Hey Hive!
So if you missed the last few posts, I've been sharing about our first trip to Seoul back in Nov 2022! We were waiting post-covid for everyone to go on their holidays before taking a big one and we finally decided to go on our honeymoon! It's also our first time experiencing Fall so we were double excited!
Last week, we finished up our exploration of Nami Island which had so many beautiful fall trees! It was the perfect place to really bask and soak in the autumn atmosphere.
After a few hours there, we took the ferry back to the mainland and our driver brought us back to Seoul where we visited a few night markets for some yummy snacks!
After a very long day of walking, we decided to just chill in the city the next day so here we go!
12 Nov 2022. Saturday.
We read that Hongdae is a hip place catered to young adults with some street art, character shops and specialty cafes so we thought we'd go check it out.
But first we had to take the train a few stations down.
And of course when we arrived in Hongdae station there was a huge advertisement for Hongkai Impact, a waifu gacha game that some people in my community play.
The ad wasn't just that huge lightbox but all the way up the staircase too! It was pretty insane to see the waifus blown up so huge.
But neither Sean nor I are really interested in those. We prefer goofy cute characters like those from LINE and Kakao Friends! It was fate that we came across a huge shop of theirs right as we exited the station.
The shop was really huge with so much merch and a big mascot statue to greet you right as you enter! This character's name is Ryan and I think he's the leader of sorts.
The statue reminded me of the LINE Friends shop which had a huge Brown statue as well. I guess they're just trying to copy each other in terms of the layout.
They even had a very cute photo spot right in front.
There's some lore with all the different Kakao Friends which we're not really familiar with since we've been following LINE Friends for much longer but it was still cute to see all the different characters they had.
Apparently Ryan is a male lion without a mane, and was a successor to the throne of Dung Dung Island, but he decided royalty was not for him. His little friend is Choonsik, and is a female cat that Ryan found as a stray.
The store really resembled the LINE Friends store we visited in Japan just with different cute characters. I really liked the wall art near the staircase.
It was a little too big to capture but there was also a very cute photospot with the character called Muzi, who is actually a piece of radish in rabbit clothes?
Of course there was a whole wall full of plushies!
The wall art extends all the way upstairs too, and there was a smiling sweet potato at the top!
Upstairs there was even more merch, from stationery to home goods to apparel and yet more plushies!
The store was pretty spacious even though there were lots of stuff on display as well.
There was even a special section for the character Jordy, who is a dinosaur that has been kept secret since its existence.
I guess he does live streams too so I couldn't resist taking a picture with him in his setup!
Behind it was a secret aisle for Jordy merchandise! I wonder what makes him so special that he has his own section. We figured maybe it was because he was the newest character or something.
Sean's favourite character was Choonsik because she's cute and derpy and he loves saying the name. So of course I had to get a picture of him in Choonsik's room!
We didn't end up buying anything though since we're not too big fans of these characters and didn't know them well. Tbh I already had all these items they were selling so I couldn't find a reason to buy them.
The store was part of a larger office building though so we went to a higher floor to check out this cafe called OMO.
We thought it was going to be a Kakao Cafe but turns out it was totally different and unaffiliated with Kakao. You could tell immediately stepping into the cafe since the vibe was a complete 180 from the cutesey Kakao store.
This was more zen and peaceful with the stone pathways and darker toned cabinets. Mixed with the soft and light overhanging curtains it was very tranquil and modern looking.
The moon area in the middle was their own merchandise section! There were a few colourful tumblers, some apparel and mugs.
Outside there was a small section of Kakao Friends products which confused me since I thought this cafe wasn't associated with Kakao but maybe they are? It didn't really match the vibe of the place but was still aesthetically pleasing though.
Back to the main area of the cafe, they had many different pastries out on display for people to buy. The looked quite decadent and the prices reflected that.
There were some pretty huge sandwiches and croissants too, which were definitely some of the biggest croissants I've ever seen.
There were different types of seating but most of them were traditional seats with cushions on raised platforms. It seemed like they took the traditional look but made it modern and elevated. It looked nice but I can't imagine sitting like that for long compared to a proper cushioned chair or sofa.
There was also a meeting room in the back that looked quite professional. You wouldn't think it was part of a cafe at all.
There was another photo spot and tbh I wasn't sure if we were allowed to sit on the rock there but since they had stepping stones to it I guess it was okay. Initially I thought the floor was water but thankfully it wasn't.
The pastries here were way too pricey even for my holiday budget so we didn't try any. After lots of photos we went back out into the streets of Hongdae!
It was a nice sunny day out and I think we wandered into the main streets of Hongdae where there were lots of shops and bars. A lot of them had yet to open though since it was still early in the day.
There was a special street in Hondae full of murals and cool street art that we wanted to check out so we started making our way there.
But I think I'll leave that for next week. Sorry for the shorter post but I try to section these as best I can. Here's a teaser:
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCatās Travels #237 (Seoul): Finishing our Fall Fairy Tale Adventure in Nami Island š