Circa Seoul

Erstwhile readers, I apologize for not updating more frequently! To tell the truth, the month of July has been a little sleepy for me, however I did take a visit to the east coast of Korea, to a small-ish port city called Sokcho. I'm in a little bit of a rush as I type this, so I will likely do my full post tomorrow, but I wanted to put up some pictures of the adventure. Enjoy!

As I said, Sokcho is a port city, so the first thing I did upon arriving was to explore the rocky beaches a little. This pavilion was closed, so I couldn't go out on it, but it still looked cool.

Rocks!

Lighthouse (more later).

More rocks!

There were these tiny crabs everywhere, and they could somehow climb vertically, never seen that before.

The orange bit there is actually the underside of a starfish. Neat!

A prettier angle.

This is a shot from me climbing the stairs to the lighthouse.

And again, just to showcase the beautiful cliff.

Almost there!

Looking out over the harbor from the lighthouse.

Back across the city.

Dinner was traditional bibimbap (rice with vegetables mixed in). I got all this for about $6.50, such a deal!

The next day I visited Nasansa temple, it is one of the older temples in Korea and is apparently very famous. Unfortunately a lot of it was burned down during a forest fire in 2005, however as of 2010 it has been fully rebuilt as per some of the more original designs and descriptions. It still functions as a Buddhist monastery.

This pavilion was rebuilt after the fire, the large bell you see is a remnant from the original.

Some wooden crows and mounds of the old roof tiles. Not sure what the crows are for, but they were surprisingly realistic.

This is the actual entrance to the monastery grounds, everything else was sort of the outer garden.

This massive stone Buddha is one of the famous features of Naksansa. No word on whether it ever comes to life and turns into a fighting robot in times of peril.

A large pond and then a big gate that serves as the entrance to the main temple area.

Perhaps somewhat low quality, but I wasn't sure how kosher it was to take pictures of the buddhas inside the temples, so this was a quick shot from the hip. Interestingly, this was not the "main" temple, courtyard had two auxiliary temples to the right and left, which housed smaller statues. The main buddha statue was about three times this one's size. Wicked impressive, but I have no pictures.

This is called a "stupa" and is a sort of reliquary in the Buddhist tradition.

Did I mention the temple abuts the sea? This pavilion stood on the eastern edge of the temple and looks out over the pacific.

The massive buddha statue again.

Looking out over the mountains.

Some neat wall art of any angry guy.

I'll be honest, I have no idea what purpose this building serves, but it looked very cool.

A big drum and bell, presumably for calling the monks together or hosting sick raves.

Not sure why this dragon is so short.

Fear my tininess!

The four kings of heaven I believe. You can't see it, but people left spare change or small bills at their feet. I gave 100 KRW to the guy in the upper left as he seemed the most relaxed, turns out he's sort of the patron of The State, so go politics I guess?

These fountains were everywhere. People used them to wash their hands, feet, etc, but also to drink from (not the little scoopers on the right edge). For a while I abstained as I was a bit leery of drinking from a public fountain, but this one seemed very clean, and I liked the statuary, so I gave it a shot. No jiardia so far, so I'll put it in the "success" column.

This dude was a little creepy though. "Wazzzuuuupppp...drink some water."

And ad I saw waiting for the bus back to the hostel. Yangyang is the name of the province Sokcho is in. Given how beautiful the area was, I sorta feel like the Yangyang Board of Tourism really took a swing and a miss on this slogan.

Anyways, that concludes the pictures that I took in Sokcho. Stay tuned tomorrow for a description of the fun had there!

So yesterday marked the first day of the monsoon season! It poured buckets. This wasn't great weather to hike a mountain and visit and temple in, so I opted to instead go back to Insadong during the day and snap some pictures of it! As I may have mentioned, Insadong is the "old district" of Seoul. It's where the original city stood and a lot of palaces and older architecture still stands or has been rebuilt where it stood. It's quite pretty and has a lot of cool things to see (it's pretty touristy these days, but in a good way, I'd highly recommend a visit if you ever pass through). There are also just art galleries literally everywhere. The place is lousy with art. You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting one and likely violating some public ordinance. So here are some pictures I took and a little explanation of their context.

Though no context to this first one, random monument.

Old school anatomy scrolls in an antique bookstore window.

"Spring has gone, but the flowers still boom,
The sky is cleared, but the valley is naturally shaded.
The cuckoo chirps in the middle of the day.
I begin to realize how remote my dwelling is."
Sounds like where I live.

Simon is very proud of his "No Smoking" sign.

The sign for the "Folk Art Musuem". Sadly my attempts to regard folk art were thwarted; they are closed on Tuesdays.

I was able to regard this though. I'm not sure how explain
it, but the kid in orange is clearly just having a blast.

The "Art Cube", further inspection yielded that
it was unrelated to the more popular "GameCube".
Yes I took the picture just so I could make the joke.

Finally some art to regard! Found the small "Hyundai Gallery".
Picture was taken moments before being given a stern look by an
elderly volunteer.

Unfortunately the "Main Palace" was also closed today, but the little
park that surrounds it was not, scored some sweet pics over the wall.

While Korean artists prefer cubes, apparently the business sector
prefers irregular shapes. How inverted! Wacky.

A statue of a "haetae", a mythical Korean beast that guards against
natural disasters and helps keep order among the populace. The
"mascot" of Seoul is a haetae called "Haechi". He is remarkably
un-fearsome looking, though I'm a fan.

This is a big plaza that leads to the main gate of the palace. It's full of statues.

Some obelisks with pictures from Korean history on them.

This a statue of King Sejong the Great, one of Korea's most celebrated
rulers. He is known as on of the wisest kings, and was incredibly invested
in his people. He commissioned and popularized the "hangul" writing
system that is still used today (though it was a fight, it was a writing
system for the common man, which was unpopular at court, furthermore
Korea had previously used Chinese characters and so he received much
pressure from China to keep it that way). In addition to the writing system
he is known for his strong interest in science. Some of the inventions he made
popular are shone below as statues.

Some way to map the stars, a little fuzzy on the specifics.

A device for measuring rainfall and drinking Big Gulps.

The sundial, though much fancier than your dad's sundial.

Admiral Yi Sun-sin, a famous Korean naval commander known for his
incredible prowess respected on both sides of the field. He primarily fought
the Japanese in the 16th century. Pictures a little below is one of his inventions
a covered "turtle ship" which is pretty fearsome looking. As he lay on his death-
bed he famously requested that his death not be announced, so that the people
would not lose the courage to expel the Japanese.

This dude was clearly very intense.

It is a little known fact that Seoul is in fact a unicorn.

Remember what I said about irregular shapes? This is city hall. The
side facing away from the camera looks even weirder, but I couldn't
get a good enough angle to really show off the architecture.

Diagonal crosswalks: genius.

I can't find a Kripy Kreme in the US, but they're everywhere in Insadong.
Go figure.

Not sure what this building is for, but they wouldn't let me
go to the top. I suspect aliens.

And that concludes my Insadong adventure. As a bonus, here are a few pictures I took in the Seoul Natonal University Museum of Art today (photography expressly allowed).