7/27/2011 (late) Jeonju City and the Hanok Village Continued...

Still catching up... It's 8/6/2011 18:18, but getting there.

Today, we met up at the Hanok Village to learn more... Museum visits first.

Outside gate to the king's residence. We'd be exploring royalty stuffs here.

This was a sign stating to dismount your horse, and depending on your class, you may or may not be able to enter. That is our tour guide on the left... She is a student, but she does tours part-time.

Protective gate thing - it's painted red because ghosts hate red, and this gate was supposed to keep out evil spirits. That second gate (the one with actual doors) has three openings. The one on the left is actually the exit, then the large center one could only be used by the king (and still today, you're not allowed to walk through it!), and the one of the right is the entrance for everyone else.

The king's inner-courtyard. The little things (I think they were birds, but did not hear right) on the ends of the roof symbolize long life. Jeonju was the king's city and the capital of the Joseon Dynasty, and this was where the throne was.

Bamboo is significant in Korean culture, just as it is in other Asian countries. It was used to make walking sticks - first, because it was practical. Bamboo doesn't split, and it's light and strong. But, since it is hollow, it also symbolizes leaving (the Earth) peacefully in death.

Not sure what that was, but it looked interesting, so I took a picture of it. :P

This is called a 'polite tree' because it looks like it is bowing. :P

This was a library.

Next stop...

The picture I wasn't supposed to take. :P These are the *actual* kings' portraits of the kings in the Joseon dynasty. They are national treasures of Korea. Of the 27 kings in the Joseon dynasty, only seven portraits remain because the Japanese destroyed all the other ones. The kings' portraits were actually a pretty big deal (as you'll see in a bit) and this room contained the actual remaining seven. The kings each have a symbolic color. The first king, King Taejo, a general who was made king after ending the Goryeo dynasty, wore the color blue. Blue symbolizes the East, and since the sun rises in the East, it also symbolizes beginning.

King Sejong, the creator of the Korean alphabet, was also part of the Joseon dynasty. His painting is the one in the center of the photo above.

Now, for these palanquins... They look like they'd carry a person or something... But, they were created for the express purpose of transporting the king's portrait.

This display shows the layout of the procession for the palanquin. They marched for miles and miles and miles... I forget where they started, but it was far, by today's standards, to go from there all the way to Jeonju.

This display was the scribe's display. The king's diary contained details about everything the king did, quite literally. They say the only person the king was afraid of was the scribe.

There was a particular order to food placement... It was in Confucian tradition. The rice and soup go in the weird looking bowl-things. Towards the front are the harvest fruits. Red ones go first, then they get more white.

The king's portrait was drawn on silk, despite knowing that traditional Hanji paper lasts for 1000 years. Silk is supposed to only last 500 years, but they thought Hanji was not suitable (expensive) enough for the king's portrait. So, the original had to be reconstructed.

This was not a historical picture... The flags should give it away.

The procession for King Taejo's portrait all laid out.

This background was the background used for the king's portrait... Mina's posing... And of course, we all had to do it too, one-by-one. :P

...After a group photo. Of course. :P

Didn't quite catch all of this, but this is a display of an artist's work. He does both traditional and also modern wood pieces.

Obviously a lot of male/female/family motifs.

Barber shop... This was an old-school one. Note the spinning 'peppermint'... Western influence (obviously).

Hanji paper being pressed. It is made from mulberry trees and water from Jeonju.

 Cat!

Cat!

 Cat!

Workers making Hanji...

Pooch.

Peppers...

Outside the Hanji shop next door...

They sell fabrics and Hanji that we just saw being made by hand.

Some pretty paper...

Cat! It was pretty skinny, and on a chain.

This home belongs to the last descendant of the royal family. He apparently has a pretty sad story. He tried to become a singer, but failed and Korea never did anything for him despite him being royalty. I missed a lot of the details, but when Hanok village was built, they gave him this place to live in for free. He wasn't home, though.

...And, like every culture... There's some traditional alcohol stuffs! That would be Jackie Chan from 'The Legend of the Drunken Master.'

Korean bread is made from grain and fermented, rather than using yeast. This is the second stage...

 ...And this one is the first.

Different grains used.

The whole process of making makkoli.

Some drinking culture from back in the day.

Other alcohols... Plum wines and berry wines. They looked tasty!

That sign apparently said the old equivalent of 'breaking the seal'... Something like 'breaking the water.'

No idea what those were, but they looked interesting. :P

Profiles of famous Korean specialists in traditional Korean things.

The first time it's rained in Korea since we got here!

Korean hopscotch.

Choongsul giving it a go...

Getting ready to make some of Jeonju's famous bibimbap. It's kind of the flagship dish from here, and it was what the kings used to eat. Definitely not 'poor-people' food. There was a saying that if you eat well, there is no need for medicine. The combination of ingredients here was supposed to be all you'd need to stay healthy.

There are 25 ingredients altogether. Those red thingies are dried jujube. The yellow stuff in the upper left is a jelly made from mungbean extract.

Nick H. starting to slice up a melon. Only the peel is used.

Choongsul, MeriKim and everyone else watching the pro do her thing.

Once all the ingredients are sliced, a little salt is added to each.

Each ingredient is cooked, one at a time, with just enough salt so each one tastes good on its own. The combination of the ingredients during mixing is symbolic of Korea because of the 'unification' aspect. A lot of symbolism, everywhere.

Jeonju bibimbap rice is cooked in stock, not just water. The ideal temperature of bibimbap is 70 deg C. For Jeonju bibimbap, a brass bowl is used, not a stone one.

Ingredients are placed by yin and yang... Starting with green. The greens go opposite of each other, then yellows. I didn't get the exact order, but the whites, red, and blacks all go in a specific way. The colors also symbolize male and female - yellow, blue and red are male, and black and white are female. Yin and yang...

Presentation matters a lot... The ingredient separation is important, too.

Gochoojang being mixed with raw beef. It doesn't get cooked...

Raw egg to top it off. Quite pretty, eh? This is the best bibimbap in the world, made by the best bibimbap expert. This one was for Pastor Park. :P

...And here's me...

...And my bibimbap. It's harder to arrange than it looks, and I took considerably longer than everyone else to arrange mine (so everybody used up most of the ingredients while I was busy making mine look pretty). While scavenging for the ingredients everyone else scooped up, I forgot the order of placement and ended up kind of winging it. Also, since I took so freakin' long, mine got cold. :(

Enjoying the fruits of our labor in AC. :P I had to take the melon-ingredients out of mine (of course), but it was still pretty tasty. I think it would have been a lot better if it were the 70 deg C that it was supposed to be.

We were ahead of schedule or something, so Pastor Park asked if we could play some traditional games while waiting for the next event... So, we played a traditional Korean game, Yut Nori.

Like always, the game starts out pretty slow, but then everyone gets into it... It was pretty fun, and we almost missed our 2pm appointment. :P

Hanok Village's medicine museum...

We didn't have a guide for this part, so we were kinda lost. :P

We had to fill out a profile on the computer and then answer a whole series of questions... The result was supposed to give you a body and personality type, and then they base the medicine that they give you off of those results. ...And here is my result. :P Everyone else got a real answer. :P

Here are some of the body/personality types... I'm supposedly at the center of all of these. Pastor Park said that means I am a genius. :P

The girls filling out theirs... And one random girl in the middle.

Hahaha... Nick looks surprised by his. :P No, actually, there were some typos or something in the results, and one of the statements said something about constipation right after something about ease of bowel movement. :S Who knows... :P

But, this was a foot massage thinger. The temperature was set based on the personality results, and they poured some medicine in the water, also selected by our test results. Some of the waters were darker than others.

We sat and soaked... I wanted the equivalent for my head... My headache was back. :(

 We were there for maybe 20 minutes? I lost track of time, but by the end, I didn't want to move. :P

Another part which didn't get too much explanation...

But, for us, this meant arts and crafts time...

We selected a thing to make - either a box, a pencil-holder-thing, or a mirror. Here's our expert showing us how to make them. The glue is rice-based and non-toxic. It's also surprisingly not-messy. Once it dries, it just wipes off.

Couldn't take pics while working, but here's my box-thing almost finished.

 :P

 Kinda cool... Mine was also kinda crooked, despite my best efforts to make it straight. :P

Walking outside Hanok Village for a little...

Time for some calligraphy...

He is the master. He's renowned for his calligraphy.

Taking notes...

The master at work. The phrase we were writing means something like, 'your dreams will come true,' and then the date and then our Korean names.

At some point, everyone decided to start watching me. :P I did pretty well on the first one, but screwed up when I got to the date. I wrote '200' when I was trying to write '2011'... Fail. So I started again and then I got someone's attention and... well, everyone was watching when I made the same mistake again. :P Mina was writing her's... And then she made the same mistake. :P

The first one I did was written better. -__- ...And it looks like I wrote the wrong day, too. :(

These are works of the master...

Not all were his, but some by another really famous guy (older).

It's hard to judge (for me) what is good vs bad, but the technique displayed here is supposedly unrivaled. Nobody can seem to come close to this level.

If you want to learn Chinese, you have to memorize these 1000 characters. Pastor Park had to learn all of them when he was five. :P

Accomplishments.

As a gift, the master wrote each of our Korean names and the date. Here's mine...

Also, a better look at my fail. :P

That's a portrait of the master... I think most of these works are his.

The 1000 characters again.

 Walking around Jeonju city... We're going to eat dinner, then go to the Wednesday evening church service.

Dinnnnnar... Kalbi! It was really tasty.........

Different deacons of the church came to eat with us.

Here's the church!

HOPE ppl, does that pulpit look familiar? :P That's the pastor.

...And Pastor Park giving his bit about KAMC and us.

David giving his testimony right after.

...And the watermelon reception for us afterwards.

Yogurts, kiwis and melons, plus Korean-style corn and sticky rice... Tasty, tasty...

By now, though, we were all really pooped. We did the usual - introduced ourselves and thanked everyone for their hospitality and warm welcomes. We were kinda spaced out, and all the conversation was in Korean... So, we just stayed to ourselves. Later, our host families came by and picked us up, and we all just promptly went to bed... It was another crazy-long day, but it was good. Definitely learned a lot...