Jaybird in Korea

The Jaybird team has just returned from South Korea, where we (two of us) gave papers at a conference. We spent a couple of days in Seoul seeing the sights, and then took a highway bus to Naksan Beach in Sokcho on the northeastern coast. The conference was quite interesting--seven presentations over the course of the weekend from scholars from Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, and the U.S. (we were the only people from the States) on the topic of "Search for the Lost Buddhist Paintings of the Goryeo Dynasty: Arts, Healing, and Spirituality." The conference was co-sponsored by Sogang University and the Goryeo Buddhist Painting Institute, and even had some UNESCO support. Part of the conference was a tour of the Buddhist nun Heydam's painting institute and studio. Heydam is an interesting person and artist, and she and her staff graciously hosted us during the conference. We stayed at a beautifully located hotel (best ocean view I've ever had), ate remarkable food (a lot of really good vegetarian bebimbop), had interesting conversations with a genuinely diverse group of philosophers, religious studies scholars, and artists, and J got fawned over and carried around by adults from all over Asia. Our presentations were well-received, and we learned a lot about Korean culture, history, and religious traditions. The conference was in English (and translated to Korean), though we were the only native English speakers in attendance. Though international travel isn't easy with a 9-month old (who happened to be sick during the trip), we're glad to have had the opportunity to visit Korea and hope to return.

In Seoul, our friend and host (a Sogang professor) took us to visit the main headquarters of Buddhism, where he walked us through the main hall during morning prayers. We also got to see some parts of the temple we wouldn't have wandered into, such as the cafeteria. Korean temples offer free lunch to anyone who asks (usually vegetarian noodles or bebimbop), and the "church ladies" there invited us to eat and offered a quiet room for feeding the baby. This is much different than visiting a Japanese temple, which has a more museum-like atmosphere. We found out during lunch that our host loves babies, and this was the first meal of many where both S and I were able to eat lunch without little fingers trying to grab at chopsticks and bowls.

We also visited a Catholic mission community house and had lunch again (two big lunches in one day!). Christianity is fairly well established in Korea, and it was interesting to visit both a temple and a Catholic house with our host who is a scholar of religions and is himself Protestant. We learned a lot about Korean religions and hope to continue exploring differences between Japan and Korea regarding spirituality.

In Seoul, we also visted the Namdaemun Market and the site of the former large gate which was recently burned down by a fanatic. It's being rebuilt in it's former location, right in the middle of a giant intersection. The market was quite interesting, and jam-packed with people.

The Korean coast is also interesting. Naksan Beach is the best of both kinds of coastline that I love--sandy beach and rocky shoreline. Though we were quite busy at the conference, we had a little time to walk on the beach and a walkway next to the rocky part of the coastline (it looked much like the Maine coast around Acadia), and toured a temple built right next to the ocean. Of course, the beach in Sokcho has some things the New England coast doesn't--barbed wire and spotlights to keep out North Korean spies.

The artwork of the Goryeo Institute (the nun Heydam's work) added substantial cultural flavor to our trip and to the conference. This distinctly Korean style of Buddhist painting was mostly lost after Japanese colonization, and has been recovered largely through the work of this famous artist. She was also a lively and generous person who enjoyed holding the baby and called him "Little Buddha" (and secretly put a bunch of money in his pocket when we left).

On that note, Koreans LOVE babies, even more than Japanese people do (we didn't think that was possible). The staff, both women and men, of the Goryeo Painting institute (as well as the other conference goers) were constantly taking the baby from us and walking him around, playing on the floor with him, and otherwise entertaining him. This was great, though he had a stomach illness for much of the trip and I suspect he was occasionally fed things that made it a little worse (he's much better now). This was an interesting cultural difference. For example, at times at the conference, we'd be eating and someone would offer to take the baby. We'd later find him on a different floor of the hotel, in the conference room, or even in another hotel room. This stretched our comfort level a little, which is probably a good thing, and gave J a chance to interact with a lot of different people (and hear several languages), which I think he really enjoyed. Even a jeepload of Korean army guys on the street and an otherwise grim looking customs agent at the airport waved and fawned over the baby. We'll miss the attention paid to the happiness of babies in Korea and here in Japan when we return to the States.

We enjoyed the trip, but are happy to be back home in Kyoto, where suddenly it seems like we understand how things work (and how to communicate) much better than we thought after being in a country where we understood so little.

Our next Jaybird post will likely be from or about Tokyo, where we head in a couple of days.

Here are some pictures of Seoul and Naksan Beach, and of little J enjoying the train ride to the airport.