4/30/08 Korea War Museum

March 26th: Korea

The beginning of our last full day in Korea was spent at the War Memorial of Korea(website), a giant museum/memorial complex covering Korean conflicts stretching into prehistory. While a great deal of conflicts were covered, the Korean War dominated a large portion of the museum's material.

The land around the face of the museum was covered in large memorial statues and plaques. Around the backside of the building, then, was completely covered in retired war machines. Tanks, aircraft, missiles, and the occasional small water vehicle hailing from a multitude of nations were lined up. Little signs informed a bit about the importance of the armaments followed by a few boring technical specs.

The museum interior was large. Very large. Definitely the largest war museum that I have ever seen. It's hard to quantify how “long” a museum is in terms of the time required to experience everything. My guidebook estimated 3 hours, but I think thats a low figure. The amount of scattered video footage alone was at least an hour. Its really up to one's own attention span. How much war history can you handle? I was pretty interested in the whole thing, but by the end of our trip I was practically jogging through the exhibits.

One of several story telling aides were the life sized models depicting key moments in the wars. I was surprised at how good they looked.

I don't remember why it happened, but students were armed in order to fight the North Koreans during the Korean War. Pretty gruesome scene.

I didn't take a picture out of fear of being beaten, but there were several groups of military personnel touring the museum. Amusingly, on several occasions we saw groups of them holding hands. Grown men, walking through the museum in a chain, all holding hands, like kindergärtners. I didn't think it wise to point and laugh at these guys, but wow. Never leave a man behind, indeed.

One of my favorite bits was a case full of propaganda leaflets meant to undermine the opponents moral. I believe this one is addressed to Chinese soldiers, implying that Stalin is pushing them to their deaths.

Here's my favorite one. This looks to be aimed at Americans. To summarize, your family is worried about you, and the only safe way out of the war is to surrender. The smiling lady is a new POW's wife, pretty excited that her husband has been captured.

One new thing that I learned about the Korean War was the number of countries involved. Besides the Koreas, I knew of only the US and some sort of Chinese involvement. In reality the force fighting for the South was a United Nations force, comprised of the efforts of 17 nations.

The flags of the good guys.

A few more randoms.

This thing was pretty cool. It's meant to be a tear drop made from dog tags, covered in barbed wire.




Known as a turtle ship, these were some sort of technical advancement that was used to try to fend off the Japanese from Korean shores.


A little model of the Axe Murder Incident which took place in the Demilitarized Zone. A few men went in to chop down a tree that was obstructing the view of a guard post. The North Koreans sent in a truck full of soldiers and attacked the UN people with their own axes, killing two Americans. We viewed a plaque marking where the incident took place during our DMZ tour.

4/07/08 Korea: Movie Premier, Electronics Market, Theme Park... A Long Day in a Good Way

On Monday the 24th of March it was a nice sunny day. We decided that then would be a good time to go visit the War Memorial of Korea(English website here). After a solid little subway journey and a bit of wandering on street level, we found it. We could see some large statues and memorials from the street, so we read the plaques and gazed at them a bit before going any further.

There was quite a bit of this imagery. Split families, a split country, a split earth, and so forth.






All those killed fighting the Korean War had their names inscribed in these huge plaques, separated by country. There were so many from the US that they were further divided into states. Illinois had a few whole walls to itself.

Upon finally arriving at the front doors to the building, the lone woman at the entrance nonchalantly informed us that the museum is closed on Mondays. I couldn't see the faces that we made at her announcement, but I imagine that they were quite unpleasant.

The museum/memorial is giant, so we had alloted quite a chunk of time to its exploration. We had a Dunkin' Donut while we pondered what to do next. Korea has a different variety of American franchises than Japan, so we occasionally snuck in to have a guilty fix of whatever unhealthy food was available. After a bit of idealess staring at each other, we decided that we might as well check out another market. This one was completely dedicated to electronics, so we correctly assumed that it might be a bit different that the markets we had seen previously.

We soon found ourselves at I'Park Mall, as it was the starting point in the travel book's directions to the market. A movie ticket isn't as awful in Korea (it was like 7 dollars) so we wanted to check the movie times before embarking. An average trip to the box office it was not.

There was a bit of a commotion. A group of mostly women had formed, many of them holding signs, a couple had flowers. I didn't bother to ask anyone what was going on, it was pretty obvious that some sort of famous person was going to be here. We just loitered around and asked ourselves aloud who we thought it could be. I was so sure it would be Brad Pitt that I had decided to write “I love you Brad” on my chest with a black marker. Luckily, a lady with a pretty solid grasp of English intervened and told us a bit about the situation. Seemed Andy Lau (a famous Hong Kong performer, actor, and producer) was going to be making an appearance. We later learned that this was because of the world premier for (IMDB). As he was supposed to show any minute, I figured I might as well hang around and wait a moment. It was only like 20 minutes later when he slipped by with his little entourage. He waved a bit but he didn't bother to come closer to the small crowd. I was satisfied but I felt a bit bad for the other people. Who knows how long they had been standing there waiting for him.

Its hard to see, but he pokes his head out at 1:34

We stumbled onto the setting of the actual premier once it had already concluded. A bit low budget, but so was the movie I imagine.

The Yongsan electronics market had a similar feel to the Dongdaemun market that we had visited earlier in the week. It was a hybrid between indoor big box electronics store and street market. We crossed a pedestrian bridge from the shopping mall onto an upper floor of a building filled with electronics. The floor was divided up into small stalls, where things like cell phones and small televisions were being hawked. There were so many cellphone stalls selling seemingly the exact same thing that I wondered about how hard it must be to compete. I would think that bartering with them would involve a lot of price checking and walking around. So we walked floor by floor downwards until we reached the ground floor. This was where the street market seamlessly flowed from the building above. I don't recall much separation between the white tiled floor and the busy street outside. Perhaps there were no doors.

This place exhibited a busy, bustling quality that I had seen all over Seoul and I was beginning to very much enjoy. Every morning, the short walk from our hotel to the closest train station involved walking past various small factories. With plenty of windows and a door perpetually open, groups of one or two people fiddled with their machines. One was always printing various layouts on glossy sheets of paper. I enjoyed the little hint of the day's work given by the box of rejected prints sitting out front. Next came the forklifts spinning around in the middle of the street and all over the sidewalk. Dodging them quickly removed any morning grogginess from my brain. The little factories and the food market directly across the street needed to be fed daily with large boxes of supplies. Then there were two or three motorcycle repair shops. Often there were so many bikes waiting for sale or repair on the sidewalk that a short detour through the street was needed to pass them. Some of the bikes were sporty and brightly painted. Others, though, were the workhorses.

These things were half motorcycle, half flat bed truck. I was impressed with the large and often awkward shaped loads that were strapped to the back of these things. And, like everyone else, the drivers harbored no qualms about driving up on the sidewalk when it suited them. My guidebook noted that Seoul has a large amount of accidents that involve pedestrians... somehow I'm not surprised.

Well, our electronics market was more of this. TVs and refrigerators were being unloaded from trucks instead of boxes of paper and dried fish, but the activity was the same. I picked up a few cheap Korean movies on DVD from a peddler early in the day. During the course of the day I probably saw 20 such stalls selling the same thing. I walked by them quickly to avoid the sales pitch.

We had gotten out of bed much earlier than usual in order to learn about Korean wars, so even after everything that had happened we still had a good chunk of day to fill. So we did what any group of three planless dudes would do. We went to a theme park. I couldn't pass up the chance to add one more to my list of international theme park conquests. I imagine I am becoming a theme park connoisseur of sorts.

Of course, most of my admiration is reserved for the Disney brand parks. I like the nostalgia of the places and the rides, of course. On a different level, I also like the idea of building a different world. Before his death changed the course of things, Walt Disney had planned to make Epcot(Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow) a real city with residents and a complete working infrastructure, much more than the perpetual world's fair that it is today. The idea of trying to build a utopia is always an interesting one, but can you imagine Walt as the benevolent dictator of your city? Couldn't Disney World simply expand over time until it became a major metropolitan center?

A very interesting promotional video where Walt reveals his plans for world domination.

Sooo, we hopped into a taxi and yelled “Lotte World!!” like little kids might. Then I yelled it about ten more times with different pronunciations until the cab driver understood me.




Lotte World(English site here). Where to start? First of all, the building itself is a beast. The indoor section is housed in a building with a rounded roof, a bit like a sports dome. Connected to the domed land is a slightly smaller outside area, where the Disney-ripoff castle sits. The outdoor rides are the ones that wouldn't fit inside, and it even features a haunted house.

Our tickets included admission into the Lotte World Folk Museum, which offered a lot on Korean history and culture. I went to the museum first, and realized the folly in building a folk museum adjacent to a theme park. Its hard to concentrate on the lifestyles of royalty in the Choseon castle when theres a ferris wheel and $1.50 cotton candy being sold next door. I imagine school children might feel the same way. I fast-walked through the place with a purpose. I might have seen 7 other people in the whole building.

Here is some Korean history seen through the eyes of a guy who would really rather be at a theme park. Annnnnd, GO!

First, there's this gentlemen.


Cave guys.


There was a parade.


Buddha was there.


Japanese police are mean.


The End.


Then came the fun part.

This was a fairly quality park. One of the things I pay attention to is how well the park is themed. Disney's big strength is that is has so many stories and characters from which to pull concepts. Here there were only a few little characters, and they don't seem to have much of a back story. Lotte World does a good job though, I think. The park is divided into areas that feature a world culture, and the rides are loosely based on that theme. The award for best named ride goes to The French Revolution, a ride that spins.. quite the pun.

Another excellent part of this park were the prices. Admission was about 24 dollars and a decent sized soft drink cost about a dollar fifty. The pairs of ears we're wearing ran about 3 dollars. Quite a good value, I think.

One of my favorite attractions was the Aeronauts Balloon Ride, which consisted of a hot air balloon-shaped sky-ride that ran on a track on the ceiling, giving a nice view of the park.

Mmmm, Churros.

We went to see this show thing.... definitely best appreciated with an open mind.


Taking aim at Desperados, an attraction that involved bouncing horses, light guns, and a movie screen filled with characters who deserved to get shot. What else do you need?

A parade broke out at one point. Several floats and dancers covered in lights did little performances while they walked the indoor route. The funny part was that every last person in the parade was Caucasian. It was most certainly more white people than I had seen since I got off the plane. We got a bit of special attention from the parade. Many of the performers gave us a “hello” as they walked. I seem to recall one giving Tung a high five while passing. I don't think they get too many foreigners around those parts. I wondered what their story was. The tale of an American ending up dancing in parades at a Korean theme park much be one worth hearing. Unfortunately I didn't see a trace of them once the parade was completed. Too bad.

Some parade action.

As the day progressed, the park got more and more busy, with groups of school children beginning to appear. Lines that were laughingly short when we arrive soon became logged with ride goers. The wisdom of arriving early at Lotte World in Seoul, Korea is probably information that I won't be able to benefit from, as I don't imagine being back. But the rest of you have been advised.

The night ended with a laser light show thing. Their seemed to be no more than five laser projectors involved in a presentation that ended up feeling a bit low tech. It was more weirdish than amazing, but it finished off with some pyrotechnics which were much appreciated by the crowd. A very enjoyable evening.

Good times.

*******

Japan.

The last week at school has been like no other that I have yet experienced. First of all, we are still in the middle of spring break, which I must say is completely awesome. The teachers, including myself, have all changed from stressed-out working machines back into real people. I have savored the time, trying to chat as much as possible with the other teachers. They really are good people.

Spring vacation marks the end of the school year in Japan. As a result, we have gone through the process of changing teachers. Friday of the week before last, the principal of our school announced what teachers would teach in what grade, and which teachers would be leaving. I don't really understand the criteria, but certain teachers are told that they will be moving to another school in the school district. It seemed that no one knew for sure who would stay and who would go prior to this day. Then, Tuesday of last week, at the beginning of the day, all 15 or so of the teachers that will be leaving lined up at one end of the staff room and gave little goodbye speeches. The next day, the same line up was for the new teachers, with each one giving a little intro about themselves.

As a result, I have two new English teachers with whom I need to get accustomed. Wish me luck.

3/30/08 Korean Barbeque and a Cathedral

It was March 23rd, half way through our Korean vacation, and we still hadn't tried any of the famous Korean barbeque. We were in the middle of a "what's for dinner" conversation when I spotted a neon lit bull's head on a storefront.

Look at that delicious red face of his.

By the time we paid the bill we had eaten one of the best meals of our stay. Little plates full of various spicy vegetables covered the table to the extent that we all expressed pity for the dishwasher. I must say that I appreciate this style of dining. Even in a fairly humble eatery such as this, I really felt like my hunger would be satisfied one way or another.

The usual kimchi was available, as well as a few sauces, some garlic to throw on the grill, and a little salad or two.

This was indeed a barbeque restaurant. That became evident early, as every table in the room was centered with its own little barbeque pit. We grunted while pointing at some nice looking pictures of meat assortments on the menu, then sat back and enjoyed the ride.

When someone brought the pale of hot coals in with a set of tongs, the excitement grew. Our waitress assumed that in addition to being unable to speak any Korean, we couldn't operate a heat source, so she did just about everything that needed to be done. She checked on us incessantly throughout our stay, so we wanted to get a picture with her before we left.




I pointed at what I thought was a vegetable plate, but it ended up being a large bowl of bibimbap. The pile of vegetables was simply showing what the dish would consist of, which is basically a large variety of plants and a bit of meat mixed with rice. It is a pretty famous Korean dish, and I was pleasantly surprised that I had happened to stumble on to it.

Bibimbap is my new favorite.

The meal ended with these tiny little cups of liquid being passed out. I couldn't pinpoint exactly what the little chilled drinks consisted of, but they were slightly sweet and a little bit fruity.

Here we are with our favorite Korean waitress ever.

When we left, the old woman operating the cash register was happily bidding us farewell in Korean. We of course replied with English, but the words don't really matter when trying to convey basic emotions. She threw a bit of Japanese in at the end as well, which I thought was interesting. My understanding is that many of the older people in Korea will know some Japanese due to Japan's efforts to force everyone to learn it's language and forget Korean. I was a bit surprised to hear it though, as I thought maybe the language might have some bad feelings associated with it. As for the several times that I did hear Japanese, I didn't respond. Partly because I didn't want to get involved, and partly because it was ruining my exotic vacation experience.

Well, this was Easter evening, and I couldn't think of a better time to go visit Myeongdong, and its Myeongdong Cathedral. The Myeongdong area is a pretty hip and happening place. Younger shoppers are prevalent, and clothing stores, coffee shops, and upscale restaurants line the streets. This area is also a big deal to Japanese tourists, and I would say that this is the place where I heard the most Japanese. Japanese characters were commonly found on store signs in this district as well.




One of the highlights from this area for me was a couple of hilarious guys making kkultarae, a court cake made of honey and malt wrapped around a nut mixture. According to the marketing, it was once eaten by kings and honored guests. The presentation was awesome, the cakes tasted pretty good, and it was a pretty unique experience all around. They were cheap enough that I bought a few boxes to bring back to the teachers at my school in Japan. It is customary to bring a little present for your coworkers when you go on a trip. I think that it is partly to apologize for leaving the team to go have fun. I mostly just do it to pay everyone back for the mounds of little treats that I frequently receive.

Anyway, here's a quick video that I snapped of the two guys in action. One of the funniest bits was the guy's sidekick. His English wasn't very developed, so he simply repeated the last word of just about every sentence that the other guy spoke. Pretty good stuff.





Well by the time we finally made it through the solid maze of capitalism and found the cathedral, a steady stream of people were walking back our direction. I assume that meant that a mass had recently concluded. I had read a bit about the cathedral before hand. It is over a hundred years old, and is the first catholic cathedral built in the country. I was unpleasantly surprised on our approach to the landmark, however.




It was apparently under construction, covered in cloth and looking quite unfortunate. A picture of a cathedral was drawn onto the fabric. Wow. The interior was still nice, although it wasn't the grand fusion of Korean and Gothic architecture I was hoping to see.

(According to the CIA Factbook, South Korea's population is 26.3% Christian)

*******

Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics in 1988, and it proved to be a significant event for the country. It made South Korea the second Asian country after Japan to host the event. The intense scrutiny being experienced by China now probably has a parallel in the spot light aimed at Korea's totalitarian regime at the time(some Olympics-related criticism of China, if you haven't heard any in the last 5 minutes, can be found here). In 1981 South Korea won the right to host the games , but the country's first democratically elected president only took office in late 1987. Supposedly the country did it's best to make a smooth transition to democracy, so as to not spoil the world theater production that is the Olympics.

Anyway, I mention this because I was surprised at the references to the Olympics I could still find after two decades. The Olympic Park was listed in my travel book as a place worth checking out. During our many subway rides, I occasionally saw this cartoon animal depicted taking part in several different sports. He looked cheesy and colorful enough to be Olympics-related.

Turns out his name is Hodori, and he is the official mascot of the 1988 Summer Olympics. I should really be a detective or something.


*******

A little something on present-day Japan. The cherry blossoms(sakura in Japanese) are beginning to bloom, and Japan is crazy about these things. The Japanese do something called hanami (pretty much translates to "flower watching"). I don't know that there's anything particularly special happening, but people like to get together and eat and drink under the trees. Can't argue with that.

Here are some kids pounding their little drums with reckless abandon.

A day or two before we left for Korea, it was the plum trees' turn to blossom. Back in the day (pre-Heian Period) it was the plum blossoms that were popular, rather than the cherry ones. So we kicked it old school style and had a little picnic under the trees.

When Mike gets that dreamy look I think he's really trying to remember the names of all the Pokemon.

3/29/08 Seoul, Land of Markets

Our first order of business on the third day was the huge Chungbu market, mostly because it was about a block away from the hotel. This market was unique from the others because it mainly offered food. While I found it very interesting to look at everything being offered, my good sense prevented me from buying any of it. The thought of a fish sitting out in the open air for who knows how long didn't seem very sanitary.

Here is a large pile of dried fish, mouths all agape.

Could someone kindly direct me to the frozen food aisle?


Here is some ginseng on display. Korea is crazy about ginseng. I've seen the little roots advertised in medicine, drinks, and even cosmetics around town. It apparently has the power to cure every illness except extreme gullibility.


This little area was much more to my liking. Everything was covered in an impervious layer of life giving plastic.



We saw these uncomplicated looking animals sitting in a tank in front of a restaurant, presumably waiting for their chance to be eaten. I'll say I've never eaten one of these, but nowadays I can never be sure.


We spotted this place on the way to Dongdaemun. All this guy was selling were little patches with random designs on them. Not a huge business, I wouldn't imagine. He was surprisingly high tech, though. We could see his computerized machine relentlessly sewing the patches four at a time in the back of his shop.

We traveled straight from Chungbu to the Dongdaemun market where we had scouted a bit on our first night in the country. In the center of the Dongdaemun area are two sports stadiums. A happy secret is that one of the stadiums is filled with the giant Pungmul flea market (lots of markets around these parts, I know).

Some hardcore flea marketing going on here.

Unfortunately when the Koreans say that something is "used" they really mean it. Most of the stuff being offered was so used that I didn't want to touch it with my bare hands. There was plenty of good stuff that didn't come from someone's garage, though. I was pretty successful in my hunting. I found a nice new South Korean flag which will be gracing my apartment's walls soon.

My favorite purchase of the day was a little 2007 coin set issued by the Bank of Korea. Oooh, shiny!

After all the shopping, we all wanted a change of pace. Our next stop was Seodaemun Prison. The prison was built in 1908 and was used by the Japanese to house those who fought against Japanese colonial rule. The story turned out to be much more gruesome than what I had expected. Special attention was given to portraying the atrocities committed by the Japanese within the prison.

Several of the original buildings were preserved for future study.


I liked the metal work on the fences that dotted the park.






My trial at the hands of the "Japanese aggressors".



Patriotic Tung getting the noose.

According to the sign that stood at the entrance of the mock trial room:

At the early stage of righteous army struggle, the Japanese aggressors tried to suppress it by committing such atrocities as immediate execution of captured righteous fighters on site, but under a severe criticism from the international community and mounting anti-Japanese sentiment by the Korean public, it reluctantly adopted a formal trial for punishment later.
A drastic surge in the number of prisoners from 1908 to 1910 was resulted directly from the increasingly intensified independence movement by the righteous fighters and a full-scale crack down against them.
You will have an opportunity to share the experience of the patriotic ancestors who were standing at the trial board for a summary execution.

Entrance to the building where the executions took place.

The Japanese built this tunnel leading out of the prison in order to secretly dispose of the bodies.


I think this is a list of names of people who were confirmed to have died at the prison.

I found the prison to be interesting and definitely worth the quick stop that we made. I was less than impressed with some of the signs, however. The explanations provided often had a propagandistic feel to them, incessantly using phrases like "the patriotic fighters" and "the Japanese aggressors". I think that that the story this place tells is powerful enough that it deserves to be told with a more historic, neutral point of view.


We explored around town quite a bit more until we arrived at the Seven Luck Casino. The Casino itself wasn't much, it was clean and classy, but super small inside.




The part that I found interesting was that only foreigners were allowed to enter. It must be that gambling is illegal in Korea, but that us heathen foreigners are allowed to do it just to inject some cash into the local economy. Tung made the mistake of leaving his passport at home on this particular day, so we had a long conversation with the staff guarding the door about where he was from. Even with his Japanese foreigner card, we had to wait for a manager to stroll over and approve us.

A bit from the sign outside.


Clarence and I felt that Tung was missing out on a large part of his Australian heritage, so after days of his begging we finally took him to Outback Steakhouse.