The One Full Day in Korea: Starting at the National Museum

A pagoda in the snow. And in front of the National Museum of Korea

Three days in wintry Seoul, but only one of those days is a full 24-hour day.  This is it.

Other than sleeping in to get caught up from the jet lag, there were only two items on the agenda.  First up was the National Museum of Korea.  This meant taking the Seoul Metro to the Yongsan stop.  I probably should have gone to the Ichon stop instead, but that was a different subway line so I didn't think to take it.  The area around the Yongsan stop was interesting.

The Seoul Metro is not that difficult to navigate.  I was able to figure it out in a couple of rides.  Which is one of the reasons I like to travel to solo:  you don't have to explain to someone you're traveling with when you are still trying to learn to navigate the subway system.

This was a weird looking whatever:

It said it was a spa.  It had the over-the-top flamboyance of a casino, but it appeared not to be that.  But it did have a Christmas tree, which was appropriately on a snowy day.

And then:  another Christmas tree!

And then: a railroad crossing.

You can see that the snow is starting to pick up the pace:

Soon as I was at the snowy grounds of the National Museum:

Lots of schoolchildren outside.  Even more inside.

Let's go check out the pagoda.

And of course that is what a bridge to a pagoda would have to look like.

And this is what the pagoda looks like.

A pagoda in the snow.  With child.

I. of course, meant that there was a child in the photo with the pagoda.  Not that the pagoda was pregnant.  The sign call this:  Cheongjajeong.  I don't know if that is the name of the pagoda, the builder of the pagoda, or the Korean word for pagoda.  Some mysteries are unsolved even on travel.

Enough of the pagoda.  It's museum time.

Even better:  it's time to go inside the museum.

The museum does go back into Korean history.

And here is one of those chimes instruments that we saw at Gwanghwamun Square.

Here is Emperor Gojong, founder of the Joseon Dynasty.

The Joseon Dynasty ruled the Korean Peninsula until the Japanese conquest and subjugation of Korea in the late 19th/early 20th Century.  One nugget learned in the National Museum of Korea:  Japan became a great an international power in the early 20th Century because of the wealth it stole from Korea.  That's the Korean side of the story and they are sticking with it.

And here's a tower with a robot:

The robot is in the middle.

The standard wall of pottery:

I've traveled enough to know this:  Every national museum has a wall of pottery.

And a man on a horse.

I learned a lot about Korean history, specifically from the Korean perspective.  And, from touring two museums, I've learned this about Korea:  they're still not over the whole subjugation at the hands of Japan thing.