Day 3 Korean War Memorial

We made it back to the Yongsan station and then walked up the road to the Korean War Memorial, I have a vague memory of coming here on a field trip especially this statue:

This statue is two brothers meeting, one from North Korea and the other from South. Bet you can't guess which. (The brother without any equipment and in the lower position is from North Korea, obviously).

The statue is hollow underneath and I had a memory of a classmate named Andrew running in and out of it. This same classmate would go on the staple his thumbs together in front of me in Miss Murphy's first grade class. Boys are weird.

I later looked and found out this place didn't open as a museum until 1994, two years after we'd moved and a year after the last time I'd been in Seoul. Hmmmmm, I realized that I have probably been here.... when it was the army headquarters. This place is huge, it felt as big as the British Museum, but there isn't nearly as many items. The basement and first floor are full of some very interesting history and models, but the third floor half is dedicated to Korea's involvement in the Vietnam war and beyond, feeling a little too pro Truman and Eisenhower for my comfort. 

There was supposed to be cultural demonstrations at 2 when we arrived, but either they weren't doing them or they were in a different place. We didn't want to wait, so we headed inside and dumped our stuff into a locker (free!). Admission to the museum is free.

이순신 Admiral Yi Sun Shin

This is a scale model of the turtle ship that Admiral Yi built. The real ones were about two and half times the size of this one.

This is not hand written but printed with movable type. The Koreans were the first to invent metal movable type despite what you learned in history class, not Gutenberg.

I can't even write my name in Chinese without making a mistake.

The old types of printing blocks.

Scale model of 화성 (Hwaseong) a fortress south of Seoul.

Admiral Yi again. He's my favourite Korean historical figure because it seems like he beat off the Japanese being clever and with sheer tenacity.

Early firepower. Some of these guns dated back to the early 14th century. For some historical perspective, at this time in England, Edward I was beating back the Scots.

Guns would not be used widely in Europe for another 200 years at least. If you're stupid enough to think that if Koreans had had guns, they never would have been invaded by the Japanese, know that  not only did they have firepower long before Europe did, they had successfully beaten back numerous previous invasion and had already survived one colonization.

Example of the beacons at Namsan.

Diorama of the walls around Seoul.

This funnels light down to the Korean War Memorial fountain in the basement.

There was an exhibit purely of private items on loan. It was more fascinating than the entirety of the 3rd floor.

We wandered around the museum for about three hours. After both Namiseom and the War Memorial, we were exhausted. I'd made arrangements with my friend to pick up her items I'd brought from the states at our flat. We headed back and rested for a while until she stopped by. When walking to the flat, we noticed a bunch of policemen gathered around the streets. I think they were there to keep the peace during another protest at Gwanghwamun. This would not be the last time we saw them.

My pictures here are fuzzy because I was trying to take them surreptitiously with my phone.

After items had been been collected, Justin and I walked to a local famous restaurant named 토속촌 (Tosokchon). Tosokchon's specialty is 삼계당 (samgyetang), a young chicken stuffed with ginseng, jujubes, rice and garlic, and cooked until to makes a smooth broth. Tosokchon is located around the corner from the Blue House and was said to be a favourite of the late President Noh before his suicide death. He had requested the recipe from the staff to make at home, but they refused and forced him to come to the restaurant.

All the chickens at Tosokchon are said to be killed at 49 days to they're tender. We also ordered a 해물전 (haemul jeon), seafood pancake. I felt for such a famous restaurant, the haemul jeon could have had a little more seafood in it. Just a note- if you don't drink, don't take a sip of the little shot glass they give you (in the picture below). It's soju (rice wine) and is commonly added to the soup to give it a kick. 

After dinner, and frankly during dinner, I was nodding off and Justin had to lead me back to the apartment while I was sleepwalked. Justin very sweetly made me samgyetang yesterday for Mother's day, and I must say, I enjoyed it a lot more awake. I think we will having it a lot more. Health food!