"Chuncheon" July 4th-6th

Taking the bus north from Wonju it's only a short distance to Chuncheon, a city which holds the distinction of being the most northeastern limn of the Seoul Subway System. This is no mean feat, because Chuncheon is located in Gangwon- the province which borders the East Sea. The relative ease of coming to Chuncheon is such that its reputation as a tourist location has also increased significantly. Above you can see the newly christened Chuncheon Skywalk (춘천 스카이워크), which would more accurately be called a lakewalk. It lets you get a good look at the Northern Han River, which in Chuncheon at least, is pretty huge.

...Incidentally, in these early days at least the overcast weather was fairly brutal. This is the as-yet unopened Skywalk in the aftermath of a huge storm. And here's what it was like trying to grab a bus the previous day.

When it rains in Chuncheon, the bus stop can't save you. Umbrellas can't save you. It's a nightmare. Which naturally is why I thought it was a peachy keen idea to go looking for a guest house in the middle of nowhere.

I took this picture later on in the visit, by the way, when the weather had cleared up some. In the northwest rural corner of Chuncheon, north of the Animation Museum there's not just one, but three guest houses. It's even listed on the Chuncheon tourist map as the "Guest House Village". Why? Well, as far as I can tell, because there's nothing else in the area and they wanted a gimmick. I went to the Nabiya Guest House (나비야 게스트하우스).

Because all the sensible people just cancelled their reservations and I hadn't even bothered to make one, I ended up showing up shortly before a party the owner's friends showed up for a party. It was not much different than other parties. There was pizza, beer, tteok, and boiled silkworm pupa (번데기). It tastes better than it sounds.

Ah yes, I suppose I should discuss the Animation Museum (애니메션 박물관). It's a physical representation of Chuncheon's most famous export- cartoons.

These jazzy cats are characters in the cut-out animation cartoon Cloud Bread. The premise is pretty simple. There's a cat family, the brother and sister of which do normal everyday things. But their mom makes them this magic food called Cloud Bread that lets them fly, when flying becomes necessary. Given how they're made out of paper, the plausibility of this is reasonable.

Several Cloud Bread cartoons are on loop in one of the Animation Museum's many rooms. They're pretty cute. Although the Animation Museum definitely has more interesting displays than just kid's cartoons you can find online.

The first part of the Animation Museum deals with ancient animation history- in this case, cave paintings from the Goguryeo period (before the Three Kingdoms even) that possess the illusion of being moving images thanks to flickering light. Of course, these kinds of images have been around since prehistoric times. It's just seeing them in such an obvious Korean style that's surprising.

...Of course, since these paintings were intended to be seen inside a dark cave, there's not much I can do with them in a still photographic context. These are reproductions by the way. I'm not sure whether the originals are or even if they're available for public viewing.

After that, though, the Animation Museum is mainly just reproductions of how animation used to look. There are histories of modern twentieth century animation (not invented by Koreans, obviously), and fixtures designed to imitate old shops, which would use old cartoons as advertisement. like this version of Hong Gil-dong. Be warned that the Animation Museum lacks much in the way of English explanation- if you come, you're coming mainly for the sights.

Article by William Schwartz