Exploring the non-touristy areas around Myeongdong

A little off from where I was staying in Hongdae, I hopped on the subway lines in Seoul to take me to the little old time town of Ikseondong just north of Myeondong. Fom the station, it as a little difficult too find my way in however, upon finding the entrance, I was introduced to the treasure trove of a hidden city within a city that even google couldn’t map out correctly. With its winding and criss-crossing alleyways, a whole collection of rustic though modern restaurants and specialty stores were lined up keeping traditional store fronts from several years ago.

I had decided to start my morning early by wandering the alleyways in Ikseondong and having breakfast at Mil Toast House, a specialty bakery and restaurant cafe that I heard from a mutual friend. Theres nothing I love more than freshly baked bread in the Morning considering that I use to work a bit in a bakery during university. So Mil Toast House was definitely a stop that I was eager to check out while I was in Korea.

Upon finding the entrance, You’re welcomed by a curtain That was similar to traditional japanese style short curtain called a noren (のれん), except this one was a bit longer than those you would find at Japanese sushi restaurants. The noren at the exit made it really easy to find the shop as there is a huge printed loaf of bread on it. I almost mistook a different cafe for the shop if it wasn’t for the help off the bread decal.

It was totally worth making the trip though. I started with an almond cream coffee to warm me up and since I was really tired from the night before. I noticed that I had been consuming a lot more coffee related drinks rather than tea in Korea. I even bought a bunch of Maxim Instant coffee from the supermarket before leaving back to Japan because for some reason, Koean blended coffee is so good! I actually thought about buying the Mil Toast House coffee blend but I found the self control not to spend my money on too much food (which I ended up doing on this trip anyways).

After consuming my coffee I (which by the way, if I didn’t already mention was so so sooo good!) My “breakfast” came out. I first ordered the Red Bean and butter French toast that seemed to be a really popular menu item among locals. Red bean and butter on toast is quite a staple even in Japan where its referred to as to as An Toast (あんトースト) or

Ogura Toast (小倉トースト) in AIchi and the other surrounding prefectures . Last year when I went to Nagoya, I almost always had Ogura toast for breakfast and felt that the taste would be a lot similar, so I decided to order it.

The relationship between me and red bean is that I really need to be craving it. There are days when I feel like eating anko or red bean buns and then other times I could go months without eating it so I was really unsure about having Ogura related anything for breakfast when I was in Korea but for first time travel purpose I had it and I’m so glad I did. Two thick slices of their french toast made with what I assumed was their in-house specially made loaf bread dusted with some powdered sugar. The slices were generously soaked in egg mixture but were not that custardy egg-y texture, good! On the side was a lump of anko, their house made butter and I think it was sesame infused butter. I’m n to too sure but whatever the grey stuff was, it was equally yummy.

I really loved that everything was separated So that you can choose to put a lot or a little of the two types of butter and anko on your French toast. I piled a lot of they anko on mine and alternated with the grey butter and the regular butter. Eventually I tried all three of the toppings on a single cut of toast too. No matter which combination you tried, they are all really good and balance each other out.

I have a huge stomach and even after that really filing french toast, I was still a bit hungry so I ordered their infamous steamed bread (I ordered the one with bits of pumpkin in it), where they steam loafs of bread in bamboo basket similar to the ones that Chinese restaurants use to steam dumplings. Since I finished my coffee I also ordered their Banana Milk to go with my bread. Banana milk is my new Korean obsession right now.

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I wasn’t sure if you could take home the little bottle that they gave for the milk, but I really wanted to because the packaging was so cute! I sat for a long time really thinking about taking it but I decided not to because I didn’t want to be that foreign tourist that gets in trouble for stealing a plastic bottle haha! Better safe than sorry is what I always say.

I was certainly full after eating so much bread though (oh the carbs!) and had to sit for another 20 minutes before leaving to stroll around the area. I had a facial appointment at Myeongdong later that days and it was still really early in the afternoon so I spent the rest of my early afternoon looking for things to shoot. I got a lot of really nice and narrow shots around the alleyways of Ikseondong and I traveled towards Myeongdong stopping by at a market place and a temple right smack in the middle of the city.

I took a lot of detours on the way because I kept stopping to photograph a bunch of random things. However, when I finally got to the start of the Myeongdong shopping street, it was really hard for me to stop and take photos as I kept getting stopped by Shop staff that would try to pull tourist or people walking around to try their skincare products. I got stopped by a woman who I allowed to rub their new cream to water hand lotion on The back of my hand and me being the easily amused individual I am (not gonna lie, it was cool how it turned from a cream to droplets of water on my skin though), I ended up buying a bunch of skincare products. Honestly, I did plan on stocking up on korean skincare when I was in Seoul though. But even after buying what I needed, I found it to be really annoying to always get stopped to try products. It also didn’t help that a lot of the staff could speak Japanese and or English orz.

I eventually gave up on trying to take photos in the shopping street and sat down to cool my head. By The time I started walking around again, there were lots of food stalls that lined the streets and I was eager to take photos again (And eat). I will never understand why street food taste so good? Although it was really difficult to eat with one hand and take photos with the other. One thing I didn’t really like was that I had to carry all my trash with me...

After spending a couple hours eating and photographing, I headed to my appointment at a traditional bathhouse hidden away in a back street of the Myeongdong shopping area. Greeted by some nice and friendly Korean Ahjumas, I was brought into a different room to Talk about my booking and course. The lady that guided me was actually really impressed that I could speak both English and Japanese. Also, I originally booked just a facial but they upgraded me to a full body detox massage and access to the bathhouse and sauna (which I wasn’t really expecting) for a huge discounted price.

It was my fist time getting a full body massage actually! Before coming to Kores my skin was in its worse shape that I had ever seen it in. It could be because of a lot of built up stress from last year, but it really was in an awful shape. It was bumpy and rough with active acne around my cheeks. The cold winter air in Japan plus the fact that I was working late at night till early morning almost every day also didn’t help with my condition. I spoke with the lady about it which is probably why she upgraded me. She told me that a lot of areas of my body where blocked, stiff, and that I had really bad blood circulation. She also asked if I had a hard time sleeping which I did. After the counseling I was lead to a room to strip and get ready for my course.

A cute little old lady who was about a few centimeters shorter than me was my masseuse. She first covered me in oil and worked on my back and shoulders. It was really painful at first but after my muscles started to relax I Almost found myself Falling asleep. The amount of oil that I was covered in though, I felt like I was going to slip off the table. Another thing to note; Not only was it my first time getting a full body massage, but it was also the first time I got my bum and chest massaged too. Does that kind of stuff usually happen? Like, my masseuse worked on my thighs and legs but when she was working on my thighs she REALLY went far up. I know your bum is one mig muscle but still, it toook me by surprise. Maybe I should go to a traditional bathhouse back in Japan and get a massage done over there too to see if that kind of stuff is normal haha! It was still a pleasant experience though.

I had some mixed feelings about my facial though. The same lady also did my face and while cleansing It kind of felt like my face was being slapped around and handled very roughly. Maybe its to relax the muscles in my face, or maybe because my Face is very small so its hard to grip onto some features (her hands were very big compared to my face though, and I am quite known to have a very small face). It kind of reminded me of those south East Asian face shaping parlors, where they slap your face to lift certain parts of the skin like around your jawline. I was also smothered in a lot of serums, essence and a bunch of other facial products while getting a facial massage. This also was a weird feeling but maybe it was to help with the massage process, as its a very bad idea to dry rub your skin. But at the end of everything, my body and face felt and looked so much more hydrated, and firmer. THe puffiness around my eyes had significantly gone down and my jawline was much more defined as well. I spent the last few minutes soaking in the baths and as I was leaving, I was given a sheet mask and a yogurt drink as a present. One of the ladies commented on how tiny and skinny I was and told me to spend the remaining night in Myeongdong eating more of the street food. I didn’t take it personally but it as kind of funny.

It was already dark when I left the bathhouse and I wanted to head back to my host place as soon as possible to start packing for my early flight back to Narita. But on my way to the station, I got distracted by a certain food stall that was selling the traditional Korean confectionary similar to Chinese Dragon’s beard candy. I had always seen videos online of a man explaining and pulling fermented honey dusted with soybean powder into 32,000 hairlike strings and folding a mix of dried fruits and nuts into them. It was called ggul-tare, where Ggul in Korean means Honey ad Tare meant string. After watching the magic happen before my eyes, I bought myself a box to take home. Since it was Valentine’s Day, I took a photo of candies when I went to the airport the next day and sent it to some friends of mine with a disgustinlu corny line saying “For Valentine’s Day, Will you be the ggul (honey) to my ggul-tare” hahaha....... In Japanese, we call corny lines like that, “kitanai serifu” 汚ないセリフ which literally translates to dirty (or gross) phrases/lines or “gtfo with your cheesy self”. I apologies to those who have received that corny phrase but just know that I love you all <3

Im back in Japan now and only now am I finding a bit of the time to slowly write about my Seoul trip. It was a nice break away from the bustling city of Tokyo and job hunting. But upon coming back, I was once again thrown into a spiraling endlessness of running around back and forth into my normal life in Tokyo again. Actually, the same day I got back from Seoul, I met with a friend for lunch and to get a deep tissue massage that focused more on my neck and shoulders. Don’t get my wrong, the massage from the lady in the bath house was great but I feel like my neck needed a bit more TLC. Since coming back from Korea though, I have noticed that my face is much more firmer, clearer and glowing despite still having some active acne and remaining scars. My make up goes on a lot smoother now and with a couple swipes of concealer, I feel a lot more confident than before. The trip was really something I needed and I think after everything, I defiantly will take more time to care for myself to combat my stress levels. Maybe not take a trip to another country but a weekend trip every month or two. In the mean time, its back to job hunting and updating my resumes again.