Children's Day 2016

Bugaksan provides a striking background during a visit to the downtown Jongno district of Seoul. Thursday was Children's Day, and Jongno is the place to go to see the festivities. This year, not a lot was going on at the Cheonggyecheon:


One feature along the walls of the stream are a long series of painted tiles (supposedly the longest work of its kind in the world) which depict a visit by King Jungjo to Hwaseong fortress, based on a painting by one of Korea's great artists, Kim Hongdo. I have below juxtaposed the "money shot" with a similar representation in lantern.


The other key gathering place is Gwanghwamun Plaza, which I visited with old pal Helen in 2014, when technically Children's Day was cancelled following the Sewol Ferry disaster. This year, the area in front of Admiral Yi is dedicated to the memory of the children who died that day during school trips to Jeju-do.


There are lots of activities designed for children.


There were also a few performance art installations, such as this mystical egg nursery, visited by playful dino-lizard creatures who took some time to menace small children:


People were fascinated by this guy, who seemed frozen in place all day long. I tried to wake him up.


My Spring Break activities will conclude on Sunday with my first trip of the season to watch FC Seoul play at Sangam World Cup stadium. Stay tuned.

Traditional Village Tour, Bugaksan

The image above more or less sums up my visit to the hanok traditional housing area above Insa-dong with Gavin and his co-teacher Mr Rhou--the juxtaposition of ancient and modern. This is Mr Rhou, whom we met up with after our tour of Gyeongbokgung:


The streets in the ancient, walled areas--dating from the 1500s, earlier in some cases--are narrow and winding. Note the traditional, heavy ceramic tiles:







Here I am taking a break on a weird but awesome bench:


The walls in the hanok are impenetrable, the only clue to what lies behnd them is the gates. Mr Rhou, who grew up near here, tells us many of these homes are owned by high government officials, CEOs and the like.





Mr Rhou then took us on a white-knuckle drive up the Bugaksan "skyway" above Cheong Wa Dae to an observation point overlooking Seoul at a restaurant called A Walk in the Clouds. Below are views to the south, then the east, then the north. Too bad it was a bit foggy on Sunday.




We finished off the day with another new experience for me, a dinner of bosam, which is boiled pork and pork belly, with a healthy side of kimchi. The pork is on a steamer plate and is reheated at the table via a sterno pack. Quite tasty.