Love Land Baby!

Now before you ask this is a strictly 18+ Park! None of my students have even heard of this park, and the only people inside were giggling adults and absolutely no children!

When I first arrived in Jeju I was given a map of Jeju island. One of the first 2 things I narrowed in on was 'Love Land' and 'Psyche Land'. This past Sunday my friend Mike and I headed out to check out Love Land.

First: A little Information

Jeju island is basically a honeymoon destination for Asia, and I have been told that places like Love Land and the Sex & Health Museum have be created to teach newlyweds about sex. Now when I went through high school I went through 4 Sex Ed. classes, so this theory was a bit strange for me. But after speaking to my students and learning just how... well little they know, I would not be surprised if there was a grain of truth to that theory. But don't worry Koreans aren't getting pregnant left right and center as they are rather more conservative than our culture; so, while they may be uneducated in safe sex, they aren't really having it. (Mostly, a 11 year old student was recently knocked up in Jeju-si according to my students). I've asked a few Koreans and many say that the average age for sexual activity is about 17. I hope by then they've googled some of the basics...

Onto Love Land!

Mike took me there on his motorcycle up until a fateful red light, where his gear switch wire broke from the handle. So after pushing it down into some random road and leaving a note asking that people not steal the bike, we walked the rest of the way to Love Land.

Love Land is basically a park with sexual statues depicting 'interpretations' of sex. I can't even really say that it shows off all the Kama Sutra moves, because it really doesn't. So Mike and I headed in. It basically is a giant garden (of sorts) with a pond in the center and numerous themed statues dotted around the area. The interpretations were varied, from extreme abstract statues of 2 people having sex, to a horrendous fat woman chasing an old skinny man, to world themes, and even a man and his dog both doing perverted things.

There were a couple of buildings you could enter as well. One building had numerous sex toys and old 80s photographs of porn scenes. Luckily (?) there was a store where you could buy most of the toys in the showcases. In that same building there were little boxes with miniature scenes being acted out, reflecting supposed scenes of reality (strip clubs, voyeurism, prostitutes, classrooms, etc).

There was one scene of a an all-male bath house where men were laughing at one mans small penis. Do men really do this?

The other buildings housed more souvenirs. Although most of the souvenirs were big phalices carved from wood... which I'm not sure I'd ever really want sitting in my house as 'art'.

Ultimately this 'museum' was worth the 7$ I spent and gave me more than one laugh and definately a couple of awkward moments. However I have no idea what sex education any human being would have grabbed from that place. Since most of the statues were 'imaginative' to say the least, it wasnt' educating in that form. And apart from a store where you could buy protection, there was no section on safe sex, or AIDS, or STDs. But it certainly a good definition of Amusement Park!