Ssambap: 36 items plus Scissors for Dinner

Gyeongjou, a town in the south of South Korea is known for its Ssambap. Very easy to navigate the menu because there isn't any. All you need to do is show up.  My son Gordon and I were seated in a ssambap restaurant and then waited a few minutes looking around at other diners' tables filled with lots and lots of little plates, wondering whether we were supposed to choose from a list.  We must have looked puzzled because a busy waitress passing by stated assertively "Ssambap! Ssambap!", which we took to mean, "Be patient. Everything will be brought to you".  In a ssambap restaurant, the servers crowd your table with little dishes, known as banchan, or side dishes.  I counted 34, but there were more. There is also a plate of various types of leafy greens...lettuce, cabbage, and other green leaves.  The way to eat ssambap is to take a dab of the contents of any one or more of these little dishes, and roll it into the green leaf along with a clump of rice. The scissors are to cut the radishes and other unwieldy things. The scallion pancakes were particularly yummy. We ate at Guro Ssambap, which is around Cheommachon. The whole thing cost the equivalent of less than $10 US per person.

Korea's Pointed Posers, Ubiquitous Umbrellas and Well-Appointed Maintenance Women

I loved the little hand signal smiles people made when posing for pictures.

 ..and the little kids made little hand vees.

Rain or shine, umbrellas are everywhere. Nice little refuges from the relentless beating of the hot sun.
(photo at the Gyeonghoeru Pavilion of the Gyeong Bok Palace in Seoul).

 Umbrellas in the sun  (Gyeong Bok Gung Palace in Seoul)

Umbrellas in the rain

Great colors, designs, and variety in the umbrellas. (photo of the Freedom Bridge at Imjingak, near the North Korean border)

And, on the subject of looking good, this woman trash collector on a Seoul street wore a strikingly put-together lemony yellow outfit (matching trash trolley).

...and there is beauty in the weed pullers' hats and gloves. I took this photo at the Bulguksa Temole  in Gyeongju, Korea

Seoul's Jong Myo Shrine: Pathway for the Spirit (All Others Keep Off)

In the parklike grounds of Jong Myo Shrine in Seoul, Korea, stones line the center vein of the pathways. It is instinctive to walk down the center of the lane. 

However, it is NOT okay to walk on this Sillo, the passage for the spirits of the deceased.  It was amusing to watch people begin strolling down the center of the path, then look at the sign (Korean or English), say "oops" or equivalent, and then sheepishly jump off the path.  (I was one of those people).

Jong Myo Shrine - This dates to 1608. Ancestral tablets of kings and queens are behind these doors.

Doorway to a spirit chamber. The crack symbolizes the coming and going of the spirit (and allows for controlling the humidity, by the way).