The West Commences

Saturday, May 26 is Buddha’s birthday and we will be visiting Seoraksan National Park that weekend, so this Saturday, Ines, May’s brother’s Korean girlfriend suggested that we should go to Seoul to see the light show and parade that is held there on the weekend before the big day. Again we had a relaxing morning and took the subway into Seoul in the afternoon. Thanks to cell phones, we met Ines in the confusion of the right station and walked to the cable car that takes you up to the top of Namsan Park, the first stop on the day’s tour. More texts and calls brought Frank into our company, and we all got on the cable car. Fortunately Jay and I had decided to get tickets up only and walk down because actually walking up and down would have been best but the girls probably would have moaned about it and we knew that we would be walking their legs off as the afternoon’s activities carried on into the night. The views of Seoul both from the car and the top of the hill were spectacular in spite of the haze that made the distance milky and the surrounding mountains opaque. The other highlight at the top, although it launched Jay on a rant about superficiality, is an absolutely breath-taking number of locks left by lovers as some odd outward and visible sign of their deep attachment to each other. They are hooked to six or eight Christmas Tree shaped structures, each about six feet high, and also along meters of fencing that runs around the viewing area. There are so many that they block the view for short people and are starting to bend the top of the barrier. I read later that the same thing is done near a Tower in Tokyo; locks are left and the keys thrown away. Some Koreans seem to have copied the idea on a visit to Namsan Park lookout and the fad took off in a big way. Vendors at the base of the hill now do a roaring business selling locks to pairs of locals and tourists alike. The popularity of this copied practice is doubly strange given the Koreans’ deep hate for the Japanese. The walk down was shady and pleasant and followed by a lot more walking before we reached the area where the light show and parade were going to be.

By about 7:30 we were gathered again in a restaurant around two tables with charcoal heaters in the center burning meat, as Jay describes these dinners, and drinking soju and beer. Delicious! The parade was good and the subway ride long. We didn’t get home until midnight. The girls and I went directly to bed, and they didn’t rise until noon on Sunday. I walked to the top of the hill behind Jay’s on Sunday, puffing and perspiring in my weakened state. I think I’m getting better but I don’t have the energy I did when I arrived. Half way up I took a side path to the Buddhist temple to see if they were decorating for the big day, and they were.