Stationery Shopping: Monami in Seoul, South Korea

 

I just got back from a short trip to Seoul and wanted to share my experience at the Monami store in Seongsu. 

The store is outside exit 4 of Seongsu station on line 2 of the Seoul Metro. 

Monami is a south korean stationery brand, they make everything from pens to office supplies to calligraphy tools and are widely available due to their affordable prices. 

The store has been at this location for a while not and it's pretty big for a standalone brand store in the area. 

When you walk in, you're greeted by the custom ink mixing station called ink lab next to the payment counter. I think the ink lab requires a reservation but I had dropped in casually and didn't make one. 

The store sells a wide variety of items including souvenir cards...

...apparel....

...stickers, tape and paper for journalling. 

There's also a wide range of their pens, markers, pencils and calligraphy tools. 

At the back of the store, you'll find a DIY pen station, you can pick the ink refill, body, and cap to make your own pen! 

There's also a vending machine if the store is crowded and you'd like something in a hurry. 

Also, vending machines are always fun so give it a try anyway! 

It's not really a stationery store without notebooks, they had some custom notebook options and they also carried other brands. 

Like this moleskine collab with Harry Potter, which I thought was very pretty. 

I had a fun time browsing the store, I already own some of their pens and markers so deciding what to buy turned out to be more difficult than I thought. 

Tune in next week for my review on what I purchased in the store. 

If you're in the Seongsu area, and you most likely will as it's one of the trending areas in Seoul, definitely drop by the Monami store! 

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Seoul - Co:lumn

The coffee drinker and I met up in Seoul for a trip a few weeks ago. We did the usual tourist thing, shopping thing but on the last day, we decided we would cafe hop! Turns out the area nearby had a few cafes so off we went to explore. 

Our first stop, because we were hungry, was Co:lumn. It is a converted warehouse in an industrial area, if that sounds like it wouldn't be easy to find, you would be right. The entrance is pretty nondescript save for a couple of boards, only the coming and going of people hinted that there was something there. 

You pay an entry fee at the door for the art gallery and that gets you a drink. This fee is mandatory if you want to eat at the restaurant/cafe. There are 2 spaces, one has the drinks bar/order counter and the other has the kitchen. Both spaces were big with high ceilings, lots of natural light and filled with art.  

We went on a Saturday so it was pretty crowded but some skilful loitering scored us a table. We ordered our drinks and food (both self service, hence the buzzer) and waited, picking up the food from the kitchen when it was ready. 

I thought the tea was a bit weak, but the food was amazing and I really enjoyed the whole experience. Definitely stay to admire the artwork, take some photos in the natural light. Perfect way to spend a slow day. 

Have you been to this space? What did you think?  

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