Knowledge Bump at the Museum

I am spending Chuseok being a tourist. I am such an obvious tourist, it might as well be a Halloween costume. I even had my Korean phrasebook on my lap while I rode the train into Seoul.

It takes about an hour or so from Ansan to get to Seoul. However, the bulk of the journey is above ground and quite scenic, so no complaints here.

When I got off at my stop I could already tell things were different, there were way more foreigners, which is crazy because this wasn't even Itaewon.

Also interesting: there was hardly any people. For a city as large as Seoul you would expect a flood of people. I'm told that this is because Chuseok is meant to be spent in the countryside, away from the city, probably more like what Michelle tells me about Swedish midsummer. So, I had everything to myself.

After a bit of a leisurely walk to explore and have a bite to eat I honed in on my target: The National Museum of Korea.  Not everyone's idea of a fun time, but! I enjoyed the National Museum of Hong Kong and the National Museum of Singapore and I figured let's see how this goes. Plus, it was guaranteed to be open despite the holiday and admission is free.

I caught a guided tour for an hour provided by the museum in English. I will now share with you some cool things I learned on the tour.

The first exhibit we went to was about the tomb of a king from one of Korea's earliest dynasties. They had some artifacts from the tomb, but not many and little hope to get anymore. This is because the tomb is just outside of Pyongyang. It is a UNESCO world heritage site but it's believed to be in pretty rough shape for obvious reasons. Instead the museum houses exact replica paintings of what the walls of the tomb looked like. Those paintings were done awhile ago, so it's expected to have deteriorated further.

This site is of Korean heritage, but it is claimed by North Korea. Perhaps even more unfortunate are the Korean heritage sites claimed by China and Japan since borders have fluctuated over time.

In other forms of Buddhism, such as Japanese, the Buddha has a stern face. In Korean Buddhism they see him more as a jolly-father type, all Korean Buddha's have a least a little smile.

Since Buddha was a teacher some of his hand signs are actually grades for your learning.

The bump on his head is for extra knowledge, unlike this hairstyle.

 I also rented a headset to get some audio while I walked around the other exhibits. It was a really cool way to spend the day indoors!

Tomorrow there may or may not be a Chuseok dinner for the teachers at the director's home. I'm looking at another area in Seoul that has some more cool museums for tomorrow, or I may possibly try and find this Jjimjibong fabled to be in Ansan and chill out there until dinner. We'll see!