Circa Seoul: The Insadong Adventure

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).