October 10,

Awoke and Jeff tried to book those Taiwanese train tickets but they sold out in a matter of seconds!! He will keep his eye on them for any spots opening up (fingers crossed emoji) but we have bus tickets for a back up. Anyway, we had our Javas and shared our last bowl of muesli with yogurt. We went to the closest 7-Eleven for some much needed skin lotion. We are both having dry skin – less humility, probably. Then we set out, back to the Hanok Village of Jeonju.

We arrived in time for an eleven o’clock tour, right outside the Shine, a part of a UNESCO site. But the tour we want is the Hanok Village Alley Tour. Our guide met us – a total of five people: one German man, an Indian couple, and Jeff & I, American. Our guide introduced herself then as Korean, born here in Jeonju. We walked, going down the little streets and “alleys” of Jeonju, right by an elementary school and she told us she went to that elementary school. It is right inside the village here! During the Japanese occupation 1910-1945 the building was built for Japanese schooling only and converted as a Korean school.

She took us to the Jeonju Fan Cultural Museum. She explained the differences of Royalty fans , with up to 50 Bamboo ribs, and the commoner, not having a foldable fan. She explained different ways fans were and are used – a display in Korean listed at least 8 ways: a fan, an umbrella, a sun parasol, to hide oneself… ect. A video demonstration of how a fan is made by a master craftsman. Amazing! They are made with bamboo and Korean paper with polyester.

Next we went to a Ginkgo tree that is over 600 years old. There is a young spout growing right next to it. It’s 15 years old – our guide called it her baby. The government actually did DNA and it is from the old tree! According to the placard the tree symbolizes Jeonju’u position as a center of Confucianism. Our guide also said the Ginkgo tree turns yellow in the fall. It is still very green, but that would be cool to see the color change.

We then walked down “cat alley,” with many cat paintings and figurines of cats. We then came by a house advertising it as “The House of Four Doctoral Degrees.” One family has inhabited it since 1965 and the three sons and one son-in-law hold PHD’s from Korea, France, and USA. The home was a guesthouse for five years previously, the placard also read. It was fun to read the pride. Then we came up to a Hanok with a courtyard… it seemed to just be a hang out spot and for pictures.

Our guide then led us into the Jeonju Traditional Wine Museum. It went through the brewing tradition Korea has with “gayangju,” or home-brewed liquor. We just buzzed through and went on. Next was a Traditional Paper-making Museum. There was a guy working, but he seemed to be fiddling with machinery and not making paper. Then the tour pretty much ended. Our guide had showed us – told us of a couple of free music shows happening later.

We now went in search of food. After a couple of failures… one was not what we thought, and the other had a very long line; we went to Pungnammun Bibimbap. It was a local place recommended by a YouTuber. A mom and pop place, with the pop, taking us under his wing and showing us what to do. We have had this dish before, but it is fun to see them be excited to help out foreigners! I had the Jeonju Bibimbap, a Korean rice dish with assorted veggies. and Jeff had Dolsot-bibimbap, which is the same as mine but it is served in a sizzling hot stone bowl called a dolsot. We were given 8 side dishes and a beansprout soup. I had a coke and Jeff had a Sprite. It cost us 24,000 KRW or $16.79. Again too much food, but AMAZING!!!

At 1400, we went to the first, free concert. There were 22 people, counting us. The performance was with a solo “flute” – called a Sanjo Daegum – accompanied by a music track. People came and went. It lasted 30 minutes and she was good. The sound from the instrument seemed to be more of a “resonated” flute. We enjoyed it, enough that we went on to a 1500 free concert. It was a singing one. It was not very far and we arrived at 1435. We sat close as we were some of the first ones to come. The performers came out and bowed. We watched the first set, a lady. She was doing… like a talking/singing stanza accompanied by a percussionist/drummer. The audience surprised Jeff and I. They became involved and shouted out one to two words every so often. It was kind of bizarre, but entertaining in a way – it reminded us of like – melodramas. We stayed through the second set, but left after this. If you don’t understand the language…

We decided to walk back to our place. We did stop at a store to get more Muesli and yogurt for the next couple of breakfasts. We also found the regional rice wine of Korea at this store. It is called Makgeolli. We have been wanting to try it. So back at our place we settled in and had snack supper with the Korean Rice Wine… glad we tried it but don’t need to go out our way to have it again. Another good day in Jeonju!