You Can’t Go Home Again...

During my previous eight weeks in Seoul, I stayed with my parents in their rented single-family house on a road filled with fancy homes that was up a hill parallel to the main street.This big store was definitely not what used to greeted us as we came down to go shopping.

I was excited when I found the first of the two sets of stairs leading up to their old street. We used to laugh that the stairs changed for each of my visits—sometimes becoming more even and sometimes becoming an utter mess.

I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I got to the top of the second set of stairs and realized that while the left side of the street looked as I recalled with a variety of walls surrounding mansions, the right side of the street was completely transformed with no houses in sight. Where once stood the large two-story house that my parents rented was now a six-story apartment building with Psalm 122:3 across the front: Wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endures forever. 

Two doors down I spotted this funky elevator used to squeeze yet a few more cars into the compact lot.

On another road parallel to the main street was the restaurant district, filled mainly with international cuisine catering to tourists, which I also didn’t recall from the past.

Mixed in was this mask display...

....and sock display.

Although Korea has become very high tech in the last 25 years, some areas of Seoul are still lagging behind.

Back to Itaewon...

After the museum, Ashlynn had to head to some castings so I wandered around Itaewon, my parent’s old neighborhood. In general my memory isn’t great, but from what I do remember, it has changed significantly including that there is now a subway station...

...some kooky store fronts...

...and some street art.

When I spotted this sign I was excited since this is where we once did much of our shopping from a maze of small shops selling mostly gray market items already tagged for exportation to America.

However, it was hard to tell if those type of shops still existed behind these painted walls...

...and doors or if they were permanently shuttered. 

Either way, I liked the paintings.

Much of the area was now filled with boutiques like you would find in any big city. 

I know I was still eating meat during my previous visits to Seoul, but hope I never had Bone Hangover Soup or Sundae Sausage.

War Memorial of Korea...

The massive military museum opened in 1994, thus when Jimmy and I visited it with Dad and Ann it was in its early days. The only thing that I remember from that visit was the lack of signs in English and that an odd announcement was made over the intercom in English that was clearly targeted to us. This Statue of Brothers depicts when a South Korean officer and his younger brother, a North Korean soldier, encounter and embrace each other on the battlefield. The statue expresses reconciliation, love and forgiveness.

We were not able to approach the building from the front due to what looked like a special military ceremony, but was actually a movie being made.

Ashlynn and I split up once inside so that we could go at our own pace through the exhibitions. I learned a lot about the Korean War.

I didn’t take many photos, but I thought this giant drum in the entrance hall was really cool...

...and so were the planes and helicopters hanging from the ceiling.

More Close Encounters...

Our timing was very fortunate as there was no rush for us to leave the raccoon room. The staff gave us food to feed this big guy.

The pigs kept checking to see if someone forgot to close the door.

This fellow kept us entertained as he walked up and down on the climbing structure...

...and nibbled on some food.

What an incredible experience!

A Shy Albino Raccoon...

This shy albino fellow stayed in his corner...

...but eventually was willing to say hi...

...and pose for some photos. While we really appreciated his beauty, we had no idea how rare he was.

One unsubstantiated website claimed: many wildlife biologists believe that there is just one albino born out of 750,000 raccoons, which means that the odds are you’ll get hit by lightning before seeing an albino raccoon. Thankfully we beat those odds.

Ashlynn couldn’t get over how he looked to have hands with fingers rather than paws.

Holding a Raccoon...

After having a hot drink, we then entered the raccoon room (there’s no admission charge if you order something). Inside were three rescued raccoons, one of which was sleeping and one was shy.

As we were the only guests, we had this raccoon all to ourselves.

He didn’t seem to mind being held.

He was very cute but surprisingly heavy, so I actually didn’t hold him for long.

An Unusual Encounter with Pigs...

After hearing about one of the other model’s experience at a raccoon café, which was overcrowded with little kids running around and harassing the animals, I did some extra research to find a different option. Although I was skeptical when we arrived at Blind Alley Raccoon Café, we soon discovered that our experience would be completely different than hers.

The first thing we did was to buy some food for the two potbelly pigs and corgi that roam freely around the café. We were very surprised when we were instructed to take turns sitting on a pad on the ground.

A blanket was then draped over our legs and we were instructed to start tossing the food onto the blanket.

It felt like a bizarre massage as the animals grabbed the food.