Brisket Hunters

As soon as I got in through the gate, this was the first sight I saw.

My last visit was when Halloween decorations were up, but this time they were gone. This house had nice lawn furniture out front.

And this cat sitting there calmly.

I'm curious what the live music show was. Block Party?

I walked through the diplomatic corner of the garrison, and came out onto one of the main roads.

My rule is to obey all legal warning signs while in here, even if they are lacking in the copy editing department. This barrier would obviously be easy to bypass, but I didn't.

Ah, empty parking lots, reminds me of North America.

There's one of the sites with historic objects.

That sign's not doing well.

I can't walk past the fire station without taking a bunch of photos.

And probably talking to Sparky.

One of my assertions I haven't seen anyone else talk about is how a lot of the major roads on base are framed by conveniently placed tall Korean buildings. I suspect this is very intentional on the part of Korea.

This thing looks like it was supposed to be a fancy Korean-style sign, but had no sign on it on either side.

The tree is taking over this overpass.

On the other side of the street, you can see into the park in front of the presidential office, also pictured.

Looking back. The wide building in the distance before the skyscrapers is the NMK of course.

Peering over the fence, directly into what I assume is Yongsan Children's Garden.

Same park.

There was still activity around, even if not much. And even though there was less activity, none of the vehicles I saw ever stopped to confront me, which used to actually be more common when the base was more active.

From the temporary fence to the more permanent one.

Up ahead I reached Seoul American High School. Just a few days earlier, I'd told a graduate of this school that it was already demolished. It's not, but it's unreachable from this side. Maybe worth visiting from the garden side? Probably not, though.

From this corner, you can see more of the school.

I wonder when this thing was in use.

Were there guards posted to these in the 2010s?

DHL is still looking like always.

My goal today was Main Post.

Crossing the overpass.

Everything on the west side of the garrison is gone to us.

"THE Assignment of Choice in Korea."

Great place to be posted if you like ginkgo berries.

Last year I drove past this place and noticed the door was left open, but didn't have a chance to go inside.

This year, the door was still open.

I'm going to take a wild guess the CCTVs in the ceiling are no longer active.

Carpeted rooms.

Looking back at the door I came in. All of it was left open like this, with me not needing to open anything.

The building also hosted UNC and USFK HQ before they all moved south.

Command Group.

Good Neighbor Wall of Honor.

I wandered into some sort of briefing room.

The front of the room.

In the room behind that wall.

CR215.

When's the last time you took the battery out of your cellphone?

Security check complete.

This would appear to have been the commander's office. Typically one man served as commander of all three simultaneously.

All I found in the room was a dead bird.

Red carpets in a room off to the side.

Heading out.

More berries.

A look back at the building.

Samgakji looms in the distance.

That door looks open, but those signs are a one-way ticket to Guantanamo.

Crossing back over.

I ran across the road to take this picture. I've been in some of those buildings before, back when they were open. Damage is showing.

Continuing. Would I have to walk all the way back to the diplomatic community?

This building is in the hands of the Korean government, but I don't know exactly what its purpose is. Seems pretty exposed to US territory.

I took this photo of the landscaping around here. That path leads down to a gate that I have used but currently can't. There was a group of people further ahead, and as I got closer, I realised one of them was a good friend, also an explorer.

We walked through the DHL.

We ended up getting a ride back to the diplomatic compound.

This was my first serving.

On the way out.

The way out, looking back to where I'd taken the first photo in this gallery.

Even before I saw it, I knew their theme this time would be KPop Demon Hunters. They did not let me down.