4th Aug: Insadong; Jogyesa

Jogyesa is the largest single floor temple in Korea, and the main temple for the Jogye order of Korean Buddhism, which represents the traditional history and culture of 1700 years of Korean Buddhism. It was built in 1910 and is pretty impressive. There are 3 massive Buddha statues inside and the outside is beautifully decorated. Buddhism isn't really a religion as such but a philosophy. Seon (more commonly known as 'Zen' from Japanese) Buddhism was introduced to China around the 7th century and spread into Korea and Japan, and greatly influenced culture and development in those areas. For example the Samurai culture in Japan was inlfuenced by Zen Buddhism.
We met Tina's best friend Seung Jeung in nearby Insadong which was quite helpful as she is Buddhist so that's where I got my information from!

3rd Sep: Namison - (Nami Island)

We haven't been to many places outside of Seoul so on Wednesday we got the train out to visit Namison (Nami island). Namison is a small island in the pukhankang river which was named after a famous Korean army general (General Nami) who died aged 26, and was the filming location for a TV drama which became massively popular in Japan 10 years or so ago. Since so many Japanese came here to see the island it's been turned into a bit of a tourist attraction. You take a 5 minute boat ride out to the island which is tiny but beautiful, it is basically one big garden. There are quite a few wild animals to be found running around including ostrich's. You can hire bikes and tandems and all sorts of other vehicles to travel around on or just walk around and admire the place. We were really lucky to find the ostrichs as they roam free on the island and currently have a baby to look after so they normally stay hidden. They also had a Bonsai garden which had some pretty cool Bonsai trees that looked very old.

We also tried an old style korean food which is basically a rice dish served in a hot metal box which needs to be shook up to mix everything, so to do this you get a pair of gardening gloves to hold it with (it's red hot!). 30 or 40 years ago this was a normal school packed lunch. All the kids would put there box's together in a heated area and use gloves to get it out and mix it up at lunch time.

Language learning made easier

If you happen to be learning Chinese, Korean and Japanese at the same time you want to be getting your hands on one of these; an electronic dictionary. Since everyman and his dog in Korea is learning either English or another language there's no shortage to choose from, but this one (Nurian X30) seems the best for multiple languages and pen-recognition. Now I no longer have to spend 10 minutes trying to find a character in the dictionary by stroke order. Life just got a little bit easier. Also my mp3 player is on the way out but since this little wonder plays mp3's and videos I don't need to buy another mp3 player just yet either, bonus.