1 More Korea Post

I know I said that I would be writing about my awesome experience at the live cooking show Nanta in the next post, but I lied. Deal with it. The world is full of lies! You live in a prison of my lies. Speaking of prisons...

 Looks like Shawshank right? It isn't far off. There was a prison museum listed on the tourist map. I figured "prisons are fun, I should visit a museum about them."

 The prison was used to keep Korean political dissenters against the occupying Japanese. Japan occupied Korea for a long long time. 

 The first building housed the interrogation methods. this was a narrow box with a door that didn't allow you to sit or stand in it. They would stash people here and wait for them to talk. There was also a room where they would shove bamboo chutes under peoples nails and other rooms where they would just burn them and stuff. 

 A view of the grounds. It is interesting how at the exact edge of the grounds the big apartment buildings climb up. 

 Korean flag on one of the housing blocks. 

 The warden would carry a sword around to show that he was a boss. 

 This room was an isolation room. Essentially it was solitary confinement. 

 A view of the doors to solitary confinement. 

 This guy had been here so long that he was petrified and always holding the same position. 

 Spooky-ooky.

 I don't think this place is officially haunted, but I would believe it if it were. The wind had picked up and was making a bunch howling noises. 

 Evidently a few years ago they immortalized people who had been prisoners here by making statues of the bottoms of their feet. To me it is both weird and icky. I hate feet. They are nasty and should not be viewed ever. Blech. 

 I love me some Engrish. This one is my favorite. I don't really remember World War ? per se, but it seems to have made an impression on the Koreans. 

 Looking at the cell blocks from the powerhouse. 

 This thing reminded me of the laser cannon on the Death Star. I can't be entirely sure that it wasn't the laser cannon. It seems like if you were going to make a world destroying laser cannon, you would do it with slave labor. 

 What you are seeing is a tunnel that runs up to the execution house. They used this to get the bodies out without anyone seeing. Spooky-ooky.

 The last stop on the hall of prison nightmares is the standing cells. Sometimes when you don't want to keep your prisoners in a place with a roof, you can just put them in a fan-shaped outdoor prison so one guy can guard all of them. 

 Another view of the fan-prison.

Last view of the fan prison.

One awesome thing that I forgot to add in my post about going to the DMZ was the awesome waiver that they have you sign. Your souvenir for visiting the DMZ is that they let you keep the waiver. If you have ever wondered what it feels like to sign your life away, it isn't that bad. Here is the context of the letter:

"The visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail entry into a hostile area and possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action...my signature constitutes acceptance of the terms of these instructions in their behalf and confirm not to demand compensation for the damage of body and property."

Fun right?