Exercise Mountain

Hope you like mountains. That's what I've taken the most pictures of, to be sure. Featured in this post is the mountain behind my house, Seokkap San; aka Tiny Mountain; aka Exercise Mountain.

It's an odd little thing. It doesn't take much time to walk up, and a good part of it is paved. On each side of the trail you'll find a small farm plots rubbing up against tombstones and burial mounds. The mounds, at least, are hundreds of years old. Here's a little explanation: and here's what you might stumble onto if wander off the path a few feet:
So. After fifteen or twenty minutes of dodging modest spring onion plots and ancient burial mounds, one is rewarded with...periwinkle exercise equipment! And it's usually pretty jammin' with well-appointed Koreans: kids, moms, and men of a certain age and station (early retirees?; men of leisure?). I took this picture on an off day, I guess. This kind of installation is pretty typical of the hills and mountains around here, I think -- even on the big ones. A few of the expats have lamented the fact that they can't seen to truly lose themselves in the mountains around here. There may be a vending machine around the next bend in the trail.

And if Seokkap San is any indication, their disappointment is justified. Just around the corner from the exercise bikes, up a small rise and too the left, there's a food cart not unlike what one might find on any street corner, selling vitamin drinks, soup, and pressed-fish-on-sticks for any Korean soccer mom that has worked up an appetite on the beautiful blue leg press machine.