The National Folk Museum of Korea 국립민속박물관

The National Folk Museum of Korea is a free museum located next to Gyeongbokgung Palace. The museum depicts the daily life and culture of Korea. There are a number of outdoor areas as well as various indoor exhibits for both children and adults to enjoy.

http://www.nfm.go.kr/language/english/main.jsp

This is a 1/400th scaled down model of the center of Gyeongju, the capital city of the Silla dynasty. What is interesting to note that Gyeongju was a planned city and in the ninth century there were more that 150,000 houses and 35 wealthy homes.

a kitchen

identification tags

various farming tools

coins from the Joseon period

 

the various components and tools used to make a man's traditional hat

top two are coarse combs from the 20th century,
middle is inlaid with ox-horn from the 19th century,
and bottom three are fine-toothed bamboo combs
from the 20th century

explains what is in the jars

cholent anyone???

http://www.nfm.go.kr/language/english/main.jsp

Deoksugung Palace 덕수궁

The Deoksugung is a newer palace located right by the City Hall subway station entrance #2. Besides for the traditional Korean style building there are a couple of western style buildings, one of which houses an art museum. In the summer there are concerts held weekly. I will be posting more pictures and video in future posts.
http://www.deoksugung.go.kr/eng/

Entrance to the palace

the netting is to prevent birds from ruining the decor
(and in some places spokes are placed instead)

A Rainy Day Around MMCA

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art is located across the road from the National Folk Museum (and another entrance from Samcheong-dong area). It is free for students, so I stopped in after the National Folk Museum. I was glad it was free since the museum was a disappointment. Most of the galleries were closed (I assumed for renovations) so there was really not much to see. There are also films shown, however, by the time I came the last one was already being shown. Perhaps they would have made up for the rest of the museum or future galleries will be more interesting and actually open for viewing.

Here are some pictures I took outside while it was raining lightly.

facing Samcheong-dong area looking at a traditional building but do not remember exactly what it is

These are giant balloons in varying sizes creating the feeling of being amongst the clouds.

This is a life-size house made out of sheer cloth-like material with a Korean traditional style home floating inside.

The day ended with a beautiful rainbow and a stunning view from my room!