Day 25: K-Star Road

Today's destination is a street in Gangnam called K-Star road that is a popular area for k-pop fans to visit. It's near Apgujeong station which is only a 20 minute walk from my house! I decided to dedicate today to k-pop so I planned several different stops to different k-pop related locations.

I started off the morning with another breakfast place. This one was called Butterfinger Pancakes and it was a big pancake restaurant on the way to K-Star Road. I got pecan pancakes, bacon, and orange juice. It was super expensive for how tiny the pancakes were and I only got two, but it was still yummy! I forgot to take a picture of the food as usual, but here's a very quickly taken picture of the inside of the restaurant.

K-star road is basically a road that has these huge bear doll things along the side of it whose designs represent different k-pop groups. Fans go there to find the doll for their favourite group and take pictures with it. People can also buy small versions of the dolls at a store near the start of the road (they were all sold out of the BTS one unfortunately). There is a big Gangnam doll at the start of the road along with signs showing where you can find each doll as well as some k-pop entertainment companies that are nearby. A lot of the companies had moved since the sign had been created though so they should probably update that.

There were some meh dolls but also some really cool ones! I took a picture of every single one but also took a selfie with the EXO and BTS dolls. I am not sure how they choose which groups get a doll because there was an interesting mix. I was happy to see some dolls for several girl groups that I really liked who have sadly disbanded now. I was also able to find faded signatures from the BTS members on the back of their doll, which was cool.

While I was walking I also face-timed one of my roommates from home (Claire) and we talked about her co-op interviews and things that I found different here. One thing I mentioned was that a lot of cars drive on the sidewalk. I will just be walking and a car will casually pull up beside me on the sidewalk and park or use it to turn around. It freaked me out the first time it happened, but I’ve started to get used to it now. The sidewalks are really big here so there’s room, it just means I need to pay attention when I am walking. After I found all the dolls I got lost trying to find an entertainment company that was listed the map. I later found out it had actually moved years ago…

The old building. People were still taking parts of the old building down so I thought it was still open and walked inside. Everyone that was working doing construction turned to look at me and I quickly walked back out.

Even the subway entrance is decorated.

The insides of lots of shops here are covered in k-pop pictures. I think this was a Dunkin' Donuts store (if I remember it correctly).

My next stop was a cafe called The Min’s. It is run by a k-pop idol's (2AM Changmin) parents and he is known to stop by sometimes. It is also a cafe that BTS visited often when they were younger. They went there a lot when they were trainees and after they debuted and the cafe is covered in pictures of them drinking there.

The cafe is very close to K-Star Road and only took about 10 minutes to walk to. It was kind of hard to find because the place on Kakao Map made it look like it is on the main road side when it is actually on the other side. I eventually found it and it was so cute! The walls are covered in signed albums from all sorts of different k-pop groups that have messages on them for the cafe or for Changmin. There are also so many BTS photos! It wasn’t busy when I went (only one other group of people there) so I was able to take lots of pictures and look around. After the other group left, Changmin’s mom kindly offered to take some photos of me at the cafe and gave me a drink slip with the cafe logo on it as a souvenir. She also talked about how she had met several of the BTS members parents (Jin, Namjoon, and Yoongi) and showed me which drinks were BTS’s favourite. I promised to come back so I could try those ones. I sat at a table with a a little picture of Tae and Jimin at the same table drinking. I got a cookie and a lemon drink that was good, but Changmin's mom recommended I get the five berry drink next time (BTS's favourite drink there supposedly). It's fun to be able to go to places and see k-pop decorations. There is nothing like this in Canada so I want to enjoy it as much as I can while I am here!

On the way back I passed a restaurant that was selling red bean food. I really love red bean bread but haven’t tried any other red bean things yet so I thought it would be interesting. I ended up getting tongdan patjook (red bean soup with dumplings). It was so delicious and warm and just absolutely amazing (I went back to the restaurant another three times over the next two weeks). It was sweet and had some cinnamon on it. I think the ‘dumplings’ were rice cakes but I’m not 100% sure. I unfortunately forgot to save the name of the restaurant so it was an adventure to find it the next time I was craving the soup. I think it’s meant to be a dessert rather than what I would typically think a soup is, maybe porridge?

I walked back to the area where my house was and then went to find Big Hit Entertainment’s old building. Along the way I found a bunch of BT21 makeup and travel stuff in a store but stopped myself from buying any. I found the park (Hakdong Park) where they used to go a lot when they were trainees and after their debut. I also found the cafe where they celebrated their 1000th day since debut. (I basically just googled 'BTS places in Seoul' a few days ago and these were all the location that people recommended checking out). I typically pay more attention to their music than locations, dates, and other information about them so I didn't actually know about a bunch of these places until I Googled it. It gave me some fun places to visit for the day though so it was great!

All of these spots were very close to each other. It was a bit harder to find their old building and I ended up walking in circles for a while. When I found the building there was another fan there. She had a big BT21 bag from the Line store and was taking pictures of the building (Line is one of the major messaging apps used in Korea. The company has created it's own set of characters that people can buy merchandise for. The BT21 products are the result of a collaboration between Line and BTS). I offered to take a picture for her and then she took mine. We couldn’t communicate well since she was from Japan and I know very little Japanese but we showed each other who our bias’ were (hers was Yoongi) and then said goodbye. The old building is a popular place for BTS fans to go because it was where BTS started, but also because it is covered in messages from fans from all over the world. If you look closely in the photo you can see that the entire bottom of the building is covered in words. They have had to put up a sign at their new building so people don’t do the same there. I don’t think fans are supposed to write any more on the old building either so I didn’t. It was cool to read all the messages though and see how far BTS’s music has reached. There were so many different languages and countries! I tried to find their old dorm which was supposedly close to the old building but I had no clue where to look.

I was getting hungry by this point and I wandered back to the area near my house. I wanted to do more blog writing so I tried to find a cafe nearby. There's a cafe called Midnight in Seoul that looked like a super cute cereal cafe with tons of fun decorations. However, when I got to it it was closed down. I started walking back to my room and then decided to look for restaurants nearby. I found one where the Midnight in Seoul cafe was so I walked back that way. It was a small restaurant/cafe that didn’t have a big menu but there was a salad that looked good. I got to the cafe and it looked closed inside so I started walking to my room again. Then I checked their hours online and it said they were still open so I turned back around (again) and went into the restaurant. They were still open but they didn’t have the same menu I had seen online. Rather than leaving for the 4th time I just decided to have the avocado bread. It was really gross but came out looking fancy. There was too much avocado on it and I had kind of forgotten that I was scarred from a lovely smoothie experience last summer and didn't enjoy avocado anymore.

After making it through my toast, I began my walk back home. On the way I found a cafe that had a wall covered in signatures and pictures.

I went inside to take a picture and order something that would get the avocado taste out of my mouth, however the cafe was closed. I walked inside, took the picture, and then turned around and the lady at the cash was looking at me like 'what are you doing'… I realized it was closed and walked back out awkwardly (second time I've done this today). The door had been unlocked, all the lights were on and there were no hours on the door though! Plus it was only 6 pm. What cafe closes at 6 pm? There weren’t any people in it though and the cash lady did look like she was cleaning so that's my bad. I went back to my room, got my laptop, and found a different cafe that wasn’t closed. I am starting to really like the area I am in. I feel very underdressed, but there are so many cool places within walking distance!

Spending the day doing so much k-pop stuff made me super happy. Literally anything k-pop related has this incredible ability to immediately boost my mood no matter how I am feeling to begin with.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

(October 20, 2018)

Distance walked: 10 km

A random picture I took while walking home from dinner