past few days: museum, temple, kimchi

i went to the other big modern art museum in seoul. it had a huge 3+ story tall multi-tv piece by nam june pak. they had few pieces international artists, but mostly just cool korean art. i felt like a rockstar because a huge group of little kids came up and spent like 20 minutes asking me questions and crowding around me. it was pretty funny. i ran into them all again by the vending machines, and they all gave me some of their chips and candy. it was pretty cool. i spent a lot of time walking through the museums out door sculpture gardens, which was one of the nicer ones i have ever been in.

the next day i decided to go to a Buddhist temple. the temple was huge and right next to the biggest mall in seoul. i took a tour, where i got to meditate in some of the temples, participate in a tea ceremony, and ended the tour meditating with an actual monk. he was strict on proper posture, which made the whole experience very painful. even though i didn't achieve any kind of enlightenment, it was still pretty cool to be able to attempt to meditate with an actual monk.

after that i crossed the street and hung out for the rest of the day at coex mall. i went to the kimchi museum which is the silliest museum i have ever been to. it shows how it is made, all of the different kinds, and even extolls the health benefits. according to the museum not only is kimchi healthy, but if fights cancer, and promotes weight loss. at the end they even have samples for you to eat. the mall was insane. huge, super high-tech, and packed to the brim with people. i had a crazy ice-cream sunday while i was there and they put fruit, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, fruitloops, cornflakes, chocolate syrup, and some other stuff that i couldn't figure out. it was great (except for the tomatoes).

national museum of contemporary art








Bongeunsa temple












kimchi museum






coex mall