Nami Island, a.k.a. The Naminara Republic

The girls on the Busan Fireworks Festival trip all decided to go on another tour with Eagle Tour to Nami Island, an island within a river up north, directly east of Seoul. Nami, a.k.a. The Naminara Republic (as a tourist thing, this island has "declared independence" from Korea, making it more cool, or something), is a tourist attraction which is very popular because a Japanese drama was filmed there. It was very beautiful, but the day was exceptionally cold, so I mostly looked for photographic opportunities, and warmth. I took entirely too many photos, which, even pared down, are extensive. But here they are. Perhaps sometime I will go up again when it isn't freezing. Enjoy.



The trip up north took over 4 hours. We left Daegu really early in the morning though, so most people were able to sleep on the bus. Most, but sadly, not I. Here's some of what I saw.








Getting onto the ferry to cross the river and enter Nami Island.


Schematics for the ferry. Too funny.




A fountain welcoming new tourists at the pier.




We saw sculptures of all shapes and sizes. This one is because of the Japanese drama. I guess the lovers looked like this.


I'm not sure if this guy had a purpose on not.


The title of this one is "Little Boys Peeing". So odd.


If you can balance a rock on the piles already established on the branches, you will have good luck.


I think these are supposed to be monks.


We went through the music museum, which seemed a bit out of place on Nami without having any explanation given to us in English. Like why these masks were present, for instance.


He's sad.


He's neutral. Or droll. You never know.


The bathrooms were fun.




They had framed photos for sale (which was also a bit out of place) which were cool, but very expensive.


They also had an international children's book display. These were my favorites.

Scary monkeys...




Vegetable people...




And the title of this one is heartbreaking. "And you, Mommy, do you like me?"


And there was plenty more scary to go around...


And this is just pointless brutality of a wooden bunny. I mean, come on, what did he do to anybody?


And just to round out the misplaced goodness, there was an Ecuadorean Incan band playing. They were great, but odd to hear that in Korea.


Love and couple-y coziness is really big here.


We found a good place indoors for a group photo.


And a good place outdoors, too. This is a giant Nami coin, with Nic inside.


We also saw lots of animals. I thought it was odd, though, that the dogs were caged...


...and the ostrichs were not.






The grounds really were quite lovely. This view from above was taken by Nic and Elias from the Sky Bike.






This walkway between the trees was a focal point of the movie, and therefore, lovers like to stroll the area. I guess it's romantic. When it's warmer.










I'm not sure what these huts were all about, but I thought they were kinda cool.






A temple on Nami.


A display of stuffed ostriches, apparently very important on Nami.


Korean totems.


Meghan trying on an...African...mask...on sale in the gift shop. I don't know why it was there. they had many African-esque things for sale.


More gift shop stuff I thought was fun.




These standing ostriches are pens. The single foot comes off for writing. They came in every possible color combination and holiday theme. I got three pink ones for my friend's girls, a Santa one for a gift, and a reindeer one for me.


Welsome to Nami Island!