Temple and the Sea at Busan

 Our tour here in Busan was a short one, visiting the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple by the ocean and then the Oryukdo Skywalk. Just as in Seoul, it was quite busy here too, partly because it was a Sunday, but also it is a holiday week. 

In Japan they have Golden Week, a holiday week where every day celebrates something different, including Constitution Day, the Emperor's Birthday, and Childrens' Day. In Korea they have 'golden weekends' that also combine celebrations. They also observe Childrens' Day on May 5 and Labour Day is May1. Buddha's birthday is also celebrated by both countries but it is a changeable holiday. This year it is near the end of May.

High towers here, too. Mostly residential according
to our guide

The Haedong Yonggungsa Temple is a Buddhist temple set by the sea, which is quite rare. But it is a fitting site, as the temple honours the Sea Goddess Buddha of Mercy.

An image of the Sea Goddess of Mercy

This is actually the Traffic Safety Prayer Pagoda -
where people can pray for safe travels
on the road

The temple is also famous for the 12 stone statues depicting the Chinese signs of the Zodiac.

I'm the Year of the Pig, so this one is mine.

The mound-like things in the distance are
Indian stupas, the predecessors of pagodas.
Buddhism originally came to Japan from
India, China and Korea.

We passed by these cute little buddhas!

It is said that rubbing Buddha's tummy will bring happiness -
but I don't think anyone could reach his!

A big part of the Buddha's birthday celebration is light, as he shows the spiritual path to enlightenment, so lanterns are strung everywhere for the month leading up to celebration day. We had already seen this in a number of places, but here at the temple they go over the top:

We could already see the lanterns as we walked
down to the temple

People will also buy gold coloured leaves, write their wishes on them and attach them to lanterns like this:

It is still a working temple, and we happened to pass by a monk praying before the reclining Buddha statue.

All of the Buddhist temples we've seen so far are ornately carved and beautifully painted. The main temple buildings often depict Buddha, who was a real person, doing various tasks or deeds as he wandered throughout Asia. He was not ever considered a god to be revered above others, but as a teacher whose teachings became the foundation of Buddhism.

This painting shows Buddha riding a horse,
possibly to escape potential captivity.

The carvings are beyond spectacular

Inside one of the side temples

Dragons are considered protectors and every temple has some on the main buildings. There is also a large sculpture of one here.

After we left the Temple by the Sea, we headed for the Oryukdo Skywalk. This is a relatively short glass floor that sticks out over the edge of an outcropping. There's another much longer skywalk farther away from the city, and that's where I thought we might be going when I researched the excursion, but it is prone to closure in windy or rainy weather. This location is, I am sure, much more dependable. We had to put 'booties' on over our shoes to walk out on the glass, and it really wasn't scary at all. Probably because the glass has a blue tinge and our reflections in the sunlight made it harder to see down into the sea. 

The view from the Skywalk

and yes, we survived!

Looking back toward the blue skywalk structure. It doesn't
look like it goes over the sea from here.

After our stop at the skywalk, we headed back to the port and the ship. As we drove, I took a couple of photos of those huge apartment complexes I talked about in the previous post. Can you imagine a developer in Canada building 7 or 8 35-storey buildings at one time???

And here is one of those residential 'hubs' for lack of a better word, closer to the port. The funny thing is that there doesn't seem to be any support infrastructure, like grocery stores, anywhere nearby. Who knows, there could be something at ground level, or even below, that we can't see. We had also noticed that parking garages look very much like apartment buildings themselves, but a bit shorter.

Apartments in Korea don't have outside balconies because it gets so humid in the summer that they would never be used. So the balconies are there, but glassed in.

Now we're headed back to Japan for the rest of the cruise.