KMK: Jeju Island Teddy Bear Museum

Jeju Island Teddy Bear Museum. Who doesn’t love teddy bears? You’d have to be some giant sized curmudgeon or ultra fascist wing-nut not to love the adorable fuzzy wuzzy wittle bears from childhood. Can’t you remember your best toy from those formative early years? Was it a Care Bear? Paddington Bear? Perhaps you had Winnie the Pooh or maybe you were more traditional with a regular old Teddy Bear?

No matter the case the folks at the Teddy Bear Museum in Jeju will have you reminiscing about the adventures with your long lost best friend. The entire complex is dedicated to the glory of Teddy Bears from their origin to the places they’ve found in our hearts and culture.

Ian and I were skeptical. Could two grown men really find anything remotely interesting in a Teddy Bear Museum? Well, we did and you will too if you visit. I thought it would be a dry and boring history lesson about the beginnings of Teddy Bears, but there’s much more to the museum than that.

Just take the first gallery for example. There you’ll find a floor full of history. They have display cases showcasing early Teddy Bears and follows the evolution of the Bear through the decades. It doesn’t stop there. They also throw the Teddy Bear into the major historical and cultural hot spots in history. These reenactments substitute people for Teddy Bears in the reenactment the first moon walk, the Hong Kong liberation from Britain, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, and even Ali’s triumph over Frazier.

The second gallery continues the substitution theme but this time with a more artistic bent. Here you’ll find a Teddy Bear Mona Lisa. Vincent Van Gogh reborn as a one eared Teddy Bear. There are even statues like Rodan’s Thinker and the great Achilles re-imagined as Teddys. This floor also has Teddy Bear wedding scenes from around the world. My favorites were the South African and South Korean weddings.

At the gift shop I made a few purchases for my nephews. I didn’t really think I would enjoy a Teddy Bear Museum, but I found that the museum really did reconnect me, however briefly, to my childhood romps with my favorite bear. It was nice to remember even though my affair with my bear only lasted a little while as he was quickly replaced by my He-man action figure.

But that’s a tale for another time.

Prices

Adults 7,000W/Teenagers 6,000W/Children 5,000W/Seniors and disabled 4,500W

Times: 9:00 to 20:00

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