Searching for my Seoul

Happy New Year everyone!! As many of you know, I took a vacation to Seoul, South Korea over my winter break. It was a great to get out of Japan for a bit (even if it was terribly cold for the first few days), and it was great to see another country. I saw a lot while I was there, including the DMZ (the Demilitarized Zone that was established at the border between North and South after the Korean War 50 years ago), Gyeong Buk Gung palace, Jogyesa Temple, and the Icheon pottery village. I also walked around many markets and shops in a few of the different areas of Seoul. Insadong was by far my favorite area (maybe I am prejudice though, as I had my best meal since I left the States there; it was at a restaurant that specialized in vegetarian food to accommodate the Buddhist monks from Jogyesa, and their meals are worth every penny of the US $11).

With that said, here is the weekly dose of pictures:

This is North Korea from the observation deck on the South Korean side of the DMZ. They said that Korea is about 70% mountains, and this is a shot of the other side of the border and a small industrialized area that they are developing to try to bridge and improve relations with North Korea. The tour of this area was definitely interesting. They showed us this slickly produced video that felt a bit like war propaganda, talked about how they are trying to improve relations, and all put on a smiling faces, while surrounded by an area full of landmines and soldiers. It was indescribable.

These are the monkeys that line one of the corner ridges of the roof over the Queen's sleeping quarters at the Gyeong Buk Gung Palace. The monkeys run along each of the corner ridges on this building and many other palace buildings. They are supposed to serve as protection for the Queen.

Finally, this is a picture of the guardian that welcomed us at the gates of the Jogyesa Buddhist Temple in Seoul on New Year's Eve. There were about 10 different paper statues on the temple grounds that we saw during the day, and then we returned to check out their New Year's celebration that night (it was too crowded at Boshingak Bell, which is Seoul's main celebration). At night, all the statues were illuminated, and they also had a ceremony involving the fireworks and the monks to welcome 2007.