The Seoul Continuation

The next batch of pictures, as promised.

It was a reasonably pleasant thirty degrees when I ventured out on this particular day, eventually cooling off to the twenty seven degrees you see here.

Even though it wasn't remarkably hot, the heat is of a humid kind, sapping energy and making you sweat.  The result is that, after a day of walking, you tend to feel very tired and uncomfortable.  I encountered a similar phenomenon in Japan, just less pronounced.  I think this is more to do with the time of year, and less to do with geography; whenever I see weather reports Korean and Japan have identical weather.  Interestingly though, the typhoon that never was did not  approach Seoul.  The difference between Seoul and Geoje seems more pronounced than that of mainland Japan and here.

If I had a computer, rather than a laptop, I would have taken two shots of everything, one focusing on the foreground, and one on the sky, such as this one.

Using some clever photoshoppery, you can then merge the photographs, creating a picture with details in the sky and foreground.  You're stuck with the sky at the moment though, as I don't have the capability to produce such a picture right now.

The themed bridges belong to a (largely) indoor theme park called Lotte World.  I didn't visit on this particular day, but I did go on my last day in Seoul.

Having visited I can say that it's fun, but the company you take is the most crucial aspect of deciding a trip like that.  If one person doesn't want to ride the interesting roller coasters, then the other person will not have nearly as much fun.  Plan your trips carefully!

More interesting than the themed bridge however, is the mass of apartment buildings in the background.  As you will see in the next picture, these buildings stretch for quite a distance, and are three deep in most places.  This particular complex is the largest I saw while I was there.

I include this because people sometimes enquire as to the nature of the housing here.  Flats are the prime source of housing here, and as you can see, they don't mess around when building them...

I can only imagine living in those buildings must be a tortuous existence.  If you live in one of the inward facing flats, towards the bottom, all you would be able to see is the gargantuan building opposite.

That's not something I would particularly enjoy, I must say.

I suppose if you've never lived  in anything else you might feel differently; I think living in a house is more of a luxury than any commodity we  might buy, but we do take that for granted in England.

Koreans have as little space as the Japanese, so I suppose the only way to build is up, and when you run out of up you build within inches of each other, as they have done here.  I daren't guess how many people live there.

There were some random tortoise monsters around the lake.  I assume they were monsters, because they were damned ugly.

I don't speak enough Korean to ask what they were, or what they symbolised, and Koreans seem to be unwilling to teach me, so I guess I will never know most of what goes on here.

Offering to pay for tutoring doesn't seem to work either...

I'm actually in the curious situation where I'm learning more mandarin and cantonese than I am Korean.  Bizarre right?

Again, if I had a PC I would lighten the foreground and merge the picture to create something slightly easier on the eyes, but I don't, so you will have  to imagine.

It's a shame because I would have liked this picture, had the policeman and cars been a little lighter, and the detail somewhat easier to discern.

One day though, when I get my camera...

How long have I been saying that now?

This raccoon is the symbol for Lotte World, and reminds me of the monopoly man, Mr. Moneybags.  Is that his name, or did I just make that up?  It sounds feasible to me...

The designers have also managed to create something not seen since the old manor house paintings of yore, as his eyes follow you around the city.  Assuming you can see this statue, he is looking at you.

This is even more impressive considering the three dimensional nature of it - you would assume that looking at him directly side-on wouldn't be creepy; but they managed to make his stare transcend normal space-time.  Amazing.

Alas the camera I borrows had little in the way of zoom, so I couldn't properly focus on the woman in this picture, greeting incoming cars.

Needless to say, she was  enthusiastically greeting patrons of the store, doing an intricate dance every time someone new arrived.  This store is colossal as you will see later, so there was never a moments rest for this poor woman.

This is the continuation of her little dance sequence.

Yet more dancing...

And the conclusion.

She didn't seem particularly out of breath or anything.  I'm impressed at her stamina and mental fortitude, as doing this all day must be mind numbing and body breaking.

A curtsy and bow is included in the routine, so all major muscle groups are affected.

In fact, I'd imagine all muscle groups are affected.

Although department stores aren't usually the most inspiring buildings to look at, I particularly enjoyed taking the following sequence of photos.

I saw this statue below the building and knew there was a nice photo to be taken, but I couldn't quite figure out the best angle.

Eventually, I stumbled into the position that I think benefited the statue the most, essentially foregoing the inclusion of the department store.

Those who know the brand name will recognise the store, but everyone else will focus on the bronze.

I tried a different position and orientation for  this picture.

It still didn't quite deliver what I was expecting, so I moved onto the next one.

And this is my favourite of the three.

This is an Olympic statue, they have them all over the city.  Seoul hosted the Olympics in 1960 something, so they have statues of all the major events dotted about the place.

Despite being my favourite I don't think it's a particularly interesting picture for anyone else, my enjoyment is derived from the actual taking of the picture - in this instance anyway.

This was taken in the same area, as there were lots of unrelated pieces of work on display.

If only I could straighten the edges up...

I like this one too, because it's really simple.  I'm sure this particular picture has  been taken fifty thousand times already.

There was a family holding up this particular cherub/child.  It's probably symbolic of something, but of what, you can decide (I have no idea).

This was the tallest building I found on my travels around Seoul (except for the observation tower, but I've already included that in a previous post).

There's a definite angular precision to the buildings in Seoul, I don't know who designs their buildings, but they all seem to derive from similar principles.

Maybe the explanation is as simple as: They were all built around the same time.

Maybe they're just prickly, angular people.

Who knows.

And the final picture goes to something you see quite often here.

I guess the strong american influence showed them how to hang flags everywhere.

My usual trick of pretending to be american when I screw up doesn't really work here, because when you tell them you're american, they go all gooey-eyed and sickeningly nice.  The point of doing something wrong and then blaming america is to bond over a multinational distaste for certain american behaviours, not have all actions (no matter how obscene) vindicated by way of national thanks.

It really takes the fun out of being the dumb foreigner.

The most annoying thing is the two-faced nature of it all.  When the foreigner leaves earshot, they start talking about the dumb invading white man anyway, but I don't get the satisfaction of openly annoying them!  That, in itself, is annoying.

That's all for today.  This latest batch of pictures brings me 2/7ths of the way through the photographs I took in Seoul.  Phew!