Halloween in Seoul

Today was not much of a Halloween celebration in the traditional American sense. It was just another touristy day for us here. As we were walking around, I did see glimpses of Halloween paraphernalia here and there, mostly on American companies, such as Baskin Robbins.

Here is what we did and saw today:
First, we went to the Electronics Market at Yongsan. This was a huge store, 9 floors worth, of cameras, iPods, GPS's, cell phones, computers, etc. C was in heaven, though he didn't buy anything. Then we headed to the South Gate (Namdaemun) Market. Bought a hanbok for J that should fit him when he is slightly older. Also, bought a few other traditional Korean goodies for our house, and gifts.

Our next stop was the ChongDong theater. On the way there, we happened to walk by one of the palaces right as they were doing the changing of the guard ceremony. We stopped to watch a bit of the ceremony.

At the Chong Dong Theater, Mom and I did a drum lesson on a traditional drum. We learned the three basic beats and then two sequences. It was hard! The instuctor demonstrated how fast he could actually drum and after experiencing the technique ourselves, we can appreciate it all that much more.

The show at the theater was traditional drumming and dancing. We were not allowed to take pictures during the actual show though. This one is of the cast afterwards, when they all went out to the courtyard for one more dance and the photo ops. I would highly recommend the show to anyone traveling to Seoul. It was very entertaining.
Our last stop of the day was the three universities district. We walked around for a bit, but decided not to try any of the restaurants. It was quite crowded, especially because it was Friday night. Now it is off to bed again. We plan to take a tour to the DMZ tomorrow.