Reflections on Japan & Korea

Including my favorite art/book shops in Seoul

Hello again 👋

I’m back from my honeymoon travels! My husband and I had an amazing three weeks in Japan & Korea, and we’re already dreaming of going back. I have a few videos I’d like to edit and a sketchbook/travel journal post that I can share with you in the future, but for now I’ve been slow-going in getting readjusted to work and routine. Rather than beating myself up about this, I’ve been looking at the new lil snail guy on my arm and remind myself, I’d like to be moving slow.

I got my first tattoo in Korea! My mom keeps asking if it is my “first and last” 😅

In Japan we were undoubtedly tourists visiting a country for the first time. Our two weeks traversing Tokyo, Kyoto, Kinosaki, and Osaka were a frenzy of marveling at the beautiful nature and varieties of cherry blossoms, as well as consuming all the matcha and dessert and noodle dishes. Even though we were tourists, we found pleasure in walking around the local park by our Tokyo hotel every morning and establishing our go to cafes.

Things I loved about Japan:

• Warm and toasty bidet seats

• Public restrooms are everywhere and free to use!

• The blissful quiet in Tokyo despite it being a large city

• Presence of chairs while waiting in line (e.g. restaurants, fitting rooms)

• Clear & accurate directions for subways on Google Maps

• Suica Apple Pay, so easy to use & recharge. You can use them for vending machines too!

• Oshibori (hot towels)

• Pleasant, non-overbearing scents of incense in bathrooms & hotels

Visiting Korea always brings up a complicated psyche for me as a dual citizen. Once my husband and I crossed over to Seoul for our final week, I noticed myself relaxing fully and letting go of any FOMO. There was no need for sightseeing or itineraries; we’d been here before and we’d surely return again.

Instead my energy redirects to perceiving the people and culture around me, the simultaneous familiarity and distance I feel in my native country. I collect stories of people’s impatience in the ppali ppali culture (and witness it myself when an old lady blatantly cuts me off in the cashier line). I contrast that with the efforts towards slow intentional practices that pop up in stores like Geulwol, a letter shop and service that connects pen pals to each other.

The illustration scene in Korea is unreal—people have a real appreciation for simple, cute, and colorful art which is very much my vibe. There’s lots of supply and demand for illustrated goods (see Seoul Illustration Fair) and a burgeoning scene of independent publishers and zine makers, with such beautiful and creative binding & printing! Look forward to an overall haul where I can share some examples.

Best stationery, art goods, and book shops in Seoul (this is a gold mine of a list, do save it!):

• Normal A

• POSET

• INOURMANSION

• Zero Space

• WARMGREY TAIL

• Little Tempo

• Object

• KioskKiosk

• YOUR-MIND

• onemorebag

As much as I enjoyed browsing & buying illustrated prints & goods, my favorite memory from Seoul was hitting up a manhwa-bang with my cousin. At manhwa-bangs you can pay per hour to lounge while reading comic books. You can even order & eat food and snacks such as ramen!

The manhwa-bang we visited is Paperr Bookshop and they’re known to house a variety of picture books, not just serialized comics! They indeed had a ton of children’s books, graphic novels, and even artists’ private sketchbooks. The shop had soft, warm lighting with relaxing jazz in the background, and there were two very sweet, cuddly cats on the premise. I stayed until closing time and left with a new pipe dream to create a picture book focused manhwa-bang here in the States.

This three week trip is the longest vacation travel I’ve done as a working adult. The curious child in me wants to take more time off to immerse in different cultures and see the world, while my sensitivity alerts me to the disorientation I feel from indulgent consumerism and lack of routine.

Some millennial friends of mine find fulfillment through constantly traveling to new places and checking off locations on their bucket list. I’m realizing that while I enjoy travel, I want to do it at a slower pace—revisiting cities and countries I’ve already been to, lingering in each place for more than a few days. Only through this dawdling can I feel the change in air and scent, notice the minor daily rituals of passersby, and revel in unscheduled time to write & draw my reflections.

I’ll end with this page from Yoojin Ahn’s graphic novel, one of the books I read during my night at Paperr Bookshop. It is also my current phone screen:

Not wanting to lose my feelings [from traveling], I slowly started to draw.