Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 36 - Day 4

Day 4 in Seoul was just an ugly day!  We woke up and it was raining!  We were supposed to take a walking tour of another palace, but Tom was coming down with a bit of a cold and it was raining pretty hard, so we decided not walking around for 2 hours outside was the better option.  Instead, we headed to the War Memorial of Korea and the Korean War Museum.

In this 2-story area when we went in, there was this old ship, called the Geobukseon.  It was used by Admiral Yi Sun-shin from 1592-1598 against the Japanese fleet.  It had superior armor and a deck system that enabled them to engage the enemy without exposing the crew to hostile fire.  The ship was used until the late Joseon dynasty.    You can also see the spikes on the top deck of the ship, which kept the enemy from jumping onto the deck of the ship.

Here is an old plane, which was hanging from the ceiling, that shows how bombs were dropped before they actually invented bombers!

Tom with an armoured car.

This drum was created to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the ROK Armed Forces.  The tiger pattern represents the courage of the strong Korean Armed Forces.

Tom was having a great time with all of the old planes.

And a Russian MiG-15 fighter.  It was heavily armed and extremely maneuverable, making it a good opponent for the American F-86F Sabre jets. 


This was kinda interesting ... supposedly an example of military personnel in the future.  They will be able to see, record, and shoot wearing a combined helmet equipped with a display function showing a virtual world, a video camera, headphones, and a voice-activated microphone.  

So obviously, this was meant for kids based on the fact that only 1/2 of Susan's face is visible.

We went into this interactive area where you could "play" with things.  One of the first things was a 3-D video thing where you were a pilot of a jet that went on a mission to destroy a target.  It was kinda cool ... and while some of the pictures are better than others (remember ... my camera was NOT wearing the 3D glasses), they'll give you a little idea of what it was like.

There was also a place where you got to shoot a semi-automatic machine gut at targets .. I was pretty good, so anyone thinking of breaking into my house ... beware!

This is an overall view of a bunch of the 2-story items .. a couple planes, a helicopter, and a couple parachutists.

We went to the cafeteria for lunch, as as we went, we went by the courtyard and took a bunch of pictures.  There seemed to be something going on, we assume a wedding.  But you can see that it is really nasty outside, raining quite hard.












 

 There was a scale replica of a palace with protective walls.  You could walk through it.


 
There was a nice display of weapons, including some really cool swords.

And these arrows that have explosives on the tips.  So you light the fuse and then shoot the arrow.


For dinner, we went to this area near one of the universities that was recommended in the book.  Mind you, nobody really spoke English and there was really no menu.  The book said it was 20,000 for 2 people, so we just guessed and ordered the thing that was the right price.

Now, this may be a little hard to describe.  It was a plate with chicken, vegetables, and noodles.

and it came with scissors!  We're like ... um ... oh ... what???  Thank goodness the people at the table next to us had ordered the same thing and it came at about the same time, so again, we apologize to the people seated next to us for staring, but we really had no idea what to do with the scissors!  Seems that you use the scissors to cut the chicken and noodles into edible sizes.  It doesn't look like much, but it was really good!

The restaurant itself was nice looking with cool lighting and walls.

So this we just had to take a picture of.  In all of the metro stations that we were in, as you are walking through the corridors, you sometimes come across these cabinets that have gas masks and oxygen tanks.  Are the Koreans really worried about some sort of an attack that they would need these things?