Saturday at Jinju Castle

I got an email the other day from Jamie, the wife of the minister at the English church, asking if I wanted to go with a group of people to the museum for an English tour on Saturday. I figured that they don't have too many English tours, so I said yes. I was supposed to meet them at 2 pm at the museum, which is inside the "castle" grounds. First, a little background. Locals call it Jinju Castle, but tour books call it Jinju Fortress. It was a key point in the Japanese invasion in 1592 and was one of 3 major land victories for the Koreans. The Japanese regrouped and came back again in 1953 and destroyed the fortress and most of the village of Jinju. I will go back to tour it some more because there are a bunch of historical locations, pagodas etc. The lantern festival is also held here in October every year. But today I just went to the museum.

I decided to try and take a bus there. I gave myself an hour and a half, just in case. The only 2 "grounding points" I have are McDonalds and E-mart, everything else is a blur. The main entrance to the fortress is across the street from E-mart. I thought most buses that stopped in front of my house went past E-mart at some point. Apparently they don't. I don't even know what number bus I got on, but it did not pass E-mart. I ended up at a bus depot and got on another bus, hoping to just find somewhere that looked familiar. Lukcily, this bus did pass E-mart. And luckily I gave myself that extra time, because I was on the bus for about an hour. Oh well, I got a tour of the city. I found the fortress and the information center, where they gave me a map and told me how to get to the museum. Inside the fortress is very well labeled and has English directions too. I was the first person in the group to get to the museum. When I walked in, I was greeted by a guy who asked if I was part of the English tour, I said I think so and walked over to the registration table where they had my name printed on a tag and an information packet. Then the rest of the group showed up in stages.

We watched a 3D movie about the museum and about the Battle of Jinju. Their 3D was really good but it was funny every once and awhile to listen to how they had translated the English. Then we went on a short tour of the musuem. It would have been longer, but because people were late, they shortened the tour. Our guide was a 17 year old girl named Sophie. She lived in Pennsylvania for 2 years before coming back to Korea. Here are some of the things from the museum.

Bow and Arrows

Fighting Monks (I will explain more when I go to their temple another time)

Japanese Battle dress uniform

Korean battle dress uniform

Sorry this is so blurry, but I added it because it was a Korean dogtag from 1593

Bet you can't guess what these are...

Those urns hold placentas of rich or important families. Like kings etc.

This was a thank you plaque sent to the Chinese after they provided help during the invasion



Sophie the tour guide. Again, sorry about the blur, but I had to take the flash off





These guys were in just inside the entrance

 After the tour we went to a small learning annex room in the musuem. I guess they mainly do children's crafts, but they had what was labeled "women's quarters crafts" and we made little silk pillows as cell phone charms. Then they asked us questions about culture differences and things we thought were interesting/different about Korea. Lastly we filled out a questionnaire called "a letter of best wishes for Korea". Overall it was really nice and I'm glad I went. Now I will be able to have some reference points if/when I go back.

My pillow

On our way out, there was a mini parade. I think it was practice for a later event, but there were a bunch of guys in costume and playing instruments, including a conch shell. The video is a bit shaky because I was walking, but you get the idea.

Parade leader



After the tour, I went to lunch/dinner with Jamie, Brandon (the minister), 2 other girls and 1 guy from the church.One of the girls was about my age and from Texas. The other lady was older, has been in Korea for 5 years and is Canadian. The guy was born in the US, but has Korean parents, so Korean was acually his first language. He said his family lives in Lancaster, PA - where the Amish are. He lived in Jinju and taught at a public school, but is now studying Korean in Seoul. We went to a place called Kraze (pronounced more like craw-ze) Burgers. They have sandwiches, hamburgers and fries. It was nice talking to all the people and learning more about living in Jinju. I haven't decided if I'm going to church tomorrow or not, but I probably will at some point.