Heroic Sculpture At The War Memorial of Korea

Realist sculptures are great. Bigger than life, maybe on a pedestal, gesticulating at something. At the War Memorial of Korea there are a few sculptures showing Big Men doing Heroic Things. Just look at the lunging, the flexing, the hugging. Yes, they hug.

Here's the Statue of Brothers. Love in time of battle.

Quick loading a gun while getting your lunges in. Double win! Yelling or about to catch a raisinet.

Serious footwear, boots and spats.

Keeping a brother away from the chow line that's serving bad fish. Sizing up the enemy. Or watching a boring tennis match. 

Lunging for a Mardi Gras throw.

The War Memorial of Korea

Big museum, big events, big history, big equipment. There's no shortage of things to see at the War Memorial of Korea.

Plenty of room in the pool for a full sized Chamsuri class patrol boat. Just don't ask to turn it around.

Hyunmoo I missile, piercing a baby blue sky. A view inside the memorial, re-creating ground and air war.

A wall of memories. Moving.

At an exhibit's beginning, showing the communist drum beating to war. American artillery in action.

The memorial traces Korea's armed forces to the present day. Recruiting through snazzy uniforms.

Memorial sections. A dome with mosaic murals and a detail of the expansive commemorative plaques. James' father, who was from Maryland, served in Korea.

The future meeting the past, school kids touring some deadly toys.

Back To The Leeum Museum In Seoul

There was a visit to the Leeum Museum of Art way back in 2012 and a look at the fine architecture of the place. Thirteen years later and the museum still dazzles.

Funky ship airshafts, Trippy interior staircases. Who needs art when you're walking inside a giant sculpture?

Art exists and is in contrast to the modern building. The collection is mainly artifacts from old dynasties.

Fantastic porcelain and paintings of Really Powerful People.

Back outside, a lovely, bright stabile by Alexander Calder.

Life At Seodaemun Prison

Nothing like dioramas to bring one into an experience. At Seodaemun Prison, there are plenty of re-created moments that illustrate the hard reality of being imprisoned there.

Hauled in, interrogated and a demand for a forced, signed confession.

Waiting for processing. Implements of torture, no shortage of options.

Sitting in solitary.

Prison communication. "Knock twice if you want my green beans."

Life in hell, hot water torture.

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.

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.

Gyeonggyojang, Activist Kim Ku's Residence In Seoul

Kim Ku is a giant figure in the history of Korean politics, liberation and independence. He led a movement of independence against the empire of Japan and was a leader of the Korean provisional government, later becoming an activist after 1945.

After 1945, Ku lived at a house he named Gyeonggyojang. In 1949, Ku was assassinated in his home office there. The residence is now a museum.

Nice digs. The house is now surrounded by a hospital.

The interior, a mix of western, clubby style and traditional tatami mat Asian.

A diorama, showing how a bunch of stately men met way back when. "What's for lunch?"

Assassination location, Ku's table by a window. He was writing poetry when he was shot. Ku's bloody clothes.

Death mask.