Korea is a homely sort of place, and to go around is to come across dozens of homely little things when you are out and about. These things bring you into your journey every time because you can recognize them as real and Korean, and to live here is to start to relate to them more and more.
In the bus station ticket office at Nopo-dong the birds are always nice-looking but sort of mean. On the bus some guy in his forties will always let off a poisonous fart that will amaze and almost choke you. At the station they'll always be selling World Cup 2002 t-shirts, even 2 years after the event. Mens toilet design ~ so that girls outside can see you pissing, whatever urinal you choose. Homely things.
Once you enter the park at Tongdosa, you feel more in tune with the look and feel of the temple surroundings. Korean "showpiece" temples such as Tongdosa aren't just by the roadside. They are set in nice, big parks in the hills, with pathways cut among the trees, streams, footbridges, statues, carved stone, and you pass by monks walking up and down. Female monks. Actually they might not be monks, but they wear those huge, baggy, monklike garments.
You are getting closer to the "it" but the journey to the temple is much better than the destination itself. People go to places like that to think, and on the way, you pass by lots of strolling, thinking people. This can only come naturally here ~ nice, pleasant surroundings prompt interesting thoughts.
The guys were out in force too, and what patriotic animals they all are, they can't hide it. In the museum I'm walking quietly, invisible to this Korean guy I catch, utterly turned off by the old relics on display, walking around hardcore BORED. (I understand, it's a museum!) Then he sees me, a foreigner, and he suddenly starts PRETENDING to be all engrossed in this old spoon in the glass case. As a moment, it said so much ~
Korean guys are completely uninterested and uninspired by their own culture, yet in the presence of foreigners, they all pretend to be all gung-ho inspired and turned on by it. You got to wonder what's with that.
