We discovered a park right next to the traditional market by our apartment. It used to be a naval fortress in the 1600’s and has several interesting sites within it.

We packed a lunch and had a picnic before work. The cherry blossoms are in the start of their bloom here – not quite full peak

The gate of a house in our neighborhood

안용복

Dokdo 독도 – a major point of contention between Japan and Korea. It’s a group of small islets in the Sea of Japan (known as East sea in Korea). Rich fishing grounds and potential natural gas reserves means whichever country successfully claims these as their territory also gain the right to access these resources.

The statue above was erected to honor a 17th century Korean who successfully argued to the Japanese government that Dokdo was a part of Korea.

 

Cherry blossoms are also starting to appear on the trees in front of my school

 

We also took a short hike up Geumnyeonsan 금련산 (-san means ‘mountain’ in Korean) which is one subway stop away from Suyeong. There’s an observatory to view the stars and also great views out to Gwangali beach and the bridge. We brought some makgeolli 막걸리 (cloudy rice wine) to sip while the sun went down and neon turned on

The observatory for star gazing