Teddy Bear Museum

Beth and I decided that we were going to go check out the Teddy Bear Museum that was near Namsan Tower. We weren't entirely sure what to expect. It turned out, it was a history of Korea, illustrated by costumed teddy bears. Some of them were also animatronic,  but they were a little creepy. 

This was a human-sized teddy bear that provided the introduction to the historical exhibit. He moved and talked, but it was kinda creepy. I'm not really sure what purpose the little bear on his shoulder served, but it was there. 

The exhibit was divided into two sections. The first section was the history of Korea, and the second section was modern life. 

Teddy bears were building one of the palaces. 

This is the traditional spread of food when someone dies. Some families still do something like this today, although not all of them. 

I was amazed at the detail that went into most of the bears and costumes. It was beautiful. 

These are scholar teddy bears. 

Hard at work writing something....

Even the student books had detail, like actual Korean characters in tiny, tiny books. 

This is a student and a teacher. 

This is at a wedding. Grooms wore this traditional hat during the wedding ceremony and feast. Basically, any modern groom that complains about a cummerbund has nothing to talk about. 

This is traditional clothing for women. It's so beautiful, and I really want to get one made before I leave!

Moving up through history, there were scenes of community feast days. I think I've eaten all of the food that they showed here. Some of it is pretty amazing, some of it is not. 

Making kimchi. Even today, these brown clay urns are EVERYWHERE, despite the fact that we are in the middle of a massive city. 

Playing a Korean horse game that seems similar to polo. 

I suppose in every era, in every culture, there were women who were coerced into watching sporting events :)

This is the 19th century version of the lady I buy vegetables from!

It was great, some of the bears even had awesome expressions. 

Picking persimmons from the tree. There are a lot of persimmon trees in Korea, and they're really beautiful. 

This bear is in the process of becoming the emperor. For a bear in that position, he doesn't look very excited. At least he's shiny!

They had a bear orchestra! The only think that has stopped me from buying one of these instruments is that it is roughly the size of a piano, and I couldn't get it home. 

Bears in traditional clothing appearing fascinated by the street lamp. This was at the point where Korea started to modernize. 

A more modern mode of transportation. 

Does anyone recognize this symbol? We have it here too!

At this point, we moved into the second part of the exhibit. These are all familiar sights around the city today. 

I've never seen a headband with heart antennae, but there are definitely some pretty crazy headbands around here. 

I would be completely unsurprised to see a sign like this on an actual store. 

Cool k-pop wannabe bears.

Ok, so this isn't exactly modern Seoul, but they are really cool. They do this amazing dance where the white fluffy thing goes crazy because they spin their head around.

I've bought jewelry from the human version of this. 

punk bears!

Somehow, break dancing has become a huge thing here. The dancers are called b-boys. Only these aren't boys. They're bears. 

This is Korea's presidential residence, the Blue House. 

Bodyguard bears take their duties very seriously. 

They had this section for international things, I guess... It kinda confused me. But it was pretty!

There was also a small exhibit on the development of the teddy bear itself. 

This poor little guy was so depressing. He's wearing a muzzle for some reason, and he had a definite dejected slouch. 

I'm not sure who this bear is supposed to be, but proportionally speaking, his glass is rather large. 

It ended with some very nice, very fashionable bears. I especially love the bow tie and the hat.