I got out early, got a work out in, and then decided to run over to the National Museum of Korea. I decided I'd take the subway as cabs are so expensive so I walked done past this street of butcher shops...



Stopping for lunch at a little hole in the wall that did soups and had the special: a peppery beef soup with marrow bones, kimchi, and some long green pepper.



And then found the Doksan subway station. Subway is a bit of misnomers as the trains run mostly above ground. I took it down to the National Museum of Korea with only one messed up connection. (I ended up heading the wrong way.)  The grounds are lovely and many older structures have been moved here.  The pedestrian entrance requires walking this gravel path thru some woods and when you come out, you see the pagoda and the reflecting pool in front of the museum.



Look carefully and you can see Seoul tower under the arch. From here, I walked around the outside. A seven tier pagoda is the first of a collection of stone structures and carvings on the grounds.  This one held a collection of Buddhist scriptures in it reputedly written in silver on blue cloth.



As you walk thru the park, you come on the Dragon falls, a water fall in a lovely sitting area. A group of Korean ladies asked me to take a snapshot of them and returned the favor.

 



After this, you reach the bell pagoda. The large thing inside is a temple bell.



It finally got sunny and no one was around so I ran thru the three main Shingyichuan forms. Photo of white cat climbs down taken by the timer...



Finally I headed inside the permanent gallery where I spend the next couple hours looking at stuff from the neolithic and bronze ages. I ran out of time before I could get into the iron and 3 Kingdom periods.  Below is a bronze dagger cast is stone and some of the molds used.





Early pots which oddly have round or pointed bases



and on the way out, a image used as a grave guardian.



I took the subway back, a bit trickier as the lines fork going outward and stopped at a dressier Korean place for dinner. I had a sampling menu that was very small portions of lots of things: watery kimchi, salad, pumpkin soup, beef and sweet potato noodle salad, cand cucubmer salad, grilled fish with five types of kimchi, bulgogi, a meat ball, sesame rice, a soup made with crispy rice left in the pot, and Korean tea. For dessert, they was a black bean filled sticky rice cake, a frozen persimmon, and plum tea. Way too much food even at tasting menu sized portions.  (Sorry, Ben, I forgot the camera)