In October 2024, at the end of my solo trip to Jeju Island, I rented a motorcycle, left my mountaineering equipment and suitcases at a hotel in the city, and followed the NAVER MAP to drive between the mountains and the sea, heading all the way to the southwest end, and came to the community under Sanbang Mountain (산방산), and walked
After staying at the B&B, I drove along the coast towards Moseulpo Central Market in the morning drizzle. The red speed bump (speed limit 30) on the gentle slope reminded me that there was a school nearby. Suddenly, the weather cleared up, and I saw a big "책" (book) under the blue awning. The cute bookstore "어나더페이지" (Another Page Bookstore) appeared in front of me, which was my destination.

A journey to find a book

After parking my motorcycle right in front of the bookstore, I decided to go in and find a book I had "heard" of, "제주스러운날들". The bookstore owner poked his head out of the office cubicle, and after greeting each other, I immersed myself in the small universe of about 15 square meters, wandering for 40 minutes, and there were fascinating obstacles on the way without seeing the target. For example: eye-catching blind box postcards, Jeju Island limited publications, Jeju Island culture, history and geography area (43 incidents, local amateur grandmothers' collection of childlike picture albums), a small blue booklet with gold-stamped fonts printed with "여권" is the Jeju bookstore passport... Every corner has the owner's ingenuity.

But I searched almost the entire bookstore but couldn't find "제주스러운날들", so I had to go back to the starting point and start over. Finally, I found the two shiny little books "제주스러운날들" and "취미부자" in the display area closest to the entrance.

I was concentrating on flipping through the two books. If I hadn't heard the voice of another visitor behind me (presumably the community aunt), I would have thought I was in the spiritual time house! But while reading the picture book, I actually opened my ears to eavesdrop and picked up a sentence: "다～ (tap tongue hard) 팔았어요!? (Translation: All～ are sold out?)" The aunt was actually regretting that she couldn't buy the book she wanted to read, not the big discount fish (hey!). I secretly sighed beside her, worthy of the Jeju Island mentioned by Peiru in the podcast Passionate Korean Peninsula, which has hundreds of independent bookstores.

Before checking out, I saw the handwritten words on the blackboard and used papagp to translate it instantly. It turned out to be "Han Jiang, the first Asian female writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature: accepting pre-orders." I was holding two books to take with me and other small items, and checked out in simple Korean. I asked if they sold maps. The boss immediately took out a Jeju Island bookstore map and gave it to me, asking me to collect a stamp in the Another Page section. I couldn't help but share with the boss that I only knew about this place after listening to Pei Ru's program. The boss seemed to be still calculating in circles and automatically navigated to give me another cute poster!

At this time, a couple of visitors came to the store to look for books. I reluctantly took photos of the bookstore across the street before leaving. After the boss saw the couple off, he came over and gave me a set of postcards with dog sketches. Faced with foreigners who were not very good at Korean and wanted to talk, the boss kindly switched to English and started chatting. It turned out that the boss had been to Taiwan. We exchanged our hometowns. It turned out that the boss was a local of Jeju Island. Her deep affection for Jeju can be seen in the small bookstore she carefully takes care of, which sells many books published on her hometown island. We talked about the fact that there are hundreds of bookstores on the island. I said that it is difficult to run a bookstore in Taiwan. The boss said that it is actually the same in Korea~ I was curious and asked about the content of the conversation between the boss and the aunt just now (it seemed to be a listening test answer). It turned out that the aunt really wanted to buy Han Jiang's book!

The boss couldn't hide his excitement while speaking, and he touched his chest and said, "I am so proud of it!" I felt that the boss was as enthusiastic as Peiru, doing her best to share the selected books with everyone. I showed the screen of Peiru's program on my phone to the boss. Although she didn't listen to the podcast, she was very surprised. She also heard that "제주스러운날들" became a small trend in Taiwan. I pointed to the book display area in the window and told her that Peiru found this book at Another Page. The boss also smiled and said, "I remember them and I'll remember you!"

Want to understand the beauty and sadness of Jeju

Regardless of whether my Jeju filter is turned up to the maximum, this trip is very lucky. The people I met are super nice (ㅠㅠ). The boss watched me ride away at the door. On the way back to Jeju City, I wondered if Another Page had an original page before? It seems like a rebirth concept? I suddenly missed a small and precious independent bookstore in my hometown of Changhua, but it was closed during the epidemic. I wonder if the owner of Red Silk Bookstore is doing well? I really want to send her a postcard and recommend her to visit Jeju.

After I returned to Taiwan, I immediately bought Han Jiang's "Never Say Goodbye". I fell in love with the beautiful Jeju I saw during this trip, and I couldn't ignore the darkness of Jeju. I wanted to know more about its dark past. Later, I listened to the "Another Page" section of "Peninsula Korea" EP11 (22:46) again. The bookstore scene and the owner's appearance emerged in three dimensions, and it was as if Pei Ru's narration magically replayed the scene of the bookstore in my mind.

Unexpectedly, my Korean classmate S introduced me to Passion on the Korean Peninsula, and Peiru introduced "제주스러운날들" and Another Page. I went to the bookstore again and let the bookstore owner know that there was a Jeju craze in Taiwan. Later, the bookstore owner told writer Jiang Minjing, and writer Jiang told Peiru again. Now, through the bird-like communication between the two islands, I share my book-hunting travel notes in Jeju with more readers, so that this craze can continue to flow between Taiwan and South Korea.