It was 2009 when I visited the Teddy Bear Museum at Namsan. That was our first day of vacation in Seoul and my first time at N Seoul Tower so I wanted to experience everything the place has to offer. I didn't want to pass up the chance to explore the museum especially since there were 2 huge teddy bears displayed just on the entrance to the tower itself!
I didn't know it then but we apparently visited when the museum was just a few months old. The Korea Tourism site reports that the museum was opened last 2008 and is the 3rd of its kind in Korea following those in Jeju and Paju Heyri. Ticket for the museum only is at KRW8,000 for adults. But we bought the ticket package worth KRW14,000 which includes the Teddy Bear Museum and the N Seoul Tower Observatory.
We went up the Observatory first since it was almost sundown after we bought our tickets. We wanted to see the view before it gets dark and then wait a while to also check out how the scene is with all the lights nicely lit. We probably went down to the Teddy Bear museum at around 7PM-8PM? Plenty of time to immerse ourselves in Teddy Bear heaven before it closes at 10PM.
I didn't research about the place so I didn't know what to expect at the museum. Hence, I was pleasantly surprised to see the historic theme of the exhibit with all the teddy bears decked in Korean traditional hanbok! The thing is, we actually did the self-guided palace tour in Changdeokgung earlier that day so seeing the overwhelmingly cute teddy bears in their palace setting was just too crazy cute and nostalgic.
There was only a small group of female highschool students with us at the museum at that time. We lost them at some point ~ didn't know if they got ahead of us or if we left them behind. So we were able to take as much pictures as we want and ogle as much as we can at the cute bears! The displays were complete with motion sensors so that music will start playing and some bears will start moving when we approach an exhibit. This was perfect since we almost had the museum to ourselves so it really felt like the displays were being set into gear for us!
If you watch saeguk drama's, you can certainly appreciate some of the scenes depicted by the teddy bear exhibits ^^! Each section tells of Seoul's history from the Joseon Dynasty. Everything was extravagantly laid out and each teddy bear had a role and a scene all on his own. Even the miniscule details on the exhibits were really crafted well. We couldn't decide if we should be taking pictures of the entire exhibit or focus on specific bears!
We spent a long time at the at the first Gallery not knowing what's in store for us on the next one. I think we even deliberated if we still wanted to check it out (probably got a bit too overwhelmed by tons of bears!) or go grab dinner haha. Good thing we did head on over to Gallery 2 (which had a separate entrance I believe).
I was ecstatic seeing what was on Gallery 2! It was like the teddy bears got hold of our Seoul itinerary and decided to give us a preview of our vacation on our first nightㅋㅋㅋ. It was literally a teddy bear version of a Seoul vacation guidebook: Everland, Myeongdong, Dongdaemun, Insadong, Cheonggyecheon, Hongdae, and even the Blue House had their spots in the museum. Famous shows like Nanta and B-boy and even a scene during a world cup match were all depicted perfectly! How fun would it be if the displays were also laid out as a scaled down map so we can pretend to visit the places or maybe re-enact a previous trip? Haha, just a thought.
At the end of Gallery 2, there were more bears but they were not necessarily Seoul-related anymore. It was an interesting sight to see the evolution of this cuddly toy but I admit that the grandeur of the previous exhibits made this set seem too simple. There was also this multimedia section where you stand at a spot on a bluescreen and gets to be in a CGI scene with bears. Soo cute.
When we got to the souvenir shop, we almost couldn't stand to see another bear anymore ㅋㅋㅋ! I guess we reached our teddy bear limit for that day.
We had tons of fun at that museum and we were so psyched to execute the rest of our Seoul itinerary. It was definitely worth the ticket. If I ever get to Jeju or Paju, I would love to check out their versions of the Teddy Bear museum too.
