To experience the traditional culture of Korea while remaining in the heart of the city, Insa-dong is the place to go as it is home to numerous art galleries, traditional craft stores, antique art dealers, traditional tea houses and restaurants. There is one main, rather short street where most of these places are and on weekends the street is vehicle free. However, there was still traffic. The gorgeous fall weather had brought everyone out and the street was more or less a parking lot of people.
As for our decorating initiative, we went into quite a few shops selling paintings and inquired about a couple of antique pieces. The paintings, despite being merchandised in stacks leaning up against the walls, were priced more like they should be hanging in a real gallery in a solo exhibition. As for the antiques, we're not really in the market for cabinets and treasure chest looking boxes and all of the celedon pottery was obviously not really that old. There were two fantastic wooden chickens, very colorful but worn, that looked a bit more "Country French" than Korean that we asked about. Maybe they were from an ancient dynasty, but they were way to expensive when we don't even have any sort of table or shelf to display them on.
Needless to say, since pretending to be interior designers and visiting galleries and antique dealers for interior decor proved to not really work, we've decided to take a more creative approach to decorating the walls of our big white box. We instead left Insa-dong with a "giant white canvas": 10 giant white paper fans that I'm going to either paint or collage and then assemble into an art installation of some sort. I've been wondering what to do with the second bedroom anyway. Home art studio, here I come. I wonder if they sell 3M Spray Adhesive here....can't have an art studio without it.
We know Insa-dong has authentic Korean tea houses,
but Smoothie King brings back so many college memories.
The main street is quite a weekend destination, with just as many locals as tourists.
A human parking lot.
What an awful job to have.
One of the many galleries.
RCP's kind of art show - multiple variations on the bust of Spiderman.
These guys were demonstrating and selling this desert made of super fine sugar string filled with
a cluster of nuts. They're demonstration was synchronized and musical and drew quite a crowd.
Not sure what these trees were for, but they were just really cool looking.
Crowded and not that fun.
A space to be creative.
I might come back here. I do need more coffee cups.
There are numerous shops that sell traditional art materials
such as hand-made paper, traditional paint brushes and stamps.
Queen Elizabeth visited this particular one, according to the pictures in the window.
Paintbrushes galore!
You could have a custom stamp carved if you wanted.
They're pretty neat.
Have you ever seen such a large paintbrush?
When you can't find what you want, make it yourself.
Purchasing blank fans for my art project at the hand-made paper shop.
Along with art and antiques, Insa-dong is also the place to come for souvenirs to take back home.
This is actually quite a normal occurance around the city, older people hauling rickshaws piled high with cardboard. They're simply just recycling and can earn about $3 a day doing this.
This guy's obviously driven and I hope brings in more than $3.
These kids, obviously on assignment for school, were stopping those who looked like English speakers and asking questions in near perfect English such as "Where are you from?", "What are you doing in Seoul?", "What holiday is coming up?", and "How kind are Koreans."
They recorded our answers on their I-Phones.
We got candy for participating.
Anything to help a bunch of kids doing a school project....
on a holiday...in the middle of a crowded street.
Speaking of learning a new language,
this is what the word 'Starbucks' looks like in Korean.
After we'd had enough of one crowded street, we wandered to another crowded street
lined with restaurants to find some dinner.
BBQ it is!
I promise I won't post every picture of every Korean BBQ place we eat at,
but this one's use of signs was fantastic.
The buckets are full of those bricks that you find in gas grills at home.
They're already lit when they bring them to your table.
A lot of restaurants advertise they're menu options this way.
It might be just me, but pictures of the food AFTER it has been cooked
might be a little more enticing.
Cheap food, cool music, all locals.
On the bus in the Namsan Tunnel, going home through the mountain to our side of town.
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