Today was the first day I have really felt like a foreigner that doesn't belong in this part of the world. We have always had some strange looks, whether because we are white or because we wear unusual clothes, because Molly has curly hair or simply because we are different, I don't know. But so far we have always tried to be respectful and courteous, learning polite snippets of the language, bowing when leaving sacred temples, and paying attention to the manners and customs of the locals. Most of the time, we blend in as much as two English girls can in an Asian country.
We started out the day by doing the first of three palaces in a tourist triangle along the main streets. The palace was very pretty, with similar patterns and colours to the pagoda we had seen the first day here in yuido park. I had expected there to be one main royal building, surrounded by outhouses as there was in Osaka castle back at the start of Japan. But this place seemed to be simply made up of several smaller buildings. It didn't take us long to walk around them and the accompanying garden, but this suited us fine as we planned to see the traditional village that had grown alongside the palace many centuries ago, and experience a famous food market there made by all the local people.
However, when we reached the entrance, a big sign hung over the village wall asking: 'please no tourists as tourism is ruining our village'. Several of the other tourists who had made their way to the top of the hill with us ignored the sign, striding in to the village amongst the disapproving looks of the Koreans around us, but we decided to respect this wish and turned back around. It made me really sad to be included in a group that were labeled as destroyers of their heritage, and it was the first time since we have come travelling that I have wished we didn't stand out so much. We were angry that some people in the past had ruined what could be an amazing experience for us, so we left, feeling disheartened.
Nearby, we found a tiny shopping centre and a street with little shops selling all sorts of souvenirs, jewellery boxes, ornate statues, metal chopsticks and an assortment of other nick knacks. out side here we went to the hand-full of scattered food stalls, tried some
Chalba and prepared for the long journey home.
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