My Time in Jeju’s Museums

During the Second Week of October, I had gone on a trip to one of South Korea’s most popular vacation spots: Jeju. I went with three friends from my home university, two were there on vacation. We scheduled out roughly 5 days to do as many activities as possible. Most days ended with pure exhaustion due to the day’s events, this would be considered a successful day out. Some of the most exciting parts of the whole trip were the museums we visited. On the first day, we visited two museums the Osulloc Tea Museum and the Chocolate Museum. Both were bountiful in history and edible goodies. The chocolate museum allows visitors to try a sample of their famous fudge (which I may or may not have bought a whole box of and consequently devoured soon after) and the Tea museum did not lack any amount of Tangerine flavored beverages. Jeju is crazy about their tangerines. So much that the Taxi man we entered for full days out would always see us off with some hand-picked tangerines and then some for the road.

One of the most interesting Museums I attended was on the third day of our trip, The Teddy Bear Museum. This museum was a mix of build-a-bear (at the end) and mock history and art pieces recreated in the image of bears. Some artworks like the Mona Lisa and the Statue of David were very well imitated. Not only did teddy bears imitate art but there were also moving animatronic displays that depicted important historical events like The Sinking of the Titanic, The Moon Landing, and The Reunification of Germany. All the displays were artfully curated, not only showing historical works of art and events, but some displays contained the historical background of teddy bears, from Carebears, Paddington bear, and so on. The whole experience was one intriguing blow after another. They even went so far as to have a Gucci Bear, the Guinness world’s smallest teddy bear, and an all-out fashion runway in partnership with a Designer from Seoul Fashion Week. This was by far where I spent the most money. (There were just so many cute teddy bears of all shapes and sizes). Most Museums are curated to lead you through all the exhibits first and then by the end show you all the souvenirs you may buy. I ended up making my own bear and then buying two more as gifts.

Something to note while vacationing in Jeju is that if you are not in one of the island’s two cities, Jeju City and Seogwipo City, the taxi fare can add up very quickly. My friends and I decided on an Airbnb Condo located in Hallim-ro where it took almost an hour to travel to either city. Along with this, the taxi men are usually ones that you book for the whole day, something that is more convenient if you plan to go to many places in one day. Subsequently, the meter will run all day leading to some very expensive fare. Thankfully fare was usually split between the four of us.