Incheon

This weekend my company sent me to a conference in Seoul dubbed a 'refresher course,' which is amusing since I was never given any training to begin with so I could hardly be refreshed on it. I ended up being hours late due to confusing the Sincheon subway stop for the Sinchon stop, both of which are on the same subway line but completely on the far side of the city from each other. I realized the growth I've had since a year or two ago I would have been exceedingly frustrated and anxious about being late even though there was nothing I could do to go faster. Instead I was calm and mildly bemused. The second presentation (i.e the one I was actually present for) was dull and highly condescending (the speaker treated us like seven year old just now learning English rather than people whose English was far superior to hers), though it did have a couple useful points. Afterward Alanna and I had dinner at an all you can eat buffet of delicious Indian food, where I ate to the point of being uncomfortably full for the first times in three years (right after I got back from Europe my stomach capacity was greatly diminished but I ate at a barbecue as if I was still a teenager. I am not quite as skinny now, but I certainly don't gorge myself as much as I once did).

We spend Sunday in Incheon, the city of 2.5 million that is Seoul's port and is really part of the greater Seoul area. It is mostly industrial and about what one would expect from a modern port city, but there is a small area that is remarkable for its diversity (by Korean standards) of influences. For starters, it has a great China town: As we finished a brunch of pork and onion dumplings larger than my fist we heard the drums of a parade:The porters were carrying whoever wanted to be at the head of the procession:Up the stairs from the statue was a friendly cat:
Above Chinatown was a hill with a nice overlook of the harbor:
Also on the hill was a monument commemorating 100 years since the amnity treaty between the United States and Korea. It was far more interesting than the usual pillar-with-statues-and-bronze-placard monuments one sees everywhere. People were playing badminton in the shadow of the monument: The park also had a statue dedicated to General Douglas MacArthur on a pedestal stamped with the UN symbol:
It was notable for the contrast between MacArthur's grandfatherly visage and the usual statues of generals in armor mounted on barbed steeds, and because I am fascinated by propaganda, such as that found on the placard below it:

... And until the last battle against the malignant infection of communism has been won may we never forget it was also he who said, "In war, there is no substitute for victory."

The park also contained oddities such as an aviary filled with birds that I think of as commonplace, but which are of course exotic half a world away, including a turkey in full display:
Incheon is most interesting for the varied influences on it. It has a Chinese district that borders upon a Japanese district. Many of the Japanese buildings (banks seemed to have survived particularly well) were designed by Europeans:
Another interesting building was much more modern: it was completely covered in bottlecaps:On the way out of town we stopped back in Chinatown for what I can't help but refer to as pot stickers, since they were delicious pork-stuffed buns that were cooked by literally sticking them to the inside of a large heated ceramic pot.

Update: this post has been supplemented with the addition of Alanna's pictures.