Wanderlust: Minutiae

Today was a day of minutiae. I saw many things and learned a lot about life in Korea.

Here is a pic of the nearly empty subway. Imagine it packed completely full during rush hour, add a lot of noise and shoving, and you’ll get close to the craziness of it.

The day started off grey, but then turned pleasant after the sun came out. It seems like winter’s almost over.

Here comes the sun

Jongmyo Park was tiny and full of birds. There was also a cluster of benches for the ajeossis to gather for the playing of baduk, a board game.

Two benches laid out for a game

Birds! More wildlife than I've seen in Seoul thus far

The moving, cheeping bush!

Two ajeossis concentrating. I think the one on the right was winning.

I went to another market, Kwangjang Market, which was a short walk away. It seemed to be mostly textile stores and food vendors, but it’s possible that I missed whole sections of it.

An entire shop full of blue cloth

Rolls of fabric

Blankets ready to be sold

Tofu imprinted with symbols

I think a prerequisite for making it into the garland is a gaping mouth

Piles of red pepper powder

More fabric

Children's hanbok, or traditional Korean dress

A nice husband/wife combo

Fried kimchi pancakes

I ate lunch at a stall specializing in Kalguksu, freshly cut noodles in a broth. There was a couple also eating there, and the wife spoke English, telling me, "Famous. Radio and television." There was a sort of photo wall showing the stall on television, so I suppose it was true. The noodles were award-worthy.

The lady hand-cut the noodles on the spot, and continued rolling out dough as I ate

Zucchini and carrots and mandu for the soup. The tea was self-serve

Mmm. With seaweed sprinkles on top.

Chopsticks are exponentially harder to use if your fingers are cold.

I captured many small details with my camera, so now I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.

The first Korean flag I noticed.
After that, I saw at least half a dozen more throughout the day.

All the stores have roll down covers. All of them have at least a few stripes of color.

The juxtaposition of the well-maintained temple
and run down houses reminded me a bit of China

This mongrel was very friendly, but I hesitated to pet
him as he looked filthy.

Some ajumma had set out a bowl of cabbage in salt,
the first step of the kimchi making process

This is a Korean boquet, set out in either celebration or mourning

A motorcyclist, an ajumma with a food delivery balanced on her head,
and a schoolboy waiting to cross the street

I absolutely adore Korean street art. The neighborhood on the way to Naksan Park seemed to have more of it than most areas.

At the park, which was at the top of a mountain, there were several lookout points, some exercise equipment, and a longer section of the wall around Seoul that connects to the gate I saw yesterday.

Working my quads on the leg extension machine

Sitting on the wall enjoying the view.
You can see the wall continuing on behind me.

Housing district; a shabbier part of Seoul

Kids playing one of Korea's favorite sports

Laundry hanging in the rundown part of the city

This light pole was so rusty it looked diseased
but was still playing a jovial tune from a loudspeaker.
This was a common feature of the light poles.

I then found a market dedicated to children's toys. It must be heaven for small children and hell for their parents. I saw several mothers trying to keep up with their children who were ogling the goods.

Toys galore

How is it possible for a clock to be so cute?

I came back to a stream running through Seoul. It may or may not have been the same one I saw a few days ago. The stream ran through the fashion district and near the old olympic stadium. The stadium was being dismantled in favor of the Dongdaemun Cultural Park which included a Stadium memorial. There was a film crew there. Though I couldn't find out what they were filming, they had blocked of a section of the park for their use.