Dongju Bookstore

Known as Korea's first independent bookstore specializing in natural sciences, it focuses on science books while also covering literature and picture books, and regularly holds reading groups and lectures. It is located on the first floor of a gray building with a noticeable blue balcony, and a long-necked dinosaur drawn on the glass door catches the eye even from afar. Upon entering, gray cement-textured walls, arched passageways, and jellyfish-shaped lights hanging from the ceiling come together to make it feel like stepping into a small laboratory. In the water tank inside, a turtle lives, and glass bottles, specimens, and three microscopes lined up side by side create a scene like a research lab desk. On each bookshelf, the bookstore keeper has attached handwritten notes explaining why they personally read and selected each book, making you examine them one by one slowly, and the sticky-note guestbook left by visitors filling the window area and handwritten reading lists are also small sights to see. You can walk up along the alleys from Dakbatgol Mural Village, so it is good to look around together.