Nanta is an awesome musical theater performance. We did this my last week in Korea. I actually don't have any pictures as cameras are not allowed, but you can see some pictures in this section of the website. It is mostly non verbal, so just about anyone can enjoy the show. There were many foreigners as well as children in the audience for our showing.
There are several Nanta theaters around Seoul. The performance will vary slightly between them, but all have the same story line: four cooks have very little time to complete a wedding feast. There is a lot of comedic elements, and really good music based on traditional Korean music. All the instruments are household goods, such as pots and pans, knives on cutting boards and containers. There are also audience participation parts, but since we were sitting in the middle, we weren't selected. :-( One of the other English teachers at Trav's school has gone to see Nanta performances several times she likes it so much! Here is a video clip of the show in action:
5. Hanok Village and Namsan
The Hanok Village was basically an open-air museum with traditional Korean buildings and houses. I was unfortunate to go on a Tuesday, the day during the week the village is closed, but I still had a great time. There was an Ice Carving Festival going on, so I saw some amazing ice sculptures. There is also a time capsule that was buried in 1994 to celebrate Seoul's 600th anniversary as the capital city. The buildings and scenery was lovely, and the village was situated at the base of Naman, the mountain in the middle of Seoul.
Though wandering around the grounds was great fun, the highlight for me was having the opportunity to wear hanbok, or traditional Korean dress. This was especially lucky considering I had tried to wear kimono in Japan, but didn't because it was just too expensive. It was only $15 to try on hanbok, and I got a souvenir photo! Since the park was slow because the village was closed, the girls working spent lots of time taking pictures of me all around the grounds. Korean visitors even stopped to take photos of me. It is not everyday that you see an American girl wearing Hanbok!
One of the many beautiful buildings in the Hanok Village
A view of Namsan and the N Seoul Tower from the village
A hanok house made from ice!
Ice pagoda
Me with my hanbok helpers!
This Korean family was so excited to see me in hanbok they wanted to take a photo with me! It was really neat how excited everyone was to see me in hanbok.
This was the traditional winter dress. Note my fabulous fur vest and hat! The dress is two pieces: the long skirt with an empire bodice and the long-sleeved jacket over the top.
The time capsule!
These other visitors were modelling the unique back carriers invented by ancient Koreans. I believe they are still in use today. In the photos of the War Memorial I posted before, you may be able to see one of the figures around the tree wearing one of these.
After the village, I took a bus to the top of Namsan. There is a shuttle bus that brings you up for free, then charges for the ride down. (You use the same T-Money card for all public transport in Seoul, even taxis, so it is very easy to pay and get around. You never have to worry about change!) It was maybe 800 won for the ride down, which is only about $0.70. All transport was incredibly reasonably priced. There is also a cable car that goes up the mountain, but I couldn't find that.
Besides the view, there are two main attractions on the top of Namsan: The love lock lookout area and the N Seoul Tower. The love locks are really a cute idea: a couple brings a lock to the lookout point, locks it and then throws away the key, indicating your love will never be broken. There were also some benches that tilted in toward the middle to force the people sitting on it together. It was a very romantic spot, with thousands of locks overlooking the city. I would have really like to have gone with Travis to leave our lock, but sadly neither of us knew about it before my trip. Next time!
The N Seoul Tower is just a large tower on the top of the mountain overlooking the city. I did not pay to go all the way to the top, but I am sure the view would have been spectacular!
A view of Seoul from the top of Namsan
N Seoul Tower
Me, overlooking the city
There were so many locks! This was just one section.
A close up of some locks.
A festive tree sculpture made from still more love locks.
4. Claw Games
Unsurprisingly, arcades and video games are popular in Korea. When I think of an arcade at home, I think of a Chucky Cheese style place with machines giving out tickets for prizes. In Korea, the arcades are much more hardcore. There is an arcade right below Travis's apartment building, and the games were pretty impressive. We played one 3D zombie game that was super scary. You sat inside it and it was dark and very loud. It even tracked your heart rate, which of course spiked when the zombies popped out! There were many other neat games like that, but my favorite type, by far, were the claw games.
The claw games are similar to what you would see at home, but they are everywhere! They will even be in the street, not just in arcades. They vary in difficulty, and with prizes. Some will be very difficult and have special collectors items for prizes instead of stuffed animals. There were also many varieties. Some were normal, others had only one half of the claw and still others didn't even have claws. For some of those, you had to do things like line up scissors with a string and cut a prize loose. They all were the same concept, though.
My favorite claw game was one very near Travis's apartment. It had adorable little sushi stuffed animals inside! Travis had won me one ages ago, but I knew I had to try it when I get there as well. Luckily we were successful. More than once!
Here are my spoils, from the bottom: Nigiri (type of sushi), Sake (salmon) and Chibi Tako (little octopus). I gave them all Japanese names. Sake and Chibi Tako have come to live with me in Edinburgh while Nigiri keeps Travis company.
After winning Chibi Tako. Travis won him on two tries, and the Korean girls at the next game were extremely jealous and upset. There was also another couple there, so Travis had quite the audience for his victory. For this machine, you had to knock the prize from the shelf on to a ramp.
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