Soon (although it felt like forever), I heard the door lock click and somebody walked out. Again, I went to the washroom, but there was somebody inside already! This happened to me one more time. I realized that people were not beating me to the door, but they were already inside the washroom. Finally, the fourth person came out and I could pee.
Japanese girls.. what a different culture. I wouldn’t mind sharing the washroom with my sister if there was a reason, but it would be so weird to share it with friends!
Mr. Lee, the owner of the hostel came and made us breakfast at 8:30am. I had a soft sunny side up egg with toast. I haven’t had butter and jam on toast since high school. It was so yummy!
I met the Swedish guy that’s also staying at Namu. He’s studying at a university in Tokushima. He had told my parents he was studying in Kobe because nobody knows where Tokushima is. That is so true. Nobody knows where Ehime is, and some don’t even know Shikoku so I usually tell people I live two and a half hours south of Hiroshima.
It was very interesting talking to him. He came to Japan around the same time I did, but he’ll be leaving at the end of this semester instead of summer. He is a music teacher back in Sweden. He got a scholarship to study in Tokushima in Japanese even though he had no prior Japanese language abilities. He’s in a two year program to learn the Japanese language, culture and teaching style as a cultural exchange program. I hope I get opportunities like this when I start teaching!
Today we were going to see Gyeongbok Palace. Since there were three of us, Mr. Lee suggested we take a taxi because it would cost about the same. We walked outside to a taxi depot. The driver turned out to be a huge scammer because he took the longest possible route and drove us to the opposite side of the palace grounds. Then when my father paid 10000 for the 7200 bill, he only got 2000 back. Mr. Lee had said it would cost around 4000 won but we ended up paying double! haha
Police buses! I’ve never seen anything like this before. Maybe they get to ride on these when they go to training seminars and conferences.
If you buy a ticket to the palace, then the two museums on the palace grounds are free. The taxi dropped us off near the National Folk Museum but we were just in time for an English guided tour at 11:00 so we walked to the main gate (where the taxi driver should have dropped us off) instead.
On the way, we passed by some carved wooden poles. My mother posed by a pole “地下女”. I think it can be roughly translated as woman from hell! When I was writing this blog post, I couldn’t understand why my mother would pose by such a photo!
After I collaborated photos with my parents, I realized that I had cut off some of the words. The full title is “地下女将軍”. It means woman general under the earth.
After the tour, we got a chance to see the change of guards at noon in the main compound. We followed them out the front gates for another procession.
Next stop was the National Palace Museum. We asked two police guards standing outside, they were a little confused and pointed in the general direction of the museum. We walked around in a big circle and realized that we should have walked back to the main compound after the changing of guards instead of wandering outside the palace walls.
When we finished walking around the National Palace Museum. The guards were changing again so we got another glimpse of the brightly coloured uniforms and flags.
It was time for lunch. Mr. Lee had recommended a restaurant for us so we walked down the street to Insadong. We passed by a beautiful photo opportunity that showed South Korea is such an amazing mixture of traditional and modern culture.
We passed by a sign post with the direction and distance of some major capitol cities around the world. My father pointed to Toronto and I pointed to Tokyo.
We had lunch in Insadong and walked through it until the end. Then we walked up Samil street. I saw a really interesting piece of art by the side of the road. It is titled “Eating a biscuit together.” They should have labeled it “Eating a bench together”, because that’s what’s really happening here.
It didn’t take us very long to get to the hanock village in the area. The Bukchon hanock village is in between Gyeongbokgung Palace and Changdeokgung Palace. There are 999 hanocks in the area. We walked down a few streets and took some photos.
I saw a saltbox! (or at least I thought it might be one..) It made me surprisingly happy because I didn’t realize how long I haven’t seen one.
The National Folk Museum closed at 5:00pm. It was already 4:00pm. We debated on what to do and finally decided to go walk quickly to the museum. It took us around 15 minutes before we saw the police buses again. We stayed at the museum until closing.
On the way out the palace grounds, we passed by the same stone statues and wooden poles. This time we could really examine all the displays.
Phallicism is the worship of male or female reproductive sexual organs. In Korea, natural stones or geographical features shaped like sexual organs were objects to help pray for the birth of a male baby, the protection of villages and productiveness. Artificial sculptures were also used used to worship and enshrine the guardians of the villages.
My father posed beside “天下大将軍”. It means big commander under the sky. So, I guess the philosophy is that men rule all under the sky and women rule all under the earth.
Outside the palace ground’s west exit was a bus stop. We were able to find the Korean characters for Namdaemun on the bus schedule. We had to wait for two buses to come before out Bus #8000 came. On the warm bus, I dozed off for a bit.
When we got off the bus, there was a big sign for Namdaemun Market on the other side of the street. We used the underground walkway to cross over. On the way down the stairs, there was a street vender selling odds and ends. My father noticed plug convertors and bought one for 1000 won.
My parents had already been to Namdaemun Market yesterday before they met me at the train station but they told me it was very different at night compared to during the day. My father let me lead the way but I kept walking towards the outsides of the market and we had to turn around.. effectively walking in big circles. It was very windy so I blame the poor navigation skills due to my tear filled eyes! haha
My father bought me meat buns that tasted like curry pan. It was a little bit spicy. A few shops down sold gigantic red bean buns and I got one of those too.
A vender tried to sell me seaweed. It tasted really good. It had so many holes, it reminded me of Swiss cheese. I spotted chocolate seaweed among his products! I definitely want to try that before I leave.
I think my dad really wanted to try pig feet cooked with ginseng. My mother said he went to check out the stores more than once. I suggested that we go eat there (even though I was so full from all the buns I ate). We ordered a medium for 25000 won. It came with a bunch of side dishes.
We couldn’t decided which was the best subway route to go home. My mother felt taking three subway lines had the shortest amount of stops. My father felt changing lines would take time and it was better to take two subway lines even if there were more stops. Finally, my father won. I was all for walking less and sitting more too! We went home before 9 and went to sleep soon after.
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