Asia Trip 2023 Day 10 - Deep in Wondering Thought
Today marks the last day of our trip. It’s hard to imagine that we’ve already reached it but then again Jenn got to Tokyo five days before I did so she’s had a much longer trip. We woke up this morning with those last-day vibes, sleeping in, and soaking up every last second of the trip. We went down to Starbucks at 10 AM and got our normal hot chocolate and iced caramel macchiato. From there we grabbed a Taxi for our first stop of the day Leeum Museum of Art.
When we arrived at the museum we were told that we had to reserve tickets online and the next availability wasn’t for an hour. We reserved our tickets and did some light shopping for the next hour while we waited. We went into both COS and Theory and I wanted to buy Jenn something but for once she was the one who didn’t want anything. That killed enough time and we went back to the museum only to find that it had a very small exhibit. After twenty minutes of walking through the museum and looking at some beautiful Korean artwork and pottery, we were off.
On our way to our next stop, we stumbled on Itaewon Uyukmien a small Michelin guide recommendation that was only a few blocks from the museum. We got a small table, split a large beer (that Jenn did not enjoy), and had beef noodle soup and shrimp fried rice. It was a cheap and delicious lunch that was perfect on this warm Sunday.
From there we walked thirty minutes to The War Memorial of Korea. It’s a beautiful structure that is lined with both memorials and military equipment that you can walk around. We went inside and checked out a few of the exhibits and some truly beautiful tributes to the fallen soldiers of the Korean War. It was the perfect follow-up to yesterday's DMZ tour and put a lot of what we learned yesterday into context.
We didn’t spend a ton of time at the memorial before getting an Uber to take us to our last stop on this 90+ degree day, the National Museum of Seoul. Think of this as Seoul’s version of the Met mostly focusing though on Korean heritage and artwork but having artifacts from all over the world. Like our previous two stops today, the National Museum was stunning. The architecture of the building was absolutely beautiful and the three floors were nicely laid out and made taking in the beautiful work easy. They did a fantastic job of not overcrowding any of the exhibits and having enough variety that we both got a second wind while there. Ironically though one of the most popular rooms was the ancient Greece and Rome along with an exhibit that was on loan from the Met. We spent an hour or so here before grabbing another Uber back to our hotel.
I had enough foresight when I was making our dinner plans for this trip to make early dinner reservations for our last dinner in Seoul at Evett. It’s a one-Michelin-star restaurant that focuses primarily on Korean ingredients and dishes with some very fun and inventive techniques. It's also one of the smallest restaurants we’ve been to the entire trip housing only six tables. We were the second couple to arrive and for the next two hours, we had what was one of my favorite meals of the trip even if Jenn wasn’t as big of a fan. One of the things I appreciated about Evett was they tried from the very start to make us part of the journey. The first small bite came on a tree that we could take off, another dish, later on, was displayed next to a short Korean fairy tale. The best was when we got to go to the kitchen and see the best dish of the night made, beautiful abalone and shrimp with a sauce that Jenn helped to make. The only missed dish was the dessert which was seaweed seven ways, which as Jenn says she didn’t want seaweed one way let alone seven.
We left dinner a little before 9 PM, grabbed an Uber, and began packing for our departure tomorrow. It’s surreal to think that it was almost three weeks ago that Jenn came out to Tokyo for work and today we were eating some of the best cuisines in one of our new favorite cities. What a life we live!
