I was not aware that this was just outside of the main Itaewon area until my trip to the DMZ so I decided that I would visit and take a few photos.Due to time constraints (aka needing to get footage of other areas in Seoul on the same day) I only spent my time outside the museum and will have to return to see the exhibitions in a week or 2.
I spent the initial part of my visit under the wing of a B52 bomber as it was pouring down and the accompanying thunder and lightning was drowning my hopes of being able to take any good photos. But as true to nature after about 40 minutes the sky's began to clear and the rain dropped off to nothing.
The Museum is huge and I can only imagine (at this stage) what is inside but the outside definitely has some treats for anyone interested in military hardware. A few of the highlights for myself were the Phantom F4, Huey and the Cobra attack helicopter. The place is surrounded with beautiful gardens and water features and at the side there is a little gift shop which has models, a kind of military lego and quality metal key rings in the shape of assault rifles among other things like patches, clothing ect.
However it is worth noting that the museum is situated right next to (I believe) the largest U.S. military base in South Korea. Sooooo.... if you are likely to be hanging about in the street say 15 feet from one of the main entrances perhaps in the rain... with a camera... taking a shot like this:
Maybe a few shots like this to get it right of a dark interesting looking scene... be prepared to be jumped by South Korean police as I nearly was. The police are all up and down this road providing protection for the base. You may also be lucky to see some South Korean MP's further down the road behind the gates and if you venture further down past the second hand bookshop (which I will show you where that is later) there is another part of the base guarded by South Korean MP's wielding M16's (which I haven't managed to get photographs of yet and I am not certain if doing so would mean I would get a guided tour of the base... well at least guided to interrogation).
So a couple of weeks back I also found another second hand book store catering mainly for English speakers as a majority of there books are in English. It is a little place called (from what I could tell) simply "Book". Its outside of the "Welcome to Itaewon" sign perhaps 10 - 15 minutes walk from Itaewon.
Anyway here is a map. It would probably be more convenient to simply take the next subway exit from Itaewon namely Naksapyeong as it will put you about 7 -10 minutes walking time closer to both the Museum and the book store.
So here are the photo's I have taken of the museum:
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