World Exploration: South Korea

Day 4

On day 4, we went to Incheon's Chinatown!

I was amazed at how familiar Chinatown was. It's just like the one in San Francisco -- it's even built on a hill. All of South Korea is flat, except Chinatown with its remarkably San Franciscan geography.

We meandered through Chinatown and ended up in a national park called Jayu (Freedom) Park that sits on top of a vast hill. Jayu even had a carnival type area. There was a whackamole game, which I played, and one of those claw machines. You know the kind, usually there are stuffed animals and you manuever a claw to pick one up? Well, this machine had nudie-girl playing cards, lighters, and some kind of drug called "D.TOX." It was next to the whackamole game, and behind the little Pikachu machines you could ride. I'm not making it up, I have screenshots to prove it!

The Chinese dragon was all over the place. Some were particularly impressive displays! This is a statue of Confucius. Funny lookin' fella! It's me and Confucius! I couldn't get a pic of me and Lauren together here because mingled genders are verbotten in Confucian teaching. Girls have cooties and all that! Whackamole! Whee! On the right, in the background, you can see the yellow claw machine that has lighters and naked women innit! What? Lighters and naked women! And drugs? Man, American carnivals suck! A view of Incheon from the top of the park.

To my surprise, the rather large Incheon park also featured a war memorial. Another piece of exquisite Korean craftsmanship in a larger than life likeness of General Douglas MacArthur was on display, along with a particulary moving and powerful inscription.

A small American monument stood nearby, commemorating our lost soldiers. In fact, small bronze reliefs of American and Korean soldiers were all over the place. Very impressive work.

Just beyond the towering form of MacArthur stood another set of statues. These were South Korean citizens, students, who essentially became vigilantes when the Communist North invaded a distant South Korean town. They self-mobilized and defended their homes and friends from the Communist aggressors until the Republic of Korea forces could arrive. A monument entitled "History" stands as a testament to the humanity required to stand firm against tyrants, and to accept no dictator. A man who will surrender his freedom, for any price, deserves to be made a slave. These men were not slaves.

Also, birdies! There's an aviary and an awesome garden between the MacArthur monument and the History statues. I felt bad for all the birds in the killer heat and humidity =/

General Douglas MacArthur, highly respected in this part of the world. It would be easy to say that because of him, and the men serving under him, South Korea is a free and awesome place today. But that wouldn't be right, because a people have to deserve freedom -- they have to want it -- before they can reap its rewards. The South Koreans have paid generous interest on MacArthur's courageous investment. Lauren standing before the statue. Read it all. The US-crafted memorial. The Incheon landing. This is history. These are the proper objects of human reverence: human action, human intelligence, human might, bending their will to the defense and preservation of autonomy. Lauren took this picture. That's a fantastic rose! This bird is not photoshopped. I'm totally serious. Look, it even has tiger stripes! Fear the South Korean rainbow tiger birds!

It was in this park that we met the man who I believe said he was a soldier in the Korean war. He was very friendly and had a cute little miniature dog running around. After the park, we turned in early and called it a day.