Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Seeing Seoul's Seodaemun Prison

Seodaemun Prison in Seoul was established by the Japanese in 1908 during their colonial period, occupation in Korea. Its main purpose was the imprisonment of Korean independence activists. The complex was converted to a regular prison by Korea after 1945 independence. It was finally closed in 1987 and turned into a museum park in 1992.

The complex is a group of mean looking brick buildings. Straight up Shawshank style.

Inside, the iconic double floor layout with catwalk. Wood doors for solitary cells.

End of the line. The hanging booth in the small execution building.

Gone, never forgotten. Mug shots of activists.

The exercise yards with solitary spaces for prisoners in solitary. Divide and conquer them.

Monday, 17 March 2025

A Rice Museum In Seoul

How does rice grow? Go to the Rice Museum in Seoul to find out all about it.

The place is bright and fun, definitely geared to kids and giving them an agricultural experience.

Some history, a display of old, wood tools for harvesting, processing rice. Variety is the rice of life. Different regions, styles, games, and iconic rice-based dishes.

More kids stuff, an interactive panel full of fun artwork cubes that spin. Good parent time killer.

Fantastic plastic food on display, no dish too humble to preserve forever.

A cool area of the museum is a high tech greenhouse where veggies of the future are being grown.