Andrew, Hollye and I had an outing day in Seoul.
First we took the subway to Insadong, where we wandered the crowded streets and then had lunch at my favorite vegetarian restaurant.
After eating we were walking over to find a subway station, and we passed a restaurant with this sign in the window.
I thought it was quite funny: it says (or seems to say):
Japanese: OK
English: OK
Chinese: meh. But we love you.
Then we headed over to 동묘 [dongmyo] is the site of a major flea market neighborhood. It just goes on and on. I’ve experienced many Korean fleamarkets, but only in rural areas – never in Seoul and never on this huge scale.
We walked around a lot.
I saw a box with an incomprehensible name (the English part, I mean).
But it turns out this is an actual thing – moxibustion [the 뜸 of the Korean name] is a folk remedy where you burn mugwort against accupressure points on a patient’s skin. Perhaps I should have invested in it? Andrew is huge believer in mugwort, and my mom is a believer in accupuncture. This would combine both, and might therefore be doubly effective.
I decided to actively shop for one of my strange manias: I’m seeking a Korean manual typewriter. Not a made-in-Korea English (i.e. Latin) typewriter, but a manual typewriter made for typing Korean. This isn’t as impossible as many people who don’t know Korean might think – Korean is not like Chinese or Japanese, because the number of underlying symbols in the native Korean writing system (hangul) is quite small.
I love manual typewriters: I have several (Latin ones) in my storage unit in Minnesota. This one guy we visited had many, many typewriters – mostly Latin, but several hangul. He was honest, however: he told me none of them worked. So I didn’t buy one.
Walking back to the subway, we saw a bicycle that looked Army-style.
And a peaceful, desolate collection of greenery in an urban wasteland.
Finally, we took the subway out to Bucheon, where we met my friend Peter. Peter is only a few weeks left from ending his teaching contract, and he intends to do some on-foot travel in Korea and then return to the US.
We ate at a 짬뽕 [jjambbong] joint near his apartment and then Andrew, Hollye and I came back to Ilsan.
