I’m really missing Korea these days. I’ve heard several times from one of my friends there, and almost went over to speak at a conference, but that fell through.
All of that just makes me want to go there for a visit even more.
I lived in Korea for 6 years (already 10 in Japan now, wow!) but it seems like yesterday and like it was a lot longer. It was a very big part of my life, and well, still is.
One of the things that always impressed me was that old stuff was really old.
In the US, old was 50 years, maybe 100. In Korea that’s still infancy.
It was really amazing (not using that word lightly here) to walk into a temple or garden that had stood, virtually the same, for 100’s of years.
One of my favorites is Bulguk Temple – 불국사 – located in Kyoungju (often called BulgukSa Temple, but the “Sa” means “Temple” so is redundant).
Actually the name means Land (country) of Buddha Temple and began construction in 751. You can ‘feel’ that when you enter the gates. It’s been restored a number of times, but still has essentially the same structure as it had when originally built. Pretty impressive.
Here’s a photo I took of it the last time I visited:
