Blog-abration #4: Yeoju, South Korea: A Photo Tour of Our Korean Hometown

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do
October 4th 2009

Published: October 5th 2009

Before coming to Korea, we couldn’t find any information on the designated town we were to call home for the next year. Literally, the only two solid bits of information, if you can call them that, in which we knew for sure was that Yeoju is the home for some kind of world ceramic festival and there is a premium outlet shopping mall in town. You could say we were going in pretty blind, but in th... Read Full Entry

Photos are below

Photos: 49, Displayed: 21

Comment Follow (1) Message

Jon Wick

joncasssouthkorea

"Leave. Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn’t it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don’t worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed." -Donald Miller *Please feel free to subscribe to this blog- super easy, just click the blue butto... full info

Blog Options

Top Photos Blog Map

Print Version

[blog=441867]

[blogger=91049]

Oh, Family Mart

24 hours a day, 489 days a year, everything from dried squid to Cass beer to wine. Beautiful.

Yeongwolu Pavillion

The little hill near the river in Yeoju has this beautiful pavillion that gets lit up beautifully at night.

Older Yeoju-ans

This is one of my favorite pictures, three haraboji's (grandmothers). They are just chilling on a stoop taking in the life. Awesome

Walking Mall

Downtown Yeoju has a cool little walking/pedestrian mall all full of shops where the fifth day market is held. I can imagine this was the center of the Yeoju world before E-mart came and took all the business away. But... there is an upside. This year it has seen a cool renaissance of sorts, the lights you see were installed and a new fountain, and sculptures were put in to attract more people there. It's a cool atmosphere there any time. Plus, it's where dunkin donuts, baskin robbins, and the bing-su (tasty Korean icey dessert thing) is. yummy

Ceramics village

These are kimchi pots lining the roads to the ceramic village. Every store literally piles all their merchandise outside the shop, it's a miracle it's not all stolen.

Ceramics, ceramics, everywhere

Jsut like this bin of the most beautiful mugs you can imagine, there are hundreds of more where this came from. Dishes, cups, platters, shot glasses, anything really, and all handmade- just gorgeous!

Harvest time

Crates awaying some Gogoo ma (sweet potatoes). Notice there isn't any sort of combine or machine here, either. Everything is still done by hand, an army of ajummas (old ladies) with flower prints, weird visors, a hump in their backs, and hoes in their hands will attack each field rendering the sweet taters deliciously usless... gotta love those ajummsss

Sentinel

The bus terminal, in the center of town, isnt just the bus terminal, its also a wedding chapel, dance club, and bowling alley- where we met Reagan the first weekend for a round of bowling. good times, and many mon wons spent there getting buses!

The Big E

The Korean Wal-Mart... what more can I say. I do know that if it ever expands, we had a significant role in the funding of that.

Tomb of King Sejong

This is a real peaceful park, and tomb of the famous Korean king right outside of Yeoju. I had a nice afternoon wandering around his burial ground and the museum dedicated to everything Sejong. Apparently he was not only a king, inventor of the Hangeul language, but pretty smart in a bunch of other areas (celestial stuff, sun dials, calendars, time keepers).

Sejongs Observatory Thingy

See, I told you this guy really had his stuff together. So much that this exact thing I saw at Sejong's tomb was on the 10,000 Won Bill... the largest note in Korea until only recently!

Shilleuksa Pagoda

At the temple, this is the famous site that adorns all of the shilleuksa marketing material. It's stinking big!

Shilleuksa Temple Pavillion

This pavillion is sitting on a cliff over looking the river, almost directly across from the Yeoju Yeongwoloo Park. Incredible views of the river and Yeoju

Silleuksa Temple

Across from downtown Yeoju, it is the only riverside temple in the whole of Korea. It is a beautiful, peaceful, buddist temple and a place of respit. Really cool to have such a neat place so close to town.

Owwww... the ceramic village

This is the large statue that begins the ceramic village, at the time of this picture it wasn't as crazy and cool as it was during the ceramic festival. There were people everywhere, vendors everywhere, entertainment... fun!

The art of the barter... ish

This is a typical ceramic storefront, no front door or anything, just all of their inventory out for any ol' shmoe to come up and investigate... oh, wait, here comes one of them now...

Spring! Assah!

One thing about Korea that hit both of us upside the head was the springtime. It was as if all the plants were in cahoots together and orchestrated the most majestic bloom they could. First it was the incredible cherry blossoms brought over in the many japanese invasions, then there were these purple flowers the popped as soon as the blossoms died, then red ones, then the leaf buds popped... is was absolutely amazing. Everyday we were talking about the difference from the day before. My favorite season here, by far

Ceramic heads... not the people

This is an example of the entertainment we watched at the ceramic festival. Many traditional stuff (dancing, singing) but also a cool acapella group singing Kpop, crazy acrobats... it was a cool atmosphere for a while. Notice behind the two people, the white 'guys'- they are really just pots with eyes. A good example of wacky asian cartoons, and the faces of Yeoju ceramics. These two guys (a man and woman pot) are famous all over town.

Empress Myeongseong's birthplace

Yeoju had something like 6 empresses born in and around the area. This one in particular was assasinated in a Japanese raid in Seoul and is a bit more famous for it, her home is nicely kept up and on display near my school. I always joke, my co-teacher, Mr. Kim, apparently he is a distant descendent of Empress Myeongseong so I wave at his 'grandmother' everytime we drove by her statue

Who's there???

At Empress Meongseong's birth house, this little bugger was a cutie

Mok-A Museum

Cass friend, Eunhee, brought us here. we were on our way to a hike, which we eventually did after the museum, and we detoured here, unexpectedly. It is an awesome museum with stone and wood carvings all over the grounds. She explained a lot of the history, meanings, and origins of Buddhism. It's just one of those things you'll never forget, walking around these symbolic statues while a believer tells you all you need to know. pretty cool experience.

6th October 2009

Aaron K
non-member comment

Love the Pics
Love the pictures you guys were able to take. Looks like a comfy, and yet beautiful city. I hope I get to visit Korea soon. Thanks for the travel blog!

2nd February 2010

Dan S.
non-member comment

Well done...
Your love of the place and the people shines. I'm an old Peace Corps/Korea volunteer, married to an almost as old Peace Corps/Korea language teacher, and we intend to retire to a farm/orchard with relatives within the next few years. Looks like a real good fit!

Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 6; qc: 20; dbt: 0.0404s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb

Do not copy images or text from this page without requesting and receiving permission. All rights are reserved by the author and photographer.

Contact Jon Wick (joncasssouthkorea) - a lack of a response does not mean that you have permission to use material from this page.

Blog-abration #4: Yeoju, South Korea: A Photo Tour of Our Korean Hometown

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved