Lizze and I have been wanting to spend some time at Insadong, an area with tons of galleries, so last Sunday we cleared our calendars and prepared for a day of “culture”. We got there and walked around a bit, waiting to meet up with Steve, another friend. We passed several signs for galleries, but didn’t go in. Then, one caught my eye, “Knife Gallery”. I don’t know why it stood out, but I suggested we take a look. We weren’t expecting much as we walked down the narrow stairway and I laughed a little at the sign on the door that read, “PHOTO? OK!” Then we walked inside. We ended up walking around for quite a while, taking lots of pictures, and even waiting for Steve to get there, so we could show him too. Here is some of what we saw:
After that we walked down to Toto Gallery. Now, I had read about this place before going and thought I knew what to expect, but it was way crazier than I had imagined. I only purchased one souvenir, but took a bunch of pictures. We probably circled the place at least five times, always seeing new things. It wasn’t even the items themselves that were all that interesting in many cases, but how they were arranged. Here are some examples:
Yes. Yes they do...
The original plan had been for Steve to join us for a couple hours before leaving for a soccer game, and Lizze and I would finish the day at Insadong on our own. However, he invited us to join him and his friends and we decided that, as it was FC Seoul’s first home game of the season, we would do that and save the other galleries for another day.
Our boys are in red.
And so, a day of “culture” turned into a day of knives, toys, and soccer – not too bad, I’d say.
(As always, more pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/scribbledjourneys/)
1 comment:
Wowsa. What a day. "Culture" is not always as we expect it will be. Your pictures are great.
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