Wednesday, August 17, we got up and had breakfast. It was a beautiful day.
After breakfast we headed for a corner of Busan right by the ocean. Well, a different corner of Busan right by the ocean -- three of the four corners of the city are right on the ocean, including the corner where our hotel was.
Our destination was a Buddhist temple called Hae Dong Yong Gung Temple (海東龍宮寺).
The entrance to the temple had 12 statues representing the animals of the Chinese zodiac.
There were a wide variety of other statues, carvings, etc. The black thing that looks like a tire in front of the pagoda on the right is, in fact, a stone tire -- it's a pagoda dedicated to traffic safety.
A pair of lions guarded the gate into the temple complex itself, followed by a marker at the beginning of the "108 steps."
There were various statues on the way down the steps, too, including this set of Buddhas (bodhisatva?) dedicated to "academic achievement."
At the bottom of the steps we ended up at the ocean.
At that point there was a collection of statues, a couple of which had bowls of water. It's supposed to be good luck to toss a coin into the bowls. Yours Truly managed to hit the further bowl. I'm not sure what good luck is supposed to show up now, though...
Crossing over a stone bridge, we came to the main temple complex.
Civilization isn't far away, but from most angles, the temple complex seems isolated between wooded hills and the ocean.
More statues.
Giant golden pigs. I have no idea why.
Tiny little Buddha statues. They were all over the place.
More giant golden statues. I assume these are somehow related to the aforementioned pigs.
Sibling selfies.
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