Seoul travel blog 2025 [part 1]

Hello there!
Almost a month passed but I want to write down about traveling in Seoul 🇰🇷

I visited to Seoul in South Korea for IACON 2025, the transformers event, kinda similar Doujin only event in Japan.
I was planning to visit to Korea before Covid, but by the chaotic situation I couldn’t visit. So I was so excited to visit to Korea! So I did sightseeing before and after the event, so I just want to write down about my memory. I didn’t took pic so much tho. And Almost about foods🍜🍺

4th Sep 2025

I flight to Haneda to Gimpo airport by JAL. It was terribly heavy rainy day, I had to bring two suitcases, I was almost die before arriving nearby train station. There wasn’t problem for checking in and no delaying my flight. I booked just an economy class but inflight meal was Anago Chirashi (based sea eels are topped), there wasn’t another choices but it was so tasty.

It was very quick trip to Seoul from Tokyo. It was less than two and a half hours.
I booked a hotel that belongs to the Seoul station so it was easy to get to hotel by the metro from Gimpo airport. Struggled to installing eSIM that I bought at the airport and I was waiting wrong lane for receiving my luggages, I waisted the time around 1 hour tho 🫠 Yes, it was typical ADHD way.

This day I was going to get some snack as dinner at convenience store, but I walked around the hotel, there are a small restaurant that was opening 24 hours so I decided to eat Korean food there.
I ordered a sundae guk and a bottle of beer, rice and some side dishes were served with sundae guk. There were sundae (Korean pork blood sausage) and some kinds of pork offals and meat in the sundae guk, once put some perilla seeds powder and some saeu-jeot (fermented small shrimp) it turned really deep and awesome flavor. And I thought choosing a sundae guk was good decision after the flight from Tokyo to Seoul, I felt good by the warm soup.

I was tired so much this day, just had a local beer that I bought at convenience store and sleep as dead soon.

5th Sep 2025

Second day of Seoul!
It was so good weather, so I walked around Namdaemun Market in morning. Namdaemun Market is the oldest market in Seoul. I was going to do shopping later days so I was going to just only walk around… Though I bought some nice Korean tablewares😂

It was damn hot for walking around outside, but there are the cafe on every corners. Literally every corners. I was helped by them many times lol

Jjolmyeon and beer for lunch! The jjolmyeon is one of my favorite so I often make by myself but it was totally tastier than I made. It was spicy but soooo addictive taste. I wanted to eat Gimpab if my stomach has extra room…!

I had an appointment of the hair salon to cut my hair, so I visited to Hongdae area by bus. There are a lot of buses are running in the city, so it was nice to access to every area in Seoul but often some buses stops at same station same time so I took on wrong bus several times lol

The hair salon I went was cozy and the hairstylist was cool, and she could speak Japanese so everything went well. I didn’t have time to go to hair salon before visiting to Seoul, so I was relieved my hair became properly before the event.
Hongdae was kinda cultural area, there was a university. It seemed there are many
stylish cafe and street foods. This time I couldn’t have enough time so I’m going to visit again next time.

I wanted to try local craft beer so I went a bar in Myeongdong. The night of Myeongdong was so crowd, there were a lot of street food stands through the long street. Fortunately the bar has vacancy on second floor. I had two kind of local craft beers with tteokbokki. Both beers were so nice but I thought lighter beer like Terra was better combination with tteokbokki. The dog illustration on the beer glass was so cute, and… When I leave the bar, I found three super fluffy dogs were relaxing on the sofa back of the casher.
The tteokbokki was spicier than I thought so I was worried about my ass next day but nothing happened fortunately 😇

6th Sep 2025

The day of IACON 2025!
It was strong rain whole day… but the heated atmosphere in the IACON 2025 was phenomenal. I couldn’t take any picture because I was so panicked and keeping busy. Damnnn🥲
There were a lot of artist tables, and fun events like lucky draw, quiz and bingo. Congrats people who got my Optimus and Megatron original art!👍👍👍

I thought I brought prints and books enough because they were more than usual, but all items were sold out mid of the event. I am so sorry people who couldn’t buy. However I was so excited to see really cool and kind TF fans in Korea. Thank you everyone who came to say hi to my table. And all of stuff of IACON 2025, thank you for letting me join as guest to such awesome event and great hospitality. I was helped a lot during the event. Since Covid-19 pandemic, I couldn’t travel abroad and I couldn’t join any of TF event. IACON 2025 was first time TF event since I went to TFNation in 2019. I’m so happy I was welcomed and I could share awesome time with people who joined IACON 2025.

After the event, I and my friend who helped my table during the event went to K-BBQ!❤️‍🔥 Meats were so tasty but the doenjang jjigae was killer! I learned how to eat K-BBQ well from friend lol We chatted endlessly. (went to cafe after the BBQ, because we need to chat more lol) (See you in Japan next time~~) After event was perfect for me too. Haha

It already became long, so I will separate the post.

Continue to the part two~~ 감사합니다