Korea Travelogue: Day 8 - Cube Studio Cafe
By the time you're reading this entry, I'm already in the land of Rising Sun, probably frolicking somewhere in Harajuku or Shibuya lol. So the rest of the entries will have to wait till I return to Singapore because I'm too lazy and procrastinate too much too busy planning for my Japan trip. Heh. I mentioned in my last entry that after Insadong, four of us went back to Cube Studio Café because it was closed the first time we visited. Took the train to Cheongdam Station and made our way to Cube Studio Café, not before passing by MOLDIR for the bff to reserve her bag lol. The things we do outta love <3
If you look carefully, each stocking is labelled by girl idol group members names LOL. Ajumma, one Sunny stocking pls! :D
Took a different route to get to Cube this time, passing by the old SM Entertainment building which has since been converted into a training facility for trainees. You will most likely see the current promoting SM group splashed across the building to recognise it. And yes, I know it's bloody long since Red Velvet promoted their 2nd single. They've since added a new member in and promoted another single fml.
Checked out the bags in this huge MCM store along the way as well. Didn't see anything I liked so we all walked out empty handed. It seems that the brand is getting much more sales from tourists thanks to the Hallyu wave. And FYI, this is a Korean brand even though it has German origins. Just a fun fact lol.
Went in to use their toilet too lol. It was weird having the EXO advertisement play non-stop on the tiny screen inside the cubicle :/
Finally reached the café after much pit stops HAHAHA. It's open!! THANK GOD.
The café is obviously decorated with merchandise for CUBE Entertainment artistes like Beast, BTOB, 4minute and G.Na. Sorry Pink Pandas, there were no A-Pink merchandise available there >_<
I liked the handprints that lined the floor haha! Probably the nearest I will get to any Beast member really lol. It's pretty cool, like the Hollywood Walk of Fame :D
We placed our orders at the counter and was told to return for collection when the buzzer rang. The food variety is not much there, just some brownie and cakes if I recall correctly so if you're there for a full meal think otherwise!
It's my first time at this café but the bff and Stella had visited it the year before so they told us that the beverage sleeves change periodically, depending on who was the artist promoting at that time. Because it was going to be Yoseob's birthday when we visited the café in early January, he was on the beverage sleeve cover.
After eating the brownie, someone decided to go and buy the random photo from the Beast Beautiful Show Tour 2014 and we somehow all ended up getting them one each (even though I am not a fan! heol.) and it became a case of 'I need to get my bias' photo or I will have a mental breakdown there and then'. We have to go through all the heart attacks with the stupid random photocards that come in all Korean idol group albums so I don't know why we started doing this to torture ourselves with the photos lol #fangirlpains I don't even have a bias from Beast! D:
The bff was uber evil and decided to start taking pictures of our reactions when we open the photos because it was damn funny to her. Not funny leh really -.-"
First up, Wanjun got lucky with Kikwang because he's the bff's bias. It's always a case of loyalty each time we do this - if we end up with someone else's bias, the card/photo automatically goes to that person lol. So yes, the bff got this photo in the end.
And then the bff managed to get Junhyung and since none of us has him as our bias, he automatically stays with her lol. Not that she minds clearly :D Wanjun wanted to get a Dongwoon photo so she ended up buying even more random photos but she ended up with the other Kikwang photo and Hyunseung. Yes, there are naturally more than 1 version of each member in order for the entertainment company to earn more money lol.
She finally managed to get her Dongwoon photo and check out her reaction lol! That moment when you open it and you see your bias' face - ultimate happiness because it means you don't have to trade for it and deal with horrible people the agony of finding someone to trade your photo/card with then to arrange a meet-up etc.
Stella got super lucky because she got Dujoon's photo on her first try and Dongwoon on her second attempt! Dujoon is her bias by the way lol.
Then it was my turn to open my photo and.... sorry my expressions says it all lol. I ended up force selling both photos to the bff and Wanjun HAHAHAHA because I wanted a Kikwang photo.
She finally got another Kikwang photo so I grabbed it for myself HAHAHAHAH! I think all in all we went back to the counter to buy at least 20 photos at different times, such that the staff got a little peeved with us oops.
Our conversations mostly went like this regarding the random photos:
Open leh! OMG OMG OMG! (realises that it's not the photo you want)
Should I go buy another one? (someone else says "Just buy la! Come all the way here already.")
(walks back to counter praying the staff will not curse at you, grab a photo, pay for it then walk back to the table)
and then the cycle repeats until we forced each other to leave the café lol.
Sneaked in a last minute buy before we left lol #nevergiveup I hope the reaction photos are entertaining enough for you guys HAHAHAHA
A closer look at the other parts of the café:
Rice donations in celebration for Yoseob's birthday at the back of the café. The café has a dance studio on level 2 and Beast actually had a small fan-meeting on that day in the afternoon. There is also an open-air area at the back of the café. Obviously it was too cold for anyone in the right mind to sit there but I think it would be lovely in the summer to hang out there and be surrounded by all the idols' face lol.
Left after spending about 2 hours there and headed to Apgujeong Rodeo Station to catch the train back to Hongdae.
Met a Nichkhun standee and made the bff take this lol. At least he got shrunk to a proper height to take pictures with xD
Reached back to TP and we went to order Chinese food because we were too hungry still HAHAHA. Our sole proper meal that day was the ginseng chicken soup at Tosokchon in the day, other than that we were just munching snacks in between to fill our stomachs so we had to have some carbs then lol.
The 4 of us each ordered jjajangmyeon and a portion of tangsuyeok to share, we got the fried dumplings for free which many takeout places do as part of 'service'. You can ask the duty manager at TP to order for you because they would have the menu and the restaurant only speaks Korean. Just remember to clear the leftover food into the food waste bag and leave the plates/bowls outside of TP's main entrance for the delivery man to collect at a later timing.
Alright, that's it for Day 8 so stay tuned for the remaining entries ^^ Bye!