We were in the Gapyeong Tour Bus after having come from Nami Island. The tour guide was telling us all about our next stop.

“Do you know who Do Min-Joon is? Because Do Min-Joon is waiting for you!”

Oh hell, of course I know who Do Min-Joon is. But I suppressed a giggle because Husband was with me and, well, Do Min-Joon wasn’t really there, save for the — er, essence of his alien presence.

Sidebar: Who is Do Min-Joon and What Does He Have to Do with This Post?

In the K-drama You Who Came From the Stars (also known as My Love from the Stars or Man from the Stars), Do Min-Joon (played by the dreamy Kim Soo-Hyun, who looks best in a hanbok) is this conveniently-Korean-looking alien who has been on Earth for 400 years now. He’s been crafting for himself different identities just to stop people from getting too suspicious. The conflict arises when he meets a girl, Cheon Song-Yi (played by the beautiful Jeon Ji-hyun of My Sassy Girl fame), a Hallyu actress who resembles a girl he’d met 400 years ago.

So, scene: Cheon Song-Yi was left in Petite France following a shoot, where a production assistant forgets to let her know that her scene would be shot the next day instead. So she wakes up from a long nap to see herself alone in a dark theme park.

Do Min-Joon is there, though, waiting for her. He is posing as her manager. But Song-Yi is angry because of Min-Joon’s flip-flopping about his attitude towards her (silly because he obviously likes her). She screams at him, “I want you to know that you’re the most selfish person I know!” And she stomps off.

And then — and then — Min-Joon uses his telekinetic powers (he has lots of powers) to switch on all the lights in Petite France and make her fly towards him. She stumbles and he catches her.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s the most selfish thing I can do to you.”

And he kisses her, deeply.

And in the next episode, he falls sick, because he’s not supposed to mix saliva with human beings. Silly, yes, but it gave me sleepless nights due to binge-watching. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s awesome, people. It’s so big in China that it set off a chicken and beer craze, gave someone a heart attack and others heartbreaks, and actually got Chinese officials talking about why they can’t come up with such quality show.

***End sidebar***

Petite France advertises itself as this French village/Le Petit Prince-inspired theme park. (Le Petit Prince and Petite France — get it?) Upon entrance, though, you’d see that what brings in the crowds are actually the shows which featured it.

Inside, though, you’d see it’s a pretty charming place. It features faux-cobbled streets, pastel-colored buildings, collections of dolls, marionettes and assorted other knickknacks (I avoided the marionettes), and sculptures based off Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s illustrations.

You can easily spend less than two hours here — it’s not a very big place. You may also spend a few minutes watching a puppet show in the small amphitheater.

Though the scenery is great and the art collections pretty interesting, it can get really boring fast. The place is just obviously inauthentic, a true-blue tourist trap. Don’t expect to suddenly gain new insight about The Little Prince, except maybe that Adult You has gotten really tired of wonder while the little ones still run about excitedly, finding beauty in the little things. Sigh.

In any case, it’s still worth a visit if you are a K-drama fan! I think that unless you have kids coming along, the only reason why you should go there is for the sheer giddiness you’d feel when you realize the familiarity that comes with watching You Who Came from the Stars about half a dozen times. Take a picture with the Cheon Song-Yi and Do Min-Joon standees (my husband had begged off).

Entrance to Petite France is ₩8000. The Gapyeong tour bus makes an almost-hourly stop here. We went to the Garden of Morning Calm afterwards, via the tour bus.

Get a 25% (₩2000) discount to Petite France by printing out the discount coupon here at the Visit Korea Committee website.

Here’s how we described the Garden of Morning Calm upon seeing it: “This is a place our mothers would love.” We loved it too, of course, but in seeing all the flora, we also felt somewhat nostalgic for home. This pair of city-dwellers appreciated, once again, our moms’ green thumbs and other varied and under-appreciated talents.

We arrived there at around 3:30 PM via the Gapyeong tour bus from Petite France. Already the skies were darkening, foreboding rain. It would have been nice to take pictures of flowers in dappled sunlight, but you take what you get. In any case, the varicolored trees and fabulous flowerbeds brightened up the otherwise dreary afternoon.

You can choose to follow the usual winding footpath, or get lost in the many branching paths you can take.

Autumn seemed to be a perfect time to go there, as you can see: while the flowers are carefully cultivated, in late October, the trees were creating a show of their own.

We also loved that there were fewer people there — it’s the last stop of the Gapyeong tour bus, and quite far from Petite France (about a 45-minute ride). It was quiet, especially when we found ourselves straying from the usual course. We would have stayed for longer if it hadn’t started drizzling and getting bitterly cold.

Entrance to the Garden of Morning Calm for adults is ₩8000 on weekdays, ₩9000 on weekends. It is accessible via the Gapyeong tour bus. From the Garden of Morning Calm, one can take the Gapyeong tour bus again to Cheongpyeong train station, where one can take a regular train or ITX back to Seoul.

We entered the palace almost as it opened and bought the combination ticket for palaces. For ₩10000, this serves as your entrance ticket for four palaces — Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung and Huwon (Secret Garden), Changgyeonggung, and Deoksugung — plus the Jongmyo Royal Shrine. I highly recommend this if you plan on visiting at least Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung, along with the latter’s Secret Garden.

We strolled around a bit until 10 AM, when we watched the royal changing of the guards.

Then it was back to strolling again, whatever strolling is possible in 8°C weather.

We took some form of refuge inside the National Folk Museum of Korea. Picture taking isn’t allowed inside.

We should have explored more by going northward, but we opted to exit through the gate near the National Folk Museum. From there, we headed out to Samcheong-dong, toward the next palace — Changdeokgung.

Changdeokgung, built in the 1400s, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Like Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung was also burnt down during the 1592 Japanese invasion — not by the Japanese, but by citizens angry at their king for abandoning them — but it was the first palace to be rebuilt, in 1610. The royal court was thus moved here. Now, even though fire has destroyed the buildings several times in Changdeokgung’s history, all the palace components remain intact. In fact, restoration is ongoing to reverse the changes made to it during the Japanese occupation (1897-1910), faithfully reconstructing based on historical research. Now that’s an awesome job to have.

We came to Changdeokgung from Gyeongbokgung by way of the Samcheongdong/Bukchon area, going eastward. This place is something else. There are boutiques that sell vintage clothes and jewelry, cafes, and lots of interesting street art.

And finally, we reached Changdeok Palace. By now, the layout of the gung was already familiar to us. You have the outer and inner gates, followed by the throne room.

We zipped through the palace buildings because we had to catch the scheduled Biwon (Secret Garden) tour at 1:30 PM. I had reserved this about three weeks in advance; slots were actually filled quite fast. And for good reason. I think you’d be missing a lot if you go to Changdeokgung in autumn and not see the Secret Garden. The thing though is that you cannot enter the Secret Garden without the tour.

It’s a 90-minute tour, but on that day, after the tour, we were left to our own devices to take photos wander around.

The Secret Garden, called Huwon during the Joseon era, was where kings and noblemen ate and drank, wrote poetry, floated wine cups, and more. While landscaped, it was apparently kept as natural as possible.

There are parts of the garden which have steep inclines, as it was landscaped so that it embraced the natural topography of the area. So do wear comfortable shoes!

Changdeokgung is directly connected to the Changgyeonggung near the entrance of the Secret Garden.

To get to Changdeokgung, you may take the subway to Anguk Station (Line 3). You can also walk through the Samcheongdong/Bukchon area from Gyeongbokgung. 

Admission to Changdeokgung is ₩3000, while Changdeokgung with the Huwon (the Secret Garden) tour is ₩8000. However, you first need to secure a slot online for the Secret Garden tour here. You may reserve a slot up to a month in advance. Print out your reservation and present it to the ticketing booth. 

The Secret Garden tour is free with the integrated ticket for palaces, but advance reservation is required.

Changgyeonggung can be accessed via Changdeokgung.

This is probably Old Me talking — I could pull all-nighters in college, but now, in my early 30s, I’m finding it more difficult to stay up beyond 10 PM — but I have mentioned before that you should stay in Insa-dong when you are in Seoul.  Why? Let’s recap:

First, many sights are a walking distance away: Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Unhyeongung, the Jongmyo Shrine, the Gwanghwamun Square, the Bukchon Hanok Village, and (a little farther off) the Cheonggyecheon Stream.

Cheonggyecheon Stream, much like the Haneul Park in the World Cup Park, used to be just a neglected area in Seoul that was restored to a more eco-friendly space. In the 1950s, the place was a slum area; then, it was covered by concrete to create an elevated highway. It was only in 2003 when the Cheonggyecheon Stream was restored in a massive, $900M undertaking. It is now a park that is more than 5 kilometers long.

People were still walking along its banks when we came here one evening, after about 20 minutes of walking south from Insa-dong.

Second, Insa-dong an art street, so you’ll find eclectic stuff in its stores, and musicians playing their instruments here and there.

Ssamzie-gil along Insa-dong functions as an artsy shopping complex. It has cafes, galleries, workshops, and fashion and accessory boutiques.

As you can see, there are many souvenir shops, so you can easily make a pasalubong run without wasting too much time.

Finally, it’s not as crowded as Myeong-dong. There are food stalls at the southern end of Insa-dong. They’re not as ubiquitous as the ones in Myeong-dong, but there are restaurants and other interesting food stuff there. And there’s a really good dumpling stall in one of the alleys branching from Insa-dong. Let me show you a picture again:

Stay in Hongdae if you’re into mingling with crowds and partying, and Myeongdong or Dongdaemun if you want to go shopping all day and all night everyday (Dongdaemun malls are open from 10:30 AM until 5:30 AM!). But if you’re looking for laid-back fun, stay in Insa-dong.

On our fourth day in Seoul, we slept for as long as we could and took our time with breakfast. Our goal was to visit nearby areas — the Jongmyo Shrine, Unhyeongung, the War Memorial, and whichever other place struck our (read: my) fancy.

Unhyeongung used to be where the crown prince Gojong stayed before he ascended to the throne of the Joseon dynasty. Right now it is much smaller than it used to be, as original parts of it have become schools and a hanok guesthouse.

While we were exploring the place, we heard music from somewhere. We were reminded of the show the day before at Changgyeonggung and were excited that we might actually be able to watch this one. We followed the sounds and saw that people were milling about the small courtyard — the Norakdang, as it turns out, which was also where King Gojong married Empress Myeongseong. Some kids were even peeking inside, and there was a father carrying his toddler, both of them wearing traditional clothes.

I squeezed my way inside, right in the middle of things, and took a few shots of what looked like a play featuring a couple wearing traditional Korean clothes. But then I noticed that two middle-aged couples were sitting on each side of the couple. Then, the woman whom I thought was a narrator of sorts seemed to instruct the main couple to embrace the older ones, which they did…while everybody clapped.

Realization dawned. I slowly made my way back toward the exit, near which my husband stood. He whispered beside me, “Uh…I think we’re in a wedding.”

“I think so, too?” I whispered back.

So we hurriedly left the courtyard, and that’s when we noticed some flower installations, a table with three ladies sitting in a row on one side, and a tarpaulin that showed chibi versions of the couple we’d just seen. It was the registration area for the wedding.

And my husband and I stared at each other in shock and embarrassment. Then we just laughed our heads off even as we left Unhyeongung.

The next stop in our misadventure was the Jongmyo Royal Shrine, another UNESCO heritage site. It’s an important Confucian shrine — the oldest and most authentic. What you see of the Jongmyo Royal Shrine now is what it was in the 16th century (minus the more modern installations, of course). While the bodies of the kings and queens are buried in royal mounds, their “spirit tablets” are housed in the Jongmyo shrine.

It was a Saturday, so visitors were free to stroll around. On weekdays (except Tuesdays, when it is closed) and Sundays, you have to join a tour group to enter. At least our stay here was relatively uneventful.

To rest a bit, we stayed in a room where there was a multimedia presentation on the Jongmyo Jerye. The Jongmyo Jerye are rites originating from China and are held to worship the deceased kings and queens of the Joseon dynasty. The elaborate Confucian rites, including the music and dancing, are well-preserved — they have been reconstructed from historical sources. They have been revived and are held in the Jongmyo Shrine up to this day.

I loved the atmosphere of the Jongmyo Shrine. It may have helped that there were very few people there, who also seemed to sense the serenity the place required and exuded.

Entrance to Unhyeongung is free. Entrance to the Jongmyo Shrine is ₩1000 for aduts, ₩500 for kids ages 7-18. Everyone else goes in for free.

The Jongmyo shrine is included in the integrated palace ticket worth ₩10000.

Just a little ways off Kyoto is a small city called Uji, whose claim to fame is its green tea.

More than the green tea, though, Uji has important cultural and historical significance. Being situated just south of Kyoto and north of Nara, Uji itself Uji itself rose as a cultural center especially during the Heian period (794–1185) along with the two former capitals. Now, Uji City is known for a couple of World Heritage Sites and for being the setting of The Tale of Genji in its closing chapters.

You should take a day trip to Uji before going to Fushimi Inari, as they’re both along the same JR line. You can get a map at the Uji Station and take a walking tour of the sights, which are in a relatively compact area.

Your first stop would be the Byōdō-in Temple. To get there, you would pass through Omotesando, literally the main road leading to a shrine. On this approach are several shops selling tea and other tea products, including ice cream, dango, and Kit-Kats. The air would smell of freshly roasting tea, and you’d want to go closer to these roasting machines to inhale the smoky scent and warm your body up.

True to its name, Omotesando does lead you to Byōdō-in (entrance: ¥600), a World Heritage Site, originally built during the Heian period. Its Phoenix Hall is just gorgeous — and it has never been destroyed, making it almost a millennium old.

On the roof of the hall are two golden phoenixes, from which the hall gets its name, of course.

You can stroll around the garden and lotus pond, and then go to the museum inside. Marvel at the artifacts from the Heian period.

After Byōdō-in, you can take a very short walk to the Uji River.

During our visit, there seemed to be a spring festival as stalls flanked cherry trees on the riverbanks. Following everyone’s example, we bought some food and ate along the river as sakura petals floated around us with every passing breeze.

After our brunch, we crossed the vermilion bridge and, following the map, went to Ujigami Shrine. As the “guardian shrine” of Byōdō-in, it’s an unimposing building, but it’s also believed to be the oldest standing shrine in Japan.

Our last stop of the day in Uji was the Tale of Genji Museum, which had dioramas and displays of scenes from the novel. You could borrow a headset to guide you (in English) through the short film in its small cinema.

To cap off your visit, you could have a late lunch in many of the restaurants going back to the train station.

To go to Uji City, take the JR Nara line from Kyoto Station to Uji Station.

In Yoshino
By the mountains, the flowering
Cherry blossoms:
Simply for snow
I did mistake them!

Ki no Tomonori, from the Kokin Wakashū (c. 905)

Of course I use “endless” in hyperbole, but looking at Mt. Yoshino from certain viewpoints would give you the impression that the crowds of cherry trees go on and on, down the other side of the mountain and beyond.

The truth is that Yoshino-yama is home to some 30,000 cherry trees of different varieties. Most of them are yamazakura, the most common wild cherry tree variety, distinctive because of its rust-colored leaves. Aside from the blooms, Yoshino-yama is also a famous pilgrimage route for its several religious destinations.

Mt. Yoshino is divided into four parts: Shimo Senbon (lower area),  Naka Senbon (middle area), Kami Senbon (upper area), and Oku Senbon (inner area). You’d want to go up to Kami Senbon to get the best views of the mountain. Since they are on different elevations, each area reaches peak blooming season at different times in the spring, with Shimo Sembon reaching peak first.

Planning our trip to Yoshino involved checking the sakura forecasts and the weather every day. I found a window on a cloudy but otherwise dry day, when Kami Sembon was supposedly in full bloom.

Our day started with a train ride more than 1.5 hours long from Osaka Abenobashi Station. It was the first express train to Yoshino for the day. We arrived at the Yoshino Station a little after 8 AM and immediately fell in line for the shuttle bus to take us to Naka Senbon. Most of those in the bus with us were older Japanese and some foreigners — and there were people older than us who opted to climb up on foot. I was pregnant by 14 weeks then, by the way — but preggers or not, we were lazy ass travelers, and we were going to take that bus either way.

From where the bus dropped us off, we mostly stuck to the main road as we set off on foot. Now, there are rather steep climbs, and since we were going verrry slowly (with several very fit obāsans overtaking us), it took us about 45 minutes to get to (what seemed to us was) Kami Senbon, where the flowers were still at their peak.

We hadn’t expected the long, steep climb, and I also didn’t expect the even longer descent back to the train station. It was an enjoyable walk, though. We snapped lots of photos and had sakura ice cream (more like vanilla-flavored ice cream with light pink food coloring) from one of the houses along the road.

One of the best parts was going through Yoshino town, which was crowded with local tourists. Most of them were walking uphill, so we were relieved that we’d avoided the worst of the crowd.

Stores in the town sold everything sakura, from trinkets to cakes.

Also on the way down, we got to visit a couple of temples. One of them is Kinpusen-ji, a World Heritage Site. The main hall of the temple is supposedly the second largest wooden structure in Japan.

We also got to visit Sakuramotobō, apparently built by Emperor Tenmu on the spot where he dreamt of a beautiful cherry tree blooming in the middle of winter. It’s supposedly an auspicious sign of his ascension to the throne.

Finally, we visited Tonan-in.

The winding road down through Shimo Sembon after passing the town was rather confusing, so we simply followed the small groups of people to get back to Yoshino Station — always good advice when you’re traveling. The trees here had lost most of their petals due to the rains in the previous days, and the ground was littered with them.

It seemed like a long walk, but it was only lunchtime when we got back to the station. We got to eat some yummy takoyaki and more sakura ice creams until our train arrived.

The easiest and cheapest way to get to Mt. Yoshino from Osaka is to take the Kintetsu Minami-Osaka/Yoshino Line Exp. from Osaka Abenobashi Station to Yoshino Station. Fare is ¥970. Take the earliest train, for they can be crowded during peak sakura season.

The Yoshino shuttle bus to Kami Senbon leaves every 15 minutes. Fare is ¥360.

My dearest M,

I’d been looking forward to our trip to Singapore for about a year. I’d pictured nineteen-month-old you seeing up close all those animals you’d only seen in your picture books — the elephants, giraffes, lions. I’d wanted to see you gleefully running around in open spaces, which is quite rare in our part of the metropolis, where well-kept grassy land is also part of supersized malls. Also, I’d been raring for travel; there’s only so much traveling I could do as a teacher, and especially as a new mother.

But as in everything about you, no matter how many articles I’ve read about raising a child, I’ve always had to readjust my expectations. In Singapore Zoo, I didn’t quite expect that you’d be more interested in pushing your wagon than seeing the giraffes (so much for that SG$15 wagon rental). In S.E.A. Aquarium, you did seem to like the exhibits, but there were just so many people that you were always on the verge of a meltdown. There are explanations to these, of course: toddlers prefer doing things than just seeing them, and, well, no one in our family likes crowds.

As for me: Booking seats with wider legroom on legacy airlines has become preferable, because you will be kicking and crawling and crying. No more cheap hostels with shared bathrooms — your comfort should always come first. I cannot pack as many activities as humanly possible in one day anymore. I can only make room for one major activity for the day, and the schedule has to depend on your nap time. Looking at maps means looking for the nearest nursing room. I cannot take quick, long walks, and I cannot pause for too long to adjust my camera and take pictures.

I suppose this teaches me a lesson on traveling: that I need to walk slower, maybe take fewer pictures, and just take in the sights. And a lesson on motherhood as well: I should not be in such a hurry to show you the world, because perhaps all you really want is simply to run around on Singapore’s wide walkways while yelling “Car! Car!” at the double-decker buses.

And so, when you show interest in something, it gives me nothing but pure joy. We may have bad pictures of our encounter with the chimpanzees, but only because they were more interesting to look at than the zoo staff with the cameras. The elephant show provoked only the slightest smile from you, but you chuckled and chuckled when you watched the feeding of the giant tortoises. You were mostly “meh” at the sleeping white tiger, but you were so excited at seeing the lizards that you smacked the glass so hard and I had to pull you away.

Maybe (hopefully), someday, you will ask about wildlife, history, and architecture, and we will explore answers together. Maybe we’ll give elephants baths in Chiang Mai. Maybe we’ll take hikes and go scuba diving together. Or maybe you’ll be more content lounging in the beach, thinking of stories to write. I don’t know what you’ll like in the future, but for now, I’ll enjoy watching you grow up and travel on your own terms — whatever that means for a restless toddler at this moment.

Love,

Your Mam