Korea National Museum

One of my friends decided that we needed to go do something on the weekend. She decreed that I'd been in my apartment for too long, and we were going to go to the Korea National Museum. I'd never been, so I decided that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea. It was really nice to get out of the apartment, but I was definitely exhausted after we left. We didn't even see most of the museum either. It's so huge. We started in the special collections, so there was a mix of different things.

There was this really lovely archway of bamboo leading up to the main entrance of the museum. 

I don't think that the building actually had a dome, but from the inside it looked a lot like a floating dome, which was pretty cool. 

These are the end caps for traditional tile roofs. I love these things. I think they're so beautiful. I have an ever-growing collection of pictures from various palaces and museums around the city. 

This next part is dedicated to all of the great faces that were around the museum. I don't know what all of them mean, but there were certainly lots of interesting ones to choose from!

Can't you imagine this one making a great salt and pepper shaker set??

I can understand the man looking surprised, but I really want to know what they were looking at to make the donkey look that surprised. 

The warrior is very serious. His faithful steed apparently has other ideas for the day. 

This was a pair of earrings from one of the early dynasties. I can't imagine having a hole in my ear big enough for these things to fit in. If they were along the line of a clip on earring, I can only imagine how much that would hurt. I'm definitely not ever complaining about earrings again!

I used to have a little tea set that looked kinda like this! It was actually labeled as a "child's house play set". I guess there are some things that transcend cultural boundaries. Love. Laughter. Playing house as a little girl....

I don't remember what this one was either, but I thought that it was absolutely lovely. I really enjoyed the colors and the lighting. It was very dramatic!

Some of the pottery was absolutely exquisite. 

I love the color and the detail. 

Some of it was just cute. I guess even hundreds of years ago, there was a booming industry for things that served no practical purpose other than being cute. 

I don't remember what this is, but it was really small. I think it was only about 3 inches across. It was so amazingly detailed though!

These are traditional signature stamps. People still use these stamps today. They register their stamp with the government, and it counts as an official seal. Which is cool. Unless you're a foreigner who doesn't have a cool official seal. And you're trying to sign documents. But instead of a nice line to sign your name, there's a little box for your seal. It gets interesting. I've thought about getting a seal made, but my name has so many syllables when it is written out in Korean, I don't think it would fit. So my legal signature has been reduced to even more of an illegible scrawl than it was before. 

The next part of the museum had a lot of beautiful paintings and calligraphy in it. 

There was this giant rock, but I'm not entirely sure where it came from, or what it said. But it was really pretty, with the light and dark contrast. 

When you first saw this picture, what did you think it was? A torture device? The original "As Seen on TV Lawn Aerator"? Believe it or not, this was a typical pair of shoes. Just a normal pair of shoes. Not soccer cleats. Just shoes. They were so big that they were too big for even my foot. I want to know what happened to all of the shoes that are this size? How did they shrink so much??

This wasn't part of the museum, it just made me laugh. We were walking though these amazing exhibits, and this mom and her little girl were sitting there. Both of them were wearing headphones. Both of them were playing on their own smart phone devices. This is actually a pretty common scene around Seoul. It's just the first time I've had my camera on me when I've seen it. 

We saw this as we were walking back out. It doesn't matter how many times I've seen it before, I'm always fascinated by the juxtaposition of old and new in this city. Palaces that are thousands of years old sit next to cranes that are building skyscrapers. It's amazing. 

The Lock Museum

Beth and I were wandering around Hyehwa, and we came upon the lock museum. It seemed interesting when we looked it up online, so we decided to go and take a look. It was small, but there were some interesting things to be seen. 

These two were apparently the welcome committee. Or maybe they were the watchers. Either way, they were the first thing you saw when you walked into the exhibit area. They were really small, but they were in this giant glass cube. It was odd. 

There were locks from lots of different time periods and countries. I was amazed at how beautiful the detail work on them was. This lock was probably only six inches long. 

There was an exhibit of animal locks. I think that in the past, different animals represented different things, so you would choose specific animals to lock certain rooms or spaces. But I don't know much more about it than that. The signs weren't so very helpful in this instance. 

Some of the locks didn't actually look like locks. Like this one. It was really pretty! Again, it was smaller than you would have expected, and it was quite intricate. 

Some of the locks were made out of gold. They were especially beautiful. 

There was a lock sculpture in one of the exhibit spaces. 

That thing that is holding this lock up is fishing line. Just to help give you an idea of scale. Again, this lock is tiny, but incredibly detailed. There are individual scales etched into it. 

This was an example of a keychain from back in the day. 

They had some intricately designed cases that were all locked up. 

These are keys that were used at various points in history. Even the keys are pretty. I feel like I'm missing out on an entire aesthetic experience every time I come home now. 

There were locks for just about everything there.... Doors, boxes, and... well... other things :)

This was just a cool sculpture thing near the exit. I don't think it actually had anything to do with locks, but it was nice.

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.