Sunday Secrets in Lake Park

In summer, on Friday through Sunday evenings,  the park puts on a fountain show. There are colored lights and a lot of water moving in tune to Korean and Western songs. Brilliant.

Today I took a lazy Sunday stroll through Lake Park to examine a few of the obscure paths that diverge from the main running and biking paths. I happened upon a few gems.

 

A hidden lily pad garden: I <3 lily pads

Taken from an almost hidden bridge overlooking the lake and a Chinese gazebo.

Lake Park is the largest man-made lake in North Asia. Surrounding the park is a five kilometer running and biking path. The park also boasts attractions such as a sculpture park, water fall, kimchi garden, rose garden and cactus green house.

The Path of Pain

The elderly men and women walking along this stone path made it look effortless. In reality, to the untrained foot, it is near torture. The different kinds of stones are supposed to massage your pressure points. I admit, while the path was very painful to walk on, once I stepped on smooth ground again, my feet felt refreshed, or perhaps more likely, they were just glad that the pain had ceased. 

My next find was a toilet bowl museum. It covered the history of the development of toilet from ancient times until current day. It was educational.
 

 Bathroom ghosts and a pig-pen outhouse.

Interesting History of Toilets Facts:

• Ancient Rome had flushing toilets. This knowledge was lost by the Middle Ages.
• Women's fashion of wearing high heals was influenced by toilet culture. In Europe, to avoid dirtying their dresses in excrement that filled the streets, women began wearing high heals. 
• In China and Korea, they built bathrooms over pig pens. The pigs then ate the waste that fell from the toilet bowl into their pens. These bathrooms still exist on Jeju island in Korea.
• In Korea, many people believed in toilet ghosts. These were bad ghosts that haunted the toilets. Other ghosts that haunted houses were good ghosts.
• In Korea, many homes used to have a "poop dog." Before a baby was potty trained, he or she would run around naked. When he or she pooped, the mother would call the poop dog to come eat the poop and lick the baby's bottom clean.