Seodaemun Prison

We've had such a busy week, I haven't had any time to think about all the things we've done or look at all the pictures until today!

In the last post I mentioned that we had dinner with Kraig's roommate. Somehow, we didn't get a picture of him, we did get a picture of the food. He ordered 3 dishes for us to split: some sort of pork dish (the big plate), noodle soup (not pictured), and egg (second picture). The extras included kimchi, spicy tofu, fish-jerky, and a couple other items.
The boys ate this:


And I stuck to mostly this and my rice:


On friday, I went shopping with Yeram at the Express Bus Terminal. It houses a ginormous underground shopping center; we where there for 2 hours and only saw half of it! Well, while I was shopping, my newest niece was being birthed halfway around the world! Crazy to think about. Really, my new niece is all I can remember of friday. Maybe this picture is from friday?


On saturday we went to the Seodaemun Prison History Hall. Built in 1908, it was used to house, torture and execute political prisoners by Japan until 1945 and then by South Korea until 1987.

At the entrance. We were greeted with an English-speaking tour guide, 14 year old Jill.


Unfortunately, we didn't get to go inside the prison administration building because it was being restored. We did get to go inside the Prison buildings where they held the prisoners, the Leper's Building, and the Execution Building.

One of the cells.


Kids! Right before we met our tour guide, a mob of kids entered the prison on a tour. Luckily we passed by them early on the tour.


I'd like to point out that I was having a good hair day. No frizz!!
Also, somebody stole his cigarette.


They had 5 or 6 rooms designed to show many of the torture methods used at the prison. In here, electrocution and 2 types of beatings.


Looking up at the second level. The prison, which had 4 prisoner buildings, could hold around 500 prisoners.


More rooms of torture. If the english is right in the pamphlet, I think they did the torturing in the basement of the Administration Building, not in the cells.


Bad boy, bad! Basically a coffin in an upright position, some prisoners were made to stand in these as another form of torture.


And as you can see, before I could say that the picture came out blurry, they were rushing to get Kraig out so we could move on. Sigh, I wish Koreans would slow down.


The Leper's House. I wish I had know that before I had gone in and touched stuff. Eww. But, the tour guide said that some prisoners would make fake patches and rashes to look as if they were a leper, just to get out of their cells.


Behind the brick wall is the Execution Building. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was a small building that had a table and bench facing a chair and noose. Underneath was a basement for the doctors to check and make sure the person was dead. Also, the Japanese made a tunnel that led to the cemetery so they could sneak out all the dead bodies. Of course, they blocked it off and claimed it wasn't theirs. Also, the tour guide pointed out that the 2 trees pictured were planted in the same year, yet the one on the inside is noticeably smaller than the one on the outside. Scientists have studied the trees and have found no reason for this, other than a romantic reason that the tree on the side is mourning all the death it has seen.


We had a small audience join our tour. Our tour guide is in black.


If you don't think about what happened here, it's a beautiful campus.