Mr. Toilet House and Hwaseong Haenggung Palace

On a sunny morning in July, Eric suggested we challenge ourselves by picking a destination and seeing if we could get there using the public bus system.  Some very good friends had given me a Lonely Planet Guide to Korea, so I flipped through it and picked a destination at random.  Mr. Toilet House!
So, off we went!  It took 3 buses and 90 minutes to get there, but we made it.  It is located in a town called Suwon, east of where we live. 
Mr. Toilet House is an amazing place.  It was built by the mayor of Suwon in 2007 and became a free public museum in 2010.  The mayor, Sim Jae-duck, established the World Toilet Association, started a campaign to improve toilets, and contributed to the improvement of the Korean toilet culture movement.  His goal was to protect the human race from diseases and enhance our respect for each other through hygienic and convenient restrooms. 
The museum covers the evolution of the toilet through time, with artifacts like chamber pots, and also some very interesting sculptures in its garden, showing how people used the toilet throughout history.  It has many cartoon drawings of poop and bronze/gold piles of poop just everywhere.  The kids LOVED it.  We practiced squatting over many of the toilets.

Across the street, was a children's museum and an observatory where you really could get a good look at the Mr. Toilet House and appreciate its architecture.  It is, of course, built in the shape of a toilet.

The children's museum had many hands-on activities for the kids.  It's main goal was to teach kids about digestion and what are the signs of a healthy poop compared to a sickly poop.  And, it had a toilet slide, where you could get flushed.  Because why not?

The restrooms themselves were also entertaining. 

After leaving Mr. Toilet House, we set our sights on a new destination: the Hwaseong Haenggung Palace.  This was not planned, but we figured since we had come all this way, why not get a full day's worth of adventures in before heading back.  It took us 2 more bus rides, getting lost along the way, to arrive close enough to walk.  We could see the fortress wall from the bus, so we knew were close.

We had bulgogi for lunch at a Korean restaurant in Suwon.  Yum.  The menu was a little tricky, but thankfully there were pictures of food on the wall we could point to.

We got lost walking too, and ended up in a cute little neighborhood at the wrong end of the palace.  

Eventually, after much meandering, including this enchanting tunnel, we made it to the gates.

The palace was built in the late 18th century as a residence for King Jeongjo, for when he visited his his father's tomb.  Since he did not live there full time, it is referred to as a temporary palace.  It was also a place to retreat to during war, since it is surrounded by the Hwaseong Fortress wall.  Unfortunately, the original structures were destroyed during the Japanese colonial period.  What we saw was the result of a meticulous restoration project that started in 1996.  Many of the rooms have mannequins in traditional dress, illustrating typical scenes of how the rooms would have been used. 

 

 At the end of the day, we rode the bus the 90 minutes back home.  All in all, the trip was a great success.