Jinju Lantern Festival October 2011

Let's talk Jinju. Now, you may or may not remember, but Jenn and I have gone to a Lantern festival already. It was in Seoul, and it was pretty awesome. It was basically a big parade at night, down one of the main streets, and incredibly long. So what makes Jinju different? It's a lantern festival, on water! Yup, basically it consisted of a bunch of lanterns, floating in a river, in Jinju. 

It sounded pretty cool, so Jenn, me, and some of our friends headed down there for the weekend. When we got there, we were pretty much overwhelmed at the insane amount of lanterns. Not only were there lanterns in the water, there were lanterns all along the riverside, lanterns in the temple, and lanterns on the street! There were so many things to see and do. And for once, there were a variety of eats! Not to get down on Korea, but at pretty much every festival we've gone to, they offer the same kinds of food. In the beginning, it was awesome getting a corn dog with french fries. But when we saw it at every single festival? Along with 5 or 6 other main dishes? Nah. Not as awesome. But here, they had Vietnamese and Japanese food! 

Some highlights of our day:
- We made a lantern and put some of our wishes on it!

- At night, we lit them and floated them on the river.

- We saw some sweet lanterns. Disney, Comic book characters, random movies, UNICORNS (What?).

- The lantern tunnel. During the day, and during the night. Awesome!

- Our hotel! Right next to the river, and about a 5 minute walk to the main festival area. Lotte Motel. Highly recommend it!


- Made some personalized stamps! Mine said "Ati Teacher" and Jenn's said "Jennifer Teacher."


- Firework show above the water 

- And of course, the lanterns lit up at night were amazing. I don't think I could ever get tired of looking at them.


After one day and night there, we headed back home to Daegu. It was a great weekend!