Heart and Seoul Travel Log: Food for the Soul Series 1 Entry #5 A Visit to Otsu Seiromushi: Black Pork, Floating Rocks, and Quiet Joys

On the evening of our second day in Seoul, we made our way to Otsu Seiromushi, the restaurant owned by Jin’s brother. Tucked inside a building in a business district in Seoul, the place was ready for our group to be accommodated. There was quiet excitement in the air.

When we were seated, we began with small servings of starters: a cold plate of sashimi and seasoned appetizers. The grilled Jeju black pig arrived soon after, and it was impeccable: greaseless, tender, and not charred at all. For a grilled meat dish, it looked and tasted healthy. I couldn’t help but compare it to the lechon black pig (a.k.a baboy ramo) I tasted during the PASLI Conference last April at the IRRI in Silang, Cavite. That version had subtle flavors of salt and tanlad. This one, however, was more refined. Thinly sliced, just one strip flavored the palate entirely.

The plate of sashimi was another star on the menu. Just like the grilled pork, it tasted fresh and clean. The tuna melted in the mouth, and there was a kind of discipline in the dish that made you want to eat with reverence. It made me want to take only what I could muster and consume; nothing wasted.

My favorite, though, was the oden-style soup with fish cakes and tofu. It was warm, comforting, and nourishing. I’ve been craving soup lately, perhaps due to my changing hormones as I enter menopause, and this bowl hit the spot. The warmth was bracing, the tofu made it even more comforting, and the elegantly wrapped fish cake pouches added depth and texture. This wasn’t just soup. It was a hug in a bowl.

Some of my companions ordered IGIN, the alcoholic drink that Jin himself helped develop. Even Zoe got a glass. I didn’t. Like Hoseok, I have low alcohol tolerance, but I appreciated the joy of everyone toasting and sharing this experience together.

What stood out just as much as the food was the installation art in the middle of the restaurant. It featured large rocks that seemed to float in mid-air, reflected in still water below. I remembered what Yoongi once said in an interview: “I wouldn’t mind being resurrected as a rock” (not in full quotation). It was a funny comment, but in that moment, looking at the quiet stones, it felt profound.

Rocks are silent. Steady. Enduring. They don’t need to prove anything to exist. They simply are. And maybe that’s what makes them strong.

That meal and that moment gave me pause. I was grateful to be there, with my daughter, with fellow ARMYs eating thoughtfully, sharing stories and getting to know each other a little more beyond our online personas. It was about tasting new flavors and appreciating the stillness, the artistry of the food and the community being built personally; relationally in a fandom space where we are often judged as nothing but screaming teenagers.

Let them. This is our joy. We earned it. It is sacred.

Truly Teena Ordoño, thank you for this well curated ARMY Tour package!

Heart and Seoul Travel Log Day 4: I do believe your galaxy

It was the height of Covid when I came upon this interview of BTS in Rolling Stone. It was one of their better interviews, I think, and of the seven, it was Namjoon’s that I was drawn to because there was a part in it where he speaks about the unnoticed, the ordinary, and even the forgotten carrying entire universes within. That each of us, even rocks, has the potential for growth and the capability to shine. The irony is, we don’t realize or recognize it until it is too late.

Believe it or not, I carried his words like a mantra the entire lockdown and it saw me through until the restrictions were lifted in 2022.

Fast forward to Festa 2025 where I found myself and ARMY Daughter at Café Far Ben in Seongsu. We ditched the Festa celebrations to bask in one of the galaxies of Kim Kyung Min, the sister Namjoon believes to have galaxies inside her. Sitting there, I realized, maybe it takes one galaxy to recognize another.

I’m glad we came back on a quieter day, when there were fewer people and space to breathe. Namjoon’s sister wasn’t there, which, in its own way, made it even more meaningful.

We were there to seek and share quiet moments of our own and yet, bound by togetherness. I was there to give respect and express gratitude. ARMY Daughter was there to stand by me. We were there for each other.

We were a mother and daughter, on our artist’s date: me, watercolor painting; Zoe, reading, taking pictures, and journaling. The café, on that day, exuded an energy of openness and calm. As if the very walls knew they were made to hold softness, silence, and the creative shaping of stories— our own galaxies soon to shine. When darkness comes to envelope us again, we have an array of stars to catch or look upon with love and hope. Being in the dark would be less frightening.

Apobangpo! Purple and true!

#bangtanpilgrimage #festa2025 #seoulsearching

Heart and Seoul Travel Log Day 3: Pilgrim’s Progress

 

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Tita ARMY Tours South Korea at Festa 2025

 “We were together / Every moment was forever.” — Take Two, BTS

Our ARMY Tour, our 5 days and 4 nights in Seoul was life-affirming and rejuvenating.

What made it so was many things:

How some of us had been saving up since the Pearl ARMY Festa of 2024, turning this into our ARMY Glow Up project, a dream sustained by intention.

How bravely some of us made the decision to travel alone and join a group for the first time, choosing courage over comfort, and community over solitude.

How some of us brought family—daughter, sister, niece, to bond, uplift, and support each other’s fangirling. And in the process, we discovered how powerful our desires can become when channeled through creative ways.

How we held space for one another at the dining table from the communal and down-to-earth warmth of Yoojung Sikdang to the quiet elegance of Otsu, where stories flowed as freely as soup.

How we looked out for each other in crowded streets and alleyways of Myeongdong and Hongdae, when bodies were close but hearts stayed open.

The walks we took in forest and stadium, in silence and in laughter.

And the way we laughed. The way we wept. Seeing our OT7 together on that stadium screen, dancing to Mic Drop, then collapsing emotionally at Spring Day and Jamais Vu.

Team Labas. Team Loob. Team Hotel. Lahat tayo. We were all part of it. We were different but together.

We weren’t just in Seoul for a clique-ish girls’ night out. We came to experience and listen to the city. To bear witness to its character. To understand how it shaped BTS and how BTS shaped us, continuously so, in our own unique ways of expressing ourselves as ARMY.

Thank you Teena Ordoño of Savedbythebest Travel and Tours for making this happen!

Apobangpo! Purple and true!

Kuwentong Bangtan: The Message of BTS' OT7 at HOTS Final 2025

 

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Kuwentong Bangtan: Our Celebration of BTS FESTA 2025 is a Pilgrimage of Purple Love

ARMY Daughter and I are back from Seoul where we joined a 5 Days and 4 Nights curated tour for ARMY at Festa season by Savedbythebest Travel and Tours. This trip is a product of blood, sweat and tears. It took us a eighteen months to save for this trip on top of life challenges one after the other. This is the toughest ARMY Glow Up Project I had. And somewhere in the middle of all this, I am grateful to have received the graces of friendship and companionship. 

This trip is precious to me not only as ARMY but as a mother. Being with Zoe, my daughter who became ARMY years ahead of me, this is a mother-and-daughter journey through Seoul; through light and shadow, memory and music.

I wrote and reflected each step of the journey on my social media pages. Here's everything from Day 1 to Day 5.

D1: Heart and Seoul – We Never Walk Alone

Theme: Arrival, belonging, and walking in their footsteps
Key Stops: HYBE Building, Hyuga Café, Old Big Hit, Hakdong Park, Yoojung Sikdang

Reflection: From fog to warmth, from dorms to dreams, from their footsteps to ours, we were never alone.

D2: Heart and Seoul – Shared Memories

Theme: Reverence, rest, and memory that transcends ownership
Key Stop: In the SOOP Mansion

Reflection: To visit a space where BTS once rested is to understand that silence is a kind of presence. Rest is sacred. Memory is shared.

D3: Heart and Seoul – Why Do You Sound Like Soul?

Theme: Namjooning, city rhythms, and sensory immersion
Key Stops: Myeongdong Cathedral, parks, alleyways, food stalls

Reflection: Seoul isn’t just a city—it sings. And for the first time, I knew the lyrics were meant for me, too.

D4: Heart and Seoul – Born in Seoul, Raised in Ilsan

Theme: Movement, generational role shift, and place as identity
Key Stops: Seongsu, Ilsan commute, Lake Park

Reflection: She leads now, the way I once did. I see the city through her steps—and remember how Namjoon once walked from hometown to dream.

D5: Heart and Seoul – Light and Shadow

Theme: Becoming, motherhood, and shared inner journeys
Key Stop: Gyeongbokgung Palace (Hanbok day)

Reflection: She is growing up and out into the world. And I, once her guide, now stand beside her as a friend, an ally, a witness.

The BTS FESTA 2025 Calendar: Sun, Moon, Compass and New Beginnigs

This FESTA 2025 poster is a stunning fusion of symbolism, emotion, commitment and consistency in messaging from our Bangtan men. My inner ARMY theorist is on over drive! Indulge me, please.

Sun and Moon as Gears

The orange gear on the left holds a sun emblem, radiating warmth, clarity, and life. It’s unmistakably tied to Hoseok as the last HOTS concert stop comes to a close, with vitality and verve. The blue gear on the right cradles a crescent moon and star, the quiet strength and emotional reflection resonates deeply with Seokjin. The contents he dropped for free and the albums he released post military service galvanize his position as our Moon, the ever faithful mathyhung who believes that love, when it is true, encompasses the universe.

Together, these gears are interlocking, suggesting they’re not just leading this FESTA, they’re driving it, keeping the clockwork of BTS turning even as others serve or rest.

The Compass-Like Clock Face

The entire poster is framed like a celestial compass or astrolabe, evoking Yoongi’s symbolic role in the BU as the compass-holder. The clock strikes 00:00 (midnight), reinforcing themes from “00:00 (Zero O’Clock)” a time of emotional renewal, the reset point of each day. The design whispers: No matter what today held, we begin again.

Dual Worlds: Day and Night

Left half: warm sky, morning tones, sun-drenched clouds → hope, beginning, the known

Right half: starry night, cool tones, deep galaxy blues → reflection, memory, the unknown

It perfectly captures the feeling of liminality, we’re in the space between return and reunion, light and shadow, then and now. BTS has always dabbled with duality and the juxtaposition of the gears that shift from light to shadow & shadow into light presents balance.

June 13 is Anchored at the Edge of the Sun

Marking their debut, 6.13.2013 sits boldly in the golden half. The journey that began in light continues through the cycles of day and night reminding ARMY that time doesn’t just pass, it transforms! The BTS FESTA is a gift. ARMY, let’s show up with joy, reflection & reciprocate the Tannies’ promise of returning as 7.

1 is 7.

7 is 1.

BTS is 7.

Apobangpo! Purple and true!

#btsfesta2025