#osullocteamuseum

Day 15 in South Korea

◦ Spirited Bonsai Garden

◦ Osulloc Tea Museum and Innisfree Jejuhouse

◦ Mt. Songaksan

◦ Black Pork Korean Barbeque

August 28th, 2017

Today, we went to visit Spirited Garden, a garden of Bonsai (Bunjae in Korean) trees. It was a beautiful sight as various types of bonsai trees rested all along the paths. Some were very young, still small and potted. Others have grown to be very big, such as the tree I am standing under above. It takes many decades for these trees to grow to such lengths. There was even a waterfall at the very end of the path with a small creek flowing from it filled with koi fish. We also had buffet lunch that was very good as well. The garden was a nice experience, something of the type that you wouldn’t find in the US. We have gardens, but not something so focused such as bonsai. 

We also went to visit the Osulloc Tea Museum and Innisfree Jejuhouse. These are Korean brands who grow most of their ingredients locally, with no need to import. The tea museum was pretty short and ended with a cafe at the end in which it sold the name brand teas. I bought a small box as I felt I should at least bring something back from it, and it smelled pretty nice anyways. I also bought a few things at the Innisfree Jejuhouse. The best part of this was witnessing the fields of green tea plants both companies used to make their products. It went on and on. It’s nice to think about that such a huge beauty company uses locally grown products. It’s hard to think of a big makeup brand in the US that does the same. Perhaps this is something we can learn from. 

We also went to visit Mt. Songaksan! The heat was sweltering so it was hard to go climbing up the mountain at first, but we relented and went up. The view was incredible. Now that I think about it, I’ve never been on an island before, let alone a tropical island. So this was definitely one of the highlights of the day, to see the vast waters below and the coast of the rest of the island. Looking at this, it seems like Jeju is the Hawaii of Korea. I can definitely see the similarities here. It just makes me wish to visit Hawaii more now.