I went on a trip to Korea with my internet friends (Part 1)

At the end of July, I went on a 4-day, 3-night trip to Korea with two friends I met at a "tea party to talk about work" I attended last May: Toketai-san (https://x.com/tada_toketeitai) and Momo-san (https://x.com/momo_momo153847).

When I attended that tea party, I never imagined I would make new friends through the internet who I could travel abroad with, but this trip was SO much fun that I decided to write on note for the first time in over a year (!) to record my best memory of this summer.

Once I started writing, all the fun memories came flooding back, and since it looked like it would turn into a very long post, I decided to split it into a first and second part.

*Click here for my thoughts on attending the tea party last May👇

Day 1: Getting super excited about Ganjang-gejang and Korea-exclusive Baskin Robbins

For this trip, we chose Jin Air because the timing was perfect and we were attracted by the fact that 15kg of checked baggage was free.
It was nice that the seats were spacious for a low-cost carrier, but for some reason, I couldn't buy the tickets from my smartphone and kept getting rejected, which was super stressful...
If you've ended up on this note because you couldn't book Jin Air successfully, please try using a PC. (Or maybe that's just me? lol)

Due to lack of sleep from packing until the night before, I dozed off and arrived at Incheon Airport in no time!
I didn't have any Korean Won and really wanted to avoid exchanging money at the airport, so I was a bit worried about whether I could get into the city, but I was relieved to find I could buy a shuttle bus ticket to the city with a credit card.

When traveling abroad, research tends to focus on flights, but I think every time I travel that it's also super important to properly research how to get to and from the airport! (And this time, I had a hard time getting back to the airport, so I'll write about that later... lol)

Once we safely made it into the city, we went to our accommodation to drop off our luggage. We stayed at an Airbnb so we could each have our own room, and it was so cute with that quintessential Korean interior vibe!
However, not just here, but it seems many Korean Airbnbs don't have bathtubs in the bathrooms, and often don't even have a shower curtain between the shower and the toilet, which made me think, "Is this normal in Korea...? Can you really relax like this...?" lol

After dropping off our bags and taking a breather, we took the train to the Ganjang-gejang restaurant, Kkotji.

I had heard rumors, but it was even richer and way more delicious than I imagined.
Even taking into account that this was my first meal since arriving in Korea, having eaten nothing for about 10 hours since breakfast at Narita Airport at 9:30 AM, for me, this Ganjang-gejang was the most delicious thing I ate on this trip to Korea. (Of course, the runners-up were a close second.)

After leaving the restaurant with full stomachs, we talked about how we wanted to check out Daiso and Olive Young since we were in Korea, so we went to COEX Mall at the same station.
It seems to have various affordable shops including Daiso and Olive Young, plus a movie theater and an aquarium, so we talked about how it's like Sunshine City in Tokyo. (There's a high possibility that's completely wrong.)

While wandering around, I was happy to see the giant bookshelf I wanted to see, Starfield Library.
One of my life goals is to "live in a house with a big bookshelf," so I'm a person with a strong longing for rows of bookshelves, and I was super excited to be in a space surrounded by bookshelves that you have to look way up to see.

And after finishing our shopping at Daiso and Olive Young, while walking through the mall, we found the Baskin Robbins that was on my "must-visit" list, and we immediately went in, thinking there was no reason not to eat there!
The store was cute! They have the 10 mini flavors that were only available for a moment in Japan as a default! They are baking waffle cones in the store! (Though they weren't baking them at another branch we went to on the third day, so maybe it depends on the store or time of day?) I got excited about every little difference from Japan.

After much deliberation among the Korea-exclusive flavors, I chose the chocolate-based "Mom is an Alien" and the blue "Shooting Star." I really liked Shooting Star; it was like a refreshing Popping Shower.

And just when we were about to eat, we were told we had to leave the store because it was closing time.
While thinking to myself, "Is last order time the same as closing time?!", we sat on a bench outside the COEX Mall, ate while chatting in the Korean night breeze, and headed home for the day.

Day 2: Shopping at a long-awaited vintage clothing store

This day was dedicated to exploring the Garosu-gil area.
First, we headed to Minute PaPillon for churros, which served as our breakfast.
It was a very relaxing space, blending a cute atmosphere with the sophisticated vibe of a bar counter.

We arrived around 11:30 and got in without waiting.
At first, we were seated at the side-by-side counter, but we were lucky enough to be told we could move to a sofa seat as soon as one opened up.

And these churros—I was surprised at how light and crispy they were, despite being fried.
Since we were having lunch soon after, the three of us limited ourselves to one plate (5 pieces), but if we didn't have plans later, I feel like I could have easily eaten all five by myself.

For dipping sauces, we chose chocolate and peanut & raspberry; the chocolate was more bitter than I expected, making it easy to eat without being overly sweet.
As for the peanut & raspberry, I guess you could call it a sweet-and-salty flavor? Both were exquisite, and since it would be a waste to leave any behind, we followed the 'double-dipping is okay' rule and dipped them generously. lol

After relaxing for about an hour and a half in that cozy space, we stopped by a nearby Olive Young before heading to our lunch spot.
(On this trip to Korea, we were drawn into every Olive Young we found like magnets; if I wrote down every single time, there would be no end to it, and I've lost track of where we bought what, so I'll skip it from here on out! lol)

For lunch that day, the place I absolutely wanted to go was Gangnam Myeonok, which I heard had exquisite galbi-jjim and cold noodles!

We arrived just after 13:30 and I panicked a little because the place was so crowded that people were overflowing outside.
There were fewer Japanese people than I expected (or rather, almost none), and I only heard Korean, so it seemed to be a popular spot among locals.

We stood at the back of the crowd waiting outside, but it didn't look like a single orderly line, so I wondered if it was okay... I went back inside to look for instructions and found that it was indeed a system where you had to get a reception number. I realized that when you're abroad, it's important not just to go with the flow, but sometimes to be pushy and move forward. lol

Not limited to this restaurant, there were many situations in Korea where instructions were only in Hangul, so I was constantly saved by Google Lens.

There were many people waiting, but the restaurant was spacious and had two floors, so we got in after about 10 minutes! I ordered bibim naengmyeon (spicy cold noodles), the other two ordered regular cold noodles, and we ordered galbi-jjim to share among the three of us.

I had heard rumors, but these cold noodles have incredible chewiness! They were hard to bite through, so cutting them finely with scissors was essential.
The galbi-jjim was also delicious with meat that fell right off the bone! It was easier to eat and not as heavy as it looked. (As an aside, I thought this white thing was an king oyster mushroom and was looking forward to it, but it was a bone... when I think about it, there aren't many king oyster mushrooms that long... lol)

But my personal favorite at this restaurant was the kimchi that came as a side dish. It wasn't just spicy; it had a solid umami flavor, and the kkakdugi (radish kimchi) was especially exquisite, so we finished it all.
In Korea, kimchi is always served as a side dish at every restaurant, but among the places we visited on this trip, this was the No. 1 kimchi.

After our stomachs were stuffed with cold noodles and galbi-jjim, we walked to help digest our food and headed to the shop for the main event of this trip.

Some of you reading this might have vaguely noticed, but our travel plan for this trip was heavily based on the Korea travelogues of Ouka-san and Nako-san, who hosted the tea party mentioned earlier... I have nothing but gratitude.

Since the members of the trip are also internet friends I met through the tea party, our sources of information and the genres of shops we want to visit are naturally similar, and there were successive cases where when we tried to add shops we learned about through their blogs or Spaces to our shared Google Map list, someone had already added them... lol

Among that list of overlapping places we wanted to visit, the one we were particularly enthusiastic about going to was the select shop All;ow, which mainly handles high-brand vintage clothing.

I had heard about it, but the sense of the items lined up was wonderful, and for a while, the three of us were absorbed in checking the store.

I'm someone who usually only wears Uniqlo, but inspired by seeing Toketai-san and Momo-san trying on cute clothes, I realized I had bought Valentino wide pants...
I have a typical 'straight' body type and like simple fashion, so I have a weakness for high-quality wide pants. The staff member also told me, 'It's easy to wear and looks good on you!' (if my listening was correct), so I want to wear them a lot.

After that, we looked at famous shops in this area like Tamburins and Gentle Monster, bought drinks at Starbucks for a break, and decided to take a bus to Gwangjang Market for dinner.

But! This trip was full of trouble and it was tough...
First, the bus stop we arrived at relying on NAVER Map was at the edge of a main road, like bus stops scattered on Japanese highways, which was a bit of a surprise. (I couldn't tell just from the map... I felt bad for the two of them because I was enthusiastically leading the way...)

Having said that, we waited a little and the bus we wanted to take came, so when I stood up from the bench to get on, the bus drove away without slowing down or opening its doors.

Huh! Why!? Seeing us stunned by the unexpected situation, a guy who looked like a local asked us what was wrong, so when I asked why the bus didn't stop for us, it seems you have to signal with your whole body that you want to get on the bus, like hailing a taxi!!
Is that really true? Was the driver just a bad one? I secretly thought to myself, but I replied, 'Okay, thanks!' and successfully got on the next bus...

If it had ended there, it would have ended as an episode of being helped by a local, which is common in travel memories, but it seems this guy, to put it bluntly, was someone who approached us with the intention of picking us up, and he persistently asked things like 'Don't you use Instagram?' and 'What SNS is popular in Japan? Tell me your account name!' over and over again.

If we were in the city, we could have walked away from the bus stop, but since it was a bus stop on a main road, we couldn't do that, so we kept a subtle distance while waiting for the bus we wanted to take, and even though that guy got on the bus we successfully boarded, we ignored him and somehow arrived at Gwangjang Market.

While I was angry that our fun travel time was exhausted by such a lecherous guy (bad language), I thought it was really good that I was with the two of them because I would have been more troubled if I were alone...
(Toketai-san, who was asked so persistently, replied something like, 'We don't like SNS, so we don't use it at all!', and I couldn't help but laugh a little, thinking this is a trip for internet friends... lol)

Having said that, we changed our mood and headed to our target restaurant, Bucheon Yukhoe!

I entered my email address into the tablet at the storefront to get a queue number. It's a famous restaurant that has won Michelin awards multiple times, so naturally, there were many people waiting in front of the shop, but we were eventually called in about 20 minutes.
I thought we would have to wait quite a while, so we were killing time a little ways away from the shop. We were saved by Momo-san's gut feeling that "maybe it's about time...?" Huge thanks to her.

We ordered the long-awaited yukhoe, live octopus, and yukhoe bibimbap.

The meat is red! The octopus is moving a little!
I'm usually the type who prefers meat well-done, but the fresh, melt-in-your-mouth texture of this yukhoe was irresistible. Everything had a strong sesame oil flavor, and I felt incredibly full.

Saying "I'm so full!" while leaving the shop, the three of us were in agreement that since we had come this far, we had to... so we bought just one twisted donut at the famous Gwangjang Market donut shop, Chapssal Kkwabaegi.

It seems they ran out of stock because the person in front of us bought over 10 of them, so we were lucky enough to get them freshly fried.
Like the churros, this donut was crispy and I gobbled it right up. I wonder what makes it different from Japanese fried sweets... I want to know the secret to that crispiness.

That completed our plans for the day.
We headed back by subway, saying, "There were some troubles, but let's call it a win since dinner was delicious!"

The record of the 3rd and 4th days will be in the second half! (I'll do my best to write it...)