson nonetheless, that certainly reveals more about the perspective and tribulations of the Korean people. To further highlight this guy's importance, "Jung-geun" is the name of the red-stripe ITF Taekwondo form, in his honor.
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Amusing photo of the day!



Literally "pah pah ee seuh" (I can read some basic Hangul now)

An excellent use of 3,000 won

This morning was to be the first of our sightseeing adventures as well as our first day without Stacey to translate everything (although Chris' Korean is pretty good as far as I am concerned.) We are getting more accustomed to the time shift but we still have no problems whatsoever waking up early. The plan was to go to one of the historical palaces in Seoul but the one that Chris had in mind to visit unfortunately is closed on Mondays. Fortunately another palace, Gyeongbokgung, was open so we took the T in that direction. Coming out of the station the view was pretty incredible -- all of a sudden the palace hits you, smack dab in the middle of the city, with office buildings and construction sites as a backdrop.


The palace was first constructed in 1395 and has been rebuilt and refurbished numerous times; large parts of the complex were destroyed after the Japanese invasion in 1592 and during the Korean War. The kings of the Joseon dynasty were amazingly paranoid: the royal bedchamber was kept completely empty and furniture and decorations were brought in as the king needed it, only to be replaced when he was done, to prevent assassins from being able to hide in or behind large pieces of furniture.


The grounds are quite extensive and beautiful, but it seems that the king didn't get much use out of them; he was constantly at work taking care of matters of state and only got 4 hours of sleep a night. To make matters worse, a group of scribes known as chroniclers were constantly following him around like paparazzi recording his every move so that future generations of rulers might benefit from his successes and learn from his mistakes. The guide told us the following story: "one day the king went hunting and fell off his horse. The king was very embarrassed and asked the chroniclers not to mention his blunder. The chronicles pertaining to the event read 'the king went hunting. He fell off his horse. He then asked the chroniclers not to mention that he fell off his horse'". All the Stress took its toll, and the average lifespan of a Korean king was only about 45 years!



All the walking around the palace grounds left us quite hungry, so we hopped back on the metro and headed for Itaewon, the main expat district. We were just looking for cheap Korean food, so really Itaewon might not have been the best choice for this option--we ended up finding an Italian place. In addition to all the American chain stores and restaurants there are also a number of good-looking ethnic restaurants offering Indian and Middle Eastern fare; I am curious to see how the Korean-adapted versions of these cuisines are different from the version that we get in the US. Itaewon is also home to a US army base, so there are lots of smaller shops, clothing stores, tailors, and custom engraving shops. Chris heard from Stephen Petraeus that all the us soldiers stationed in Korea like to have their uniforms fitted and tailored here. I was able to find a fake Korean national team soccer jersey for a third of the price of a legit one in one of these shops. And speaking of soccer...


Our next stop (on the same metro line as Itaewon) was the Seoul world cup stadium built for the 2002 world cup hosted by Korea and Japan! The venue is kind of ridiculous; in addition to a soccer stadium it also has a mall, a movie theater, a spa, and a sports club containing a gym, pool, and virtual golf facilities. We tried to go see a movie but were thwarted by the language barrier and the high price of 3d films. The stadium also has a world cup museum, which was pretty cool, and also let you actually go down to the edge of the field and see the inside of the stadium. Our plan is to come back a week from Saturday and attend a game between two K-League teams: FC Seoul and Incheon United.

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Amusing Photo of the day!



World Cup 98 Group round: Mexico beat Korea 3-1 =P

In which we figure out how to use the subway

Thanks to the jet lag we woke up at about 6am to the sounds of our temporary roommates moving out of the hostel. By 8am we were no longer able to feign the ability to sleep any longer and ventured out to find some breakfast; we went to a pretty cheap ABP-style pastry chain called Paris Baguette and then walked around our immediate area for a bit. The metro station is right by the hostel and there appear to be a number of decent-looking restaurants within a three-minute walk, but beyond that there isn't too much. But once again, the Chungjeongno metro stop is rigt there so we can easily access more interesting parts of the city. Around 11 we acquired a new roommate, Crystal, who is visiting from Malaysia. She has been in Korea for three weeks already and this will be her last in the country--she also speaks English quite fluently. Soon after we met Crystal, Stacey came to pick up Chris and me -- our first stop was in the district of Hongdae, near Hongik University campus. This area is home to an artsy college crowd and features many murals decorating the back alleyways as well as a very high density of coffee shops. I decided to share the mural that I found the most amusing:

We ate lunch at a hole-in-the-wall japanese ramen place that apparently serves the best ramen that Stacey has ever had; it was quite delicious with a very thick and flavorful pork broth.




Walking around some more we stopped at one of the coffee bars- from the loft setting and the somewhat unusual decor (an assortment of random old albeit comfy armchairs) the place would be right at home in Cambridge's hipster scene. After obtaining a rechargeable metro card we took the T to Anguk station, a more traditional-style area of the city with lots of touristy shops: highlights included a troupe of drummers and watching the preparation of a candy made from dried honey stretched into hair-thin fibers.

Walking further brought us to Cheonggyecheon, an artificial river that runs through the center of the city -- there are even small fish!

Following the river for a ways took us to Myeongdong, another area filled with shops, restaurants, and street performers. We will be here for so long and it is only the second day so I haven't gone so far as to make any souvenir purchases yet; it's rather difficult to think of the trip in terms of such a long scope; but I expect that I will purchase a bag or suitcase so that I can bring back plenty of swag. By this point we were quite tired so we took the T back to Chungjeongno station, had some korean fried chicken and beer for dinner, and headed back to the hostel for the night.

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Amusing Photo of the day!



Now where's the chick fil a?

Day one

After a 2 hr flight to Detroit, a three-hour layover, and 13 additional hours in the plane, we have finally arrived. The flight, while incredibly long, was made more bearable by the complimentary in-flight entertainment as well as my recent purchase of a Nintendo Gamrboy DS. I'm glad I brought everything in two backpacks rather than checking luggage because it took quite a while for Chris' checked bag to make it to othe carousel. Stacey was kind enough to come meet us at the airport; honestly if not for her we might not have figured out how to get on the train to Seoul, not to mention finding the hostel. A 40 min train ride and roughly 10 minutes in the cab found us at our destination, the Bangang Hostel in the district of Hongdae. The hostel is small, but tidy; the main floor has a tv room, computer terminals and a small kitchen and living area. But best of all is the free Internet access and free washing machine; oh and country music has been playing over the main floor's surrond sound speakers since we first arrived about 4 hours ago. After getting our luggage more or less settled the three of us set out to find dinner -- bibimbap, gimbap, ddeokbokki really hit the spot after all the airline food.

The weather is perfect so far and we passed through some really cool neighborhoods and restaurants on the way here; we're looking forward to exploring the area more in the next few days. The real adventures will begin after we've had the chance to get some sleep!