Namsan in the morning...

We welcomed April Fools' Day with a glorious sunrise over Namsan (South Mountain) in Seoul. The air was cool and crisp with the sun warming us nicely. We started our adventure through the village of Huam Dong--our usual walk through the narrow street markets. Our favorite kimbap vendor was closed (vacation, we hope?). The produce for sale had changed quite a bit since our last visit in Oct & Nov. Instead of persimmons and fall crop items, there were now strawberries (greenhouse grown) and many imported items such as bananas and grapes. One toy store displayed brightly colored goldfish for sale in clear 'icee' cups.

Green Tea Popsicles, Baduk & Barefoot Park

We wandered up our usual path toward Seoul Tower. We stopped for Green Tea popsicles--as for some reason our favorite vendor didn't have our favorite melon and shooting star popsicles we grew so fond of during previous visits. We continued up several staircases to the first playground. The children negotiated the various 'toys' while I studied the village elders playing badok and Chinese chess? Baduk I'm beginning to understand but the chess game just doesn't seem to make any sense to me. I'll have to study it as in depth as I studied badok during our last visit to Korea. After awhile, we continued to climb the mountain and took a break at the barefoot park. The kids sprinted to negotiate the 'barefoot trail' while I took it in slowly. It always takes a bit of getting used to negotiating the various 'textures' of marble, river stones, quartz, jade, wooden beams, and other unique surfaces that are designed to be walked over with bare feet. It seems to embody the perfect blend of soothing comfort and masochistic pain for bare feet (especially western feet that seem to spend most of their days covered by shoes and socks). The barefoot park certainly succeeded in awakening this westerner's senses.

Hey, while we're in this area--we decided to check up on our Chrysanthemum 국화 Letterbox. Curious to see if any 'wayward' letterboxers had yet stumbled upon it. Flipping through the pages of the logbook, we see that it remains undiscovered. One day, perhaps...