Lantern Festival

The Buddha's birthday was May 4th. It is a really big holiday here. There was a parade and festival.

This was outside the Jogye-sa Temple in Insadong. There were so many lanterns everywhere! I will miss them when they are finally taken down.



Ellen and I made lanterns at the festival. Mine is the one with the yellow petals.



Posing in front of the temple with my latern. The street in front of the temple was closed for the festival. There was dancing, music, and many booths. There were even Mongolian Buddhists!



This was at the parade. It was held at night and full of lanterns.


I loved the elephant. It reminded my of the Sultan's Elephant, but not as large...

Hiking Mount Namsan in Gyeongju

Amber and I went on a big hike through Mount Namsan in Gyeongju. This was probably my favorite part of the trip. It was so beautiful. We met some intersting people along the way.


These are the Baeri Samneung Tombs. In them are buried the 54th and 53rd and 8th kings of the Silla emprire.


This was the fun forest at the start of the hike.


The trees had beautiful bark.



We hiked up to this hermitage. We went into the temple and made lots of friends as the only foriegners who went inside. We did the prostrations and everyone was very impressed.




There were some natural springs to drink from.


There were lots of rock piles along the way.


This was a sitting Buddha we passed.


This Buddha lost it's head somewhere along the way...


Some Buddha carvings.


This is a standing Buddha.




I loved this Buddha carving. The platform was beautiful.


This was Amber with some of the rocks we past on the hike down.


I found a nice little stone chair.


The hike down was just as beautiful as the hike up. We went down through a different valley.


When we got to the bottom, there were some huge pagodas.



Post hike we got some popsicles and water.

Golgulsa Temple

IN Gyeongju we went to many beautiful places. One of my favorite was the Golgulsa Temple. This temple was far from the city, close to the ocean and in the mountains. When we arrived we were told to rush straight to the temple. It was a steep climb but well worth it. The temple is known for practicing a Buddhist form of martial arts. The monks were giving a demonstration. It was pretty amazing to see them practice. Amber has some good photos, hopefully I can get some of those... The temple is builf into a rock cliff. There were 12 limstone caves with different shrines. We had to use ropes to climb to some of them.

This is the walk to the temple. It was right before the lantern festival so all of the temples had lanterns everywhere.


Here is a photo of the laterns on the cliffside.

King Munmu's Tomb

King Munmu unified the three Koreas. He was the 30th King of the Shilla empire and ruled from 661-681. He vowed that after his death he would become a water dragon so that he could conintue to protect Korea. He had his ashes placed in a rock pile in the ocean.

Along the shore by King Munu's tomb were offerings such as pigs heads, fish, soju, water, and maekolli. Here are some women who were playing drums, dancing with knives and had a pigs head with money in it's mouth. I was trying to be sneaky when I took this photo.


This is the pig's head we found on the shore. It was gross. There were lots of things left for King Munmu that should not be left on beaches...


These were some squid stands along the board walk.


The Gameunsaji Temple site was in a beautiful valley with lots of nice fields.


This was taken at the Gameunsaji Temple site. King Munmu's son, the 31st King Shinmun of Shilla, built this temple in his father's honor. He built it by the seaside ti defeat Japanses invaders with the help of Buddha. He died before the temple was completed. He also vowed to be a dragon after death and said, "I will be a guardian dragon after my death to support Buddhism and defend the counrty." Under the temple were a seriies of open spaces for the dragon to visit the temple. Despite all of the dragons protecting Korea, Japan still managed to invade...

Bulguksa Temple

While in Gyeongju we went to the Bulguksa Temple. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built in the year 751. It was very beautiful.

This is the main stairway to the temple. It has 33 steps to symbolize the 33 heavenly worlds of Buddha. We could not walk up them, we had to use a side enterance.


This was one of the gaurdians on the way into the temple.


Amber in front of Lake Bulguksa.


There was a huge park like area around the temple. There were plenty of blossoming trees around.


Here is a close up of the blossoms. I love the cherry blossoms! We need these trees all of Wisconsin!


In the temple was an area where people built prayer rock piles. I built one too.

Gyeongju

Amber and I took a weekend trip to Gyeongju. This was the capital of the Shilla dynasty. My Korean histiry is really bad, so I'll leave it at that. It is a beautiful city that is about a four and half hour train ride south of Seoul.

ON the train ride down we noribanged. It was fun. It got really into it... the beer I drank might have helped with that.


We stayed in a lovemotel. It was very nice. They gave us facemasks ans condoms.


Amber posing with a Shilla queen. This was at the enterance to a park with the royal tombs. For some reason the gates to the park were left open at 11pm when we were walking by. We went in and saved ourselves the 1,000 won enterance fee. It was vey creepy though. It was a gated park in the middle of the city. There were huge earthen burial mounds it was dark and there were speakers playing drumming and moale voices. When we were leaving we found a group of English speakers sledding down the ancient royal burial mounds...

Wishes

In Seoul Plaza there was a huge wire man. There were green tabs for people to write there wishes for the world on. Those wishes were then places on the man making him green. Seould is hosting a conference on global climate change and has beed putting alot of focus on green issues. There is going to be a huge expansion of the bike paths in Seoul and around Korea. That will be nice. Alought the bike paths were stink because motorcycles and gobbs of people keep them blocked up anyway. I have never used my bell so much!

Amber writing her wish.


Our wishes are being hung up.


And here is a close up of the wishes.


Some beautiful cheery trees. I am doing my Korean pose. I need to work on it alittle more.

Noryangjin Fish Market 2

While Amber was visiting we made a stop at the Noryangjin Fish Market after a long day of cherry blossom festival, swan boats, and the 63 Building. This is one of the largest fish markets in the world. It is also one of my favorite places to eat in Seoul. Anyone who knows me, knows I love seafood and fish markets. I love seeing all of the strange things, and then being able to taste them. Although, we always purchase pretty tame items to take to the resturaunts. This time we got two fist, one was flat and white on the bottom side. The other was long and silver. We saw many people buy those two together, so we thought we would try them. We also got a crab and some huge shrimp. Ellen and her mother were with us if you were wondering why we got some much food.

Our table at the resturaunt. When you buy your fish, you tell them how to cut it. Then they ask you if you want to go to a resturaunt. If you say yes, they lead you through some tiny walkways to the one they are associated with. Then you tell the resturuant how you want it cooked. We got the fish Sashimi style, which is raw. The crab and shrimp were cooked and then we had shabu shanu.


This was our sashimi fish plate. I love this dish. There is raw fish and then different things to build a fish wrap. Lettuce and sesame leaves are provided. There is regular sliced galic and pickled garlic( yum) that can be wraped up with the fish. Then there is a spicy red sauce to put in with the fish and galic. Wrap it all in lettuce and you get delicous!


Shabu shabu is a spicy soup made from the fish leftovers. All of the bones and heads are put in the soup. Amber and Ellen ate the fish eyes. I did not. This is a Japanese dish. It is also very tasty. If you don't like raw fish, you can cook it in with the soup.