I actually only visited one landmark on my last day in Korea, before I had to head back to Incheon airport and take my flight back to Tokyo. I slept in a little bit, because I wasn’t going to meet up with everyone at Changdeokgung palace until 11:30 am, when the first guided English tour started. I woke up, ate breakfast, and took my time packing my bags.
I walked over to Changdeokgung Palace at around 10:30 and bought everyone’s tickets for the guided tour. Of course everyone paid me back when they finally arrived. Since I still had some time to wait for them to come, I killed some time at a small nearby cafe, and then went to a convenience store and picked up some last minute Korean snacks to give as omiyage back at the workplace. I also bought myself a lot of skittles. I feel that since I live in Japan, and skittles aren’t available there, I am entitled to buy myself American things in Korea that I miss.
The front gate of Changdeokgung Palace
Teresa, Hanna, and everyone else arrived just ten minutes before the tour started. Our tickets actually came in two parts. One as the entrance ticket to the palace, and the other that allowed us to go on the tour of the “Secret Garden” at Changdeokgung Palace. The Secret Garden Tour was about an hour and a half long. We learned that the Secret Garden portion of the Palace was used primarily for rest and relaxation, where the King and Queen wouldn’t have to worry about political affairs. One of the first buildings was a library. There were also very many pavilions just for sitting around looking at the scenery around different ponds. We also saw the building where many of the concubines slept, and the small house where the King would invite people for lunch, though the kitchen was in a separate building.
What I loved about the Secret Garden, and well, historic Korean buildings in general, is the gorgeous architecture and the beautiful painting put into the buildings, even if they weren’t so important. For instance, below is a photo of the inner ceiling of just one of many random outdoor pavilions.
Pavilion Ceiling
Of course, one of the more real fun parts of the tour was when the tour guide was explaining the gates to one of the buildings. The gate had a tall middle for the King to go through, and two smaller gates for his fellow politicians to walk through on either side of them, so that they had to bow slightly, as representation of their service to the King. The tour guide called out to see who the tallest person in the group was, and asked Rikki to come up and demonstrate going through the gate.
Too tall to serve the King of Korea I guess.
After the garden tour, we walked around some of the big buildings in the main complex of the Palace. The Secret Garden actually took up most of the space of Changdeokgung Palace, so I can safely say I saw most of the Palace complex before I had to run back to my hostel, grab my bags, and take the express train to the airport.
The thing about both Changdeokgung Palace, and Gyeongbokgung Palace, is that many of the buildings kept being moved and rebuilt between the two palaces. So Gyeongbokgung Palace is known for being the place where one of Korea’s empresses was tragically assassinated by the Japanese in her sleep, but the bed and part of the building she was assassinated in is actually currently located at Changdeokgung Palace. I made sure to take the time to see the famous Royal “Tragedy” bed before saying good-bye and heading back home.
It is a pretty cool bed though.
I actually packed quite a bit into my short trip to Seoul. I wish I could’ve stayed longer and seen more, and possibly go to the DMZ. As I was leaving I knew that would definitely have to come back.
A few impressions I’ve had of Korea in comparison to Japan:
1. People in Korea are more friendly and open than Japanese, but less polite. While clothes shopping, a few friendly store clerks walked over and asked if I would like to try something on, and if they could help me find something in my size. There were a few times when I would get confused with Korean money and hand over the wrong bills. A few times I got a warm smile, and an explanation that they needed different bills that I was holding in my hand, but other times I’d get snippy response of “No. it’s 8000 won.” Also, at one shop in Gangnam, I wanted to try on a t-shirt. I walked over to the dressing room with it, and as I was just getting ready to close the curtain, one of the saleswoman rushed in and shouted “No! You can’t try on!” grabbed the shirt out of my hand, and rushed off. I was son angry that I just stomped out of the store.
2. Korea is dirtier than Japan. It’s not as dirty as say, Naples, Italy, or certain places I’ve seen in Latin America, but it was enough for me to take notice of it. Also, as I was looking out the window of my plane as it landed in Korea, I noticed a faint haze over the city. There’s more air pollution over there, and I’m not sure if it’s something produced in Korea itself, or if it travelled over from nearby China, because a lot of the strong winds even bring the dirty air all the over to Japan.
3. Korean standards of beauty are different than in Japan. There’s more focus on boys looking good and being well-groomed in Korea, than what I’ve noticed in Japan. I know many Westerner’s might think Japan has a “girly” standard for men when they see some advertisements for men’s grooming products, but in Korea it’s more visible. Also, women in Korea are just as obsessed with their appearance as Japanese women, but there’s more focus on being “beautiful” and “elegant”, rather than “cute” and “youthful.” There’s many beautiful women in Korea, but they don’t try to look “delicate” like most of the women in Japan. I noticed a huge absence of overly frilly clothes in Korea, which are super popular in Japan.
Also, plastic surgery is very common in Korea. Not necessarily even drastic cosmetic procedures. It’s very common for women, girls, and sometimes even men, to go into “outpatient” cosmetic surgery clinics, just get “tiny things” fixed. Part of it has to do with the very blasé attitude toward plastic surgery in Korea. We actually saw a woman walking around Gangnam with a surgical mask on. From far away, we just assumed she had a cold, and was walking around with the mask (as is common in many asian countries.) Yet, as we got closer, we could see the thick bandages that were wrapped and tapped over her nose!
I also noticed many nicely decorated buildings in Gangnam and other areas in Seoul that turned out to be plastic surgery clinics.
Gangnam plastic surgery clinic
4. Of course, the last thing is about the food. I actually learned how kimchi came to be THE Korean national dish. Of course it didn’t just happen by accident, but I still find the story interesting. Much Korea’s food came from agriculture, but the winters are much harsher there than in Japan. Many vegetables didn’t grow, or last throughout the winter, and so malnutrition became a problem. Eventually, Korean women realized that certain spices helped preserved many vegetables long term, so they would gather vegetables together, and mix them with the spices together in large groups. Then they’d take their share home in large pots that were kept in the ground. During the winter, they’d pull the kimchi vegetables out of the pots to add to their meals. So for the longest time kimchi was known as “winter vegetables” in Korea, and then just eventually became a staple at any meal year round.
While I’m not a fan of spicy food, I did try eating the various kimchi side dishes. I actually liked the radish kimchi, because the spices didn’t soak all the way through, so it wasn’t as harsh as the other types of kimchi. Even though I tried to avoid many of the super spicy Korean dishes, for my first three days back in Japan, I had a hard time eating Japanese food, because everything tasted so bland! Of course, eating some garlic and miso ramen helped to fix that!
Even though the new school term is about to start up again next week, all I can think about is how soon can I return to Korea? It was so much fun! If any of my friends, or my brother or sister, come to visit me in Japan for more than a week, I am definitely going to take them on a side trip to Seoul!
Jet Set Victoria 