Chuseok

The Jinju Lantern Festival

     The long weekend was amazing.  From Friday night to Wednesday I had a full schedule.  Thanks to my good, new friend Warren and a boat load (literally) of visitors I had a great little holiday weekend.


     Friday night started the weekend off right with good times in good company.  Saturday followed suit.  We had intended to visit a Buddhist temple on Saturday, but the folks coming into town to visit were coming in at all different times.  Chuseok is arguably the busiest holidays in Korea.  Everyone goes home to visit with family and as a result, about 3/4 of the country is on the roads at once.  That's roughly 37.5 million people out on the roads in a country that you could fit into Texas two and a half times over.  Their buses were late to say the least.  But everyone did get in before too long, and we went out to mingle.  We started with a couple drinks at the favorite spot for the local foreigners, and then headed to the 노래방 (Norebang or Song Room) which is like karaoke, but only in private rooms.  We had a blast.  The group of teachers that came in are great.

     Since we weren't able to go to the temple on Saturday, we went out on Sunday.  In spite of ourselves, we did find a temple, even though it wasn't the one we actually wanted.  It turned out better though, as the one we found was not quite as high up, and apparently there are few of us in peak hiking shape.  It was well worth it though.  The temple was amazing and the view was spectacular.

A prayer sanctuary above the temple set in a small cave.

The Buddhist Temple

     The rest of Sunday was spent kayaking.  We went out to one of the hundreds of smaller islands here in Namhae and relaxed for a while.  It was a very good Sunday.

     Monday we headed off too Jinju for the Lantern Festival.  It's a celebration of (what I gathered) the ability to trick the Japanese into thinking there were more Koreans guarding the river than there really were during on of the several invasions.  They would float empty boats down the river with lanterns in them, so it looked like people were patrolling the river.  The modern festival involves lighting lanterns with wishes written on them and a spectacular display of fireworks.  While the fireworks were top notch, the most memorable thing from the show was the real deal Gandalf fireworks.  They had several birds flying overhead that were actually fireworks... it was the coolest thing I've ever seen.

The temporary pedestrian bridge built for the festival.

Some crane art in the temple.  The crane is the city mascot.

The shore was packed with people by nightfall

A view of the river before sundown

There was all sorts of art lamps in the temple for all to see

Here is a permanent fountain/art that is just off of the shore

This cool walkway ran the length of the festival

The temple in Jinju just off of the river

     Jinju is only about an hour and a half from Namhae and it's a pretty big city.  Most of us are based in smaller areas, and some of the group don't even have a big city that close, so we took the opportunity to catch a movie.  We watched Taken 2.  It was exactly what we were looking for.  Even with subtitles, it was still nice to see a movie in the theater in English.

     On Tuesday we went out to the German Village in Namhae.  In the 70s there was a large Korean community moving back from Germany, and this little coastal village was the result.  They were hosting an Oktoberfest, and as a former Bavaria resident, it was close enough for Korea.  They had real Paulaner Weissbier and Dunkelweissbier as well as actual yodelers decked out in lederhosen and all.  There was also a strong Korean element (for obvious reasons) and I will probably mark this occasion as my first exposure to Korean Pop-Music or K-Pop.  They have a very strong music scene here and a large portion of the festivities at Oktoberfest was a smattering of musical performances.  The whole event made me miss Germany, but also feel a little more welcome here.

     Wednesday I decided to opt out of an additional day of kayaking and used the day to rest and prepare for work.  After such a long and full holiday, I think I made the right decision.  Chuseok was a major hit.  I'm not sure what I would have done without all of my great new friends.  What a nice thing to be able to do so soon after arriving in a strange new place.