Each morning we get a wake up call at 6am and when we managed to drag our bodies from bed we find a couple of things each morning. First, a beautiful view (for the most part). This one is from Hotel O Dae San:

Photo by Jenn

The second thing we find each morning are the Italians.

Photo by Jenn

Marco is the Instructor at the first school in Italy. I met him at last year's Black Sash conference where he and Kim Bok (a guy from Denmark) tested. He has his students out every morning and every evening for training. At times during the days touring he'll even grab some of his students for training. Marco is awesome. :)

We visited another temple that was covered with a symbol I hadn't seen before (look on the ground):

Photo by Jenn

The 3 colors represent Heaven, Earth and Humans. It's called Tae Guk which is the same as Tai Chi and means roughly Universal Energy. The temple we visisted was ok, but I find myself to be more interesting:

Photo by Jenn

So, the 99 Kan House. A Kan is the term for a 6' x 6' room (or area). The richer you are, the bigger house you can build. However, the number 100 signifies Buddha so 99 Kan is the most that humans are allowed to build otherwise they are being insulting to Buddha (Jenn's already really excited at this tidbit and has plans for it in her novel).

Photo by Jenn

The house is almost a study of gender inequality. There is a separate entrance for men and for women. The men's entrance is an elevated high arched door and the women's entrance is ground level and just big enough for them to get through. The house itself is broken into 3 sections, one for the man and his servants, one for the woman and her servants and then one for the oldest son and his family.

Photo by Jenn

Photo by Jenn

This house had more of the scary sticks!

Photo by Jenn

As we were walking out of the house, Jenn was taking my picture next to the big field of lily pads and DJN came along and told me that I should have Jenn in the picture with me, so he took the camera and took this picture of us.

Photo by Do Joo Nim

One last site for the day. A training site that 4 youths during the Silla dynasty would travel to and train at. It is this wooded area right on the beach where a 2 story structure has been rebuilt (because it was destroyed when the Japanese invaded). It's this combination of beauty and sadness, because the beach is closed off with a huge fence with barbed wire. The reason is because the site is only 10-20 miles from the DMZ between North and South Korea and it was fairly common for North Korean soldiers to try to invade from the ocean before the fence was setup.

Photo by Jenn

This is the 2 story structure I mentioned, and here's a cute picture of Nathan and Beth!

Photo by Jenn

After a long day of site seeing and bus riding, we grab some dinner (more beef and Soju) and head to the hotel.

Photo by Jenn