Hello!
This is the manager of tawawa.
(tawawa is an online shop that sells succulent plants (mainly Echeveria) imported from Korea.)
In early May, tawawa finished sales for the 2022-2023 season and entered a long summer vacation until autumn.
When I suddenly had time, I thought, "Maybe I can go now!?"
That's why I decided in a hurry, "Korean succulent tour trip".
There is no naming sense and writing sense w,
If you like succulents, you can see and buy a little bit of succulents when you travel to Korea. If you like plants, you can buy dried flowers, artificial flowers, pots and accessories for ornamental plants, etc. In the hope that I can be of some help to those who would like to visit, I would like to introduce my trip of 4 days and 3 nights in a hurry, including information on facilities and how to get there!
This travelogue
①1st day ← this article ②2nd day ③3rd day ④4th day ⑤Extras such as preparation and recommended information
I'm going to divide it into 5 times and tell you!
Let's quickly look at the first day of our trip to Korea ↓↓
* ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ *
Sunday, May 21, 2023
[Entering Korea]
8:40 Departure from Haneda Airport
11:05 Arrive at Gimpo Airport
Currently, what you need when entering Korea is distributed on the plane
① Immigration card (small paper)
②Health Questionnaire (yellow paper, back side written in English)
It is only two documents!
If you use the Q-DODE "quarantine information pre-entry system" to enter the health questionnaire in ② in advance and issue a QR code, you do not need to fill in the yellow paper.
Q-DODE HP (Japanese) is here
After arriving at Gimpo Airport, follow the flow of submitting a health questionnaire (or presenting Q-DODE) → entering the country.
If you do not need to declare the customs declaration form, you can skip it.
Immigration is also very smooth.
I submitted my passport and immigration card to the immigration officer, and as instructed in Japanese, my face was photographed by a machine and the fingerprints of the index fingers of both hands were scanned.
→ Thanks to this, you can leave Korea in an instant! (will be described later)
Finally, receive your luggage on the turntable and immigration is complete.
About 30 minutes after getting off the plane.
The only time it took was waiting in line while waiting for immigration.
Gimpo Airport is much smaller than Incheon Airport.
Therefore, less walking is required.
[From the airport to the center of Seoul]
After leaving Gimpo Airport, take the subway to your hotel in Seoul.
From Gimpo Airport to the city, there are 1. Taxi, 2. Airport railroad to Seoul Station, and 3. Subway.
Currently, the limousine bus that connects Gimpo Airport and various parts of the city is suspended, so I chose the subway.
The inn this time is Kokuto Hotel, which can be reached from Gimpo Airport by subway No. 5.
There are elevators and escalators from the airport to the subway station, so it's okay to move with large luggage, but it's a little far.
Between the airport and the subway station,
① Currency exchange (WOWPASS)
② Acquisition of transportation IC card (NAMANE card)
I went to
Follow the signs and walk toward the subway, and you will see orange machines on the left side in front of subway line 5.
This is the machine where you can create a WOWPASS card and exchange money .
What is a WOWPASS card?
It's a prepaid card that you can create with the drone pictured above. In addition, the card can be charged directly from Japanese Yen and can be used like a credit card in Korea.
This WOWPASS card also has a T-moey (transportation card. Transportation IC card such as SUICA and ICOKA in Japan) function, so there is no need to purchase a separate T-moey card. However, you must charge your T-moey card in cash (won) at machines in stations or at convenience stores.
Learn more about T-money here .
The reason I used this WOWPASS machine was to "exchange" Japanese Yen into Korean Won.
◎
Above is card creation.
Below is Won Buying = Currency Exchange
Select above if you want to exchange money and receive won in cash.
The exchange rate doesn't seem to be very good, but it's not bad, and if you just want to have some Korean won in cash, it's convenient to use this machine to exchange money!
Since it is for foreigners only, you need to hold your passport over for both currency exchange and card making.
Cashless payment is advanced in South Korea, so cash is not needed for most payment opportunities, but cash was needed at local markets and succulent farms (we went on the 4th day).
So, I exchanged only 10,000 yen for the time being.
By the way, this WOWPASS machine was in the lobby of the hotel where I stayed!
It seems that more than 70 of these machines have been installed at major stations and hotels in Seoul.
Click here for details on WOW PASS.
Since the transportation card (T-money) required to ride the subway needs to be paid in cash (won), I decided to make a NAMANE card instead of WOWPASS!
The NAMANE card making machine is in front of the 7-Eleven store next to the entrance of Route 9 after passing the entrance of Route 5.
Sober compared to WOWPASS...
It's hard to understand, but the white machine on the far right is the NAMANE card machine.
It is also possible to display Japanese.
but···
charge = charge
It's true that both are charge in English. . .
And the translation is a bit suspicious,
The great thing about this machine is that you can download the app in advance and use your favorite image to create a card design!
I also created a design and obtained a QR code before leaving Japan.
And if you register as a member in the app in advance, the card issuance is quite fast.
I prepared in Japan until the design creation,
First, select "Design a card" on the machine and follow the instructions to create a card.
There is a charge for making cards. Credit card payment is also OK.
About 30 seconds to wait. The card with the original design came out in no time!
You can choose cash (won only) or credit card to deposit to the card. This is the advantage of this card. Even if you don't have Korean won, you can deposit money into your card with a Japanese credit card!
The NAMANE card has two wallets, a pay card that can be used like a prepaid card, and a transportation card that can be used as a substitute for T-money.
I want to use this NAMANE card as a transportation card, so I did not make a payment to the pay card, but only made a payment to the transportation card from my credit card.
There is a fee, but I felt that it was very convenient because I didn't have to worry about exchanging cash.
Another advantage of this card is that you can deposit money into the NAMANE card by credit card payment from the dedicated application for the NAMANE card.
Like T-money card and WOWPASS card, you can deposit money without looking for a convenience store or special machine!
However, the NAMANE card can only be paid directly from the app with a pay card. To deposit money into a transportation card, after depositing from the app to a pay card, you can transfer the balance of the pay card to the transportation card.
(You can deposit directly to the transportation card from the NAMANE card dedicated machine.)
Click here for details of NAMANE card
This is also for foreigners only, so it seems that recognition is still low, and when I asked the tourist information staff at the airport who was fluent in Japanese about the NAMANE card , they didn't know the details (^^;;
So, I wrote a long story that has nothing to do with succulents,
Finally get on the subway! !
I also got a transportation card, triumphantly touched the freshly made card at the subway ticket gate and went to the subway platform.
But.
There is only the home of the train going to the opposite destination. .
Surprisingly, in the Korean subway, ticket gates seem to be divided depending on the destination w
Thankfully, you can touch the card and exit the ticket gate without even getting on the subway! ︎ww
Basically, ticket gates at all stations are unmanned. There are no station staff like in Japan. If there is a problem, press a button to call the station staff.
So, please check your destination before entering the ticket gate!
Take the subway line 5 again and go to Ulchirosaga Station, the nearest station to the hotel.
You can take the elevator to the ground level. Exit number 10.
From Exit 10, the hotel is within a 1-minute walk.
Hotel Kokuto
I will write the details of the hotel in another article ^ ^
[Chanfee Farm]
Well, I left my big luggage at the hotel and became light, so let's go to the succulent farm! ︎
On this day, I visited Champee Farm, which sells seedlings many times in Tawawa.
My name is Mr. Chanfee, but you can also call me Mr. Chanhee.
The English notation is Chang Hee.
Unfortunately, this farm is not open to the general public, so I can't tell you how to get there, but I'll tell you what's going on inside the house!!
We took a bus from Seoul to Mr. Champhee's farm.
Local buses don't even have English guides, so be careful if you're going by bus outside of Seoul!
And we arrived safely at the main event of the first day, Mr. Champhy Farm ↓↓
It seems that only this one building is open to the traders who come to receive the seedlings.
Champee Farm is now mainly run by a couple in their late 30s.
You may not be aware of the seedlings produced by Champhee Farm, but he is a breeder who creates original hybrid seedlings that continue to produce many cute succulents in the world.
I think it would be nice if there was a list of which seedlings were produced by each farm, not just the seedlings produced by Champhee Farm.
It was said that there are not so many farms in Korea that produce original hybrid seedlings like Champhy Farm.
In addition to the houses that are open to the public, there are many vinyl houses, most of which are Echeveria houses.
And it is said that a farm of this scale is managed by only five people.
I was told that I was "busy all year round", but that's right!
I introduced the video inside the public house on the LIVE distribution of Instagram, but I will also introduce the photos ^ ^
(The state of the LIVE distribution is in the Instagram post, so please take a look!)
It seems that the seedlings are basically grown from seedlings, but there were also leaf cutting seedlings.
It was a spectacular view, and I felt like I could go round and round for hours.
During the first live broadcast, I received a comment saying "I want it", so I decided to purchase it in a hurry.
Here is the problem
On the right is the wife of Champy Farm ♡︎ She is very cute and bright.
the left one is me
What are you doing when you look at your smartphone?
↑ I'm in conversation w
I can't speak Korean at all.
The two of them used the app and had a conversation while peering into each other's translated sentences.
I'm silent ww
Meanwhile, I heard various information about seedlings,
↑This is the second LIVE distribution.
Decide on the seedlings to purchase while receiving comments on the distribution,
I had the soil and roots treated to bring it back,
I bought about 60 seedlings and brought them back to Japan with my luggage!
Tonight (5/29) we will start selling from 21 pm!! ︎
More information about quarantine etc. will be posted later ^ ^
The seedlings that we directly procured are all recommended succulents, such as new varieties and seedlings that tawawa is the first seller, so please check out our online shop ♪
↑Not sold seedlings Dodry x Laui. Everyone who purchases at tawawa is the first purchaser.
After spending a long time looking at many beautiful seedlings, I got back on the bus and returned to Seoul.
【bonus】
I finished my lunch with in-flight meals, so the first meal in Korea was samgyeopsal with a lot of meat ♡︎
It was delicious~~
The first day was full of travel information, but please read the articles from the second day onwards!!
