Notes from July 5th, 2026

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Ice cream and waffles, plus traditional hot tea, at Cafe Coin in Myeongdong, Seoul. The cafe interior has a tasteful antique feeling with lots of wooden furniture and detailing.

Hello 🙂

I am sitting at a lovely Tsaochaa in New York City!

I want to finally start sharing some stories here. I actually commissioned my website design back in NOVEMBER and its now *July 2026.* So I truly do procrastinate on everything – even things I am looking forward to, happy things like this or communicating with loved ones. 

Anyways I visited South Korea and Japan back in May, using most of my vacation time from work to do so, and it was truly the best decision I’ve made in my life, and the best time of my life. I saw so many beautiful sights, met so many beautiful people, and I still feel so blessed, alhamdullilah.. I think I’ll go through the entire thing chronologically and hopefully that will help me remember the best, most useful, and interesting details hehe~

DAY ONE – USA to INCHEON

My padded travel tote resting on blue airport seats. There’s a Hello Kitty travel pillow buttoned onto the open tote, with Powerade, water and other things like a facemask and clawclip visible.

I packed one large suitcase and one carry-on, as well as a cute new travel bag with comfortable wide padded shoulder straps. I had my essentials and I even packed some emergency cup ramen….

Unfortunately carrying the cup ramen was futile as the plane experienced turbulence, so they didn’t allow hot water use T_T I also wasn’t able to get in contact with the airline beforehand to request a halal or vegetarian meal – though I tried!! – and they didn’t have any vegetarian meals, so I basically survived the ~15 hour flight on chips, chocolate, and water. I had a terrible cold and that added to the discomfort but, it was okay in the end and I was just glad it was over! I hope that in the future I can be careful about securing my meal and also try to find business class deals (in sha Allah)….

Anyways I was so relieved when we finally got to Incheon. I was bloated and haggard BUT I WAS IN SOUTH KOREA!!! alhamdullilah 🙂 I had a free taxi service with my accommodations booking so the taxi driver just contacted and then met me in the airport once I was past security, customs, and luggage pickup, and we were on our way to Myeongdong, Seoul~

EVENING – MYEONGDONG, SEOUL

A red bridge over water and greenery, with buildings visible in the background, viewed from a taxi window while traveling on the highway.

I moved my things into the accommodation, refreshed myself, did my makeup, got dressed into a new outfit. It was around 8PM local time so thankfully I had still had time to walk around and experience the local night market which was bustling with lots of other tourists.

A lovely young stall owner cooking and selling halal lamb skewers; photo taken with her permission. Halal signs are posted on her stall.
A friendly stall owner cooking takoyaki. There are cute plushie takoyaki and octopus decorations, and a decoration with a cute drawing of a chibi hijabi character cooking takoyaki.

I was impressed that all of the staff were so patient and welcoming, and that they made all of the food freshly, with labels in English for the convenience of visitors. The halal lamb skewer and takoyaki I had were delicious! I think there might have been other modes of paying but cash (Won) is definitely the most convenient, understandably.

A stall with fish-shaped baked treats (bunggeoppang.) I had never seen bunggeoppang sold like this before – the fish patterned part still entombed in a slab of rectangular dough from the bunggeoppang pan, rather than with the extra dough frame removed haha. More yummy carbs and I like this design too, no complaints 🙂

After the market, I searched online and found Cafe Coin nearby as a rare cafe open late in the area. It’s such a lovely, comfy, and clean cafe with an antique aesthetic and very kind staff. Beautifully decorated and the dessert was such a wonderful treat after a day of traveling. But actually one of first things I noticed was when going up the stairs to the cafe. They have autographs posted including a kpop group that I really loved when I was in school, A-JAX. So cute!

Framed autographs from public figures, including members of the former(?) kpop group A-JAX, dated November 5th, 2018.
Page of a menu at Cafe Coin, Myeongdong, listing Traditional Tea from Korea such as Omija, Jujube, Yuzu, Plum, Multi-Herbal, and Ssanghwa Tea.
Hot tea with jujube pieces and other fruits and nuts, next to a little dish of crystallized ginger a plate of waffles and ice cream.
Various designs of antique teacups and saucers on display in a case at Cafe Coin.

It was quite late by the time I finished eating, around 11pm? So I headed home to sleep very contentedly 🙂

A street in Myeongdong with various shops, including the Hello Kitty Apple Cafe, with red themed awning and decorations.

Completed & posted September 1, 2026

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