The Snoopy Garden in Jeju: A (Surprisingly) Heartfelt Tribute

For Spring Break, I traveled to Jeju Island off the coast of Korea.

Short disclaimer: traveling around Korea right now is acceptable and safe, and I got complete permission from my school (in fact, they were confused why I even asked…).

So, double-masked, social-distanced, and covered in sanitizer, we went way out of the way to get to the Snoopy Garden. This new museum is devoted to Peanuts, the comic strip created by Charles Schultz.

The museum costs about 18,000 won for adults and 12,000 for kids. It’s marked down to 14,000 won when it’s raining because most of the exhibits are outdoors.

Is it worth the price? Let’s explore that in a second.

Fair word of advice: like most things in Jeju, this place is hard to reach without a car. Busses are even more infrequent and some of the routes aren’t right (use naver not kakao for this destination). Since this is a new attraction, I expect they’ll add more routes in time.

My friend is a huge Peanuts fan, so this was a must-see for her. After several mishaps with busses and a grumpy taxi driver later, we made it around 2pm. We first stopped by their cafe, which boasts an all-day brunch.

The café was super busy and they were out of their club sandwich, so we both got their egg salad sandwich plate. It was 15,000 (plus a 6,000 latte) so DEFINITELY pricey. And my fries were cold. I wouldn’t eat here unless you had no choice—it wasn’t bad, just not worth the price.

At least it came with a cute comic strip.

After we finished, we headed into the museum. Normally there’s stamp collections as you go through the museum, but they weren’t doing it due to COVID. Again, this is another one of those things that seems to be mostly patronized by families and couples.

The museum was…surprisingly detailed. It begins with an explanation of the characters, the comic origins, and who Charles Schultz, the creator, was. It was extremely English friendly. In fact, it was mostly English, with Korean translations on the side.

My only exposure to Peanuts before this was the Thanksgiving and Christmas specials, so the info dumps were appreciated.

After a journey through the decades of comic strips, including the most famous and influential ones, we arrived at the interactive exhibits.

There was a postcard-making table, a little stage, and lots and lots of photo opportunities.

The museum is pretty short, but it was impressively curated. The goal of any museum is to present art or history with respect and context, right? To have us connect to people, to hear their voices, no matter where or how they lived?

At lunch, my friend and I wondered how familiar Koreans were with the Peanuts comic. Did it come in the newspapers? Was it translated into Korean?

There’s certainly a bygone-era Americana to it. Some parts of it are obviously dated to the 50s, 60s, 7os and so on. Its humor is quaint, its topics mostly mundane.

But while I can’t claim to know how Koreans might feel about Peanuts in general, the existence (and quality) of this museum is evidence that there’s something to Peanuts that appeals to anyone. Between the cute designs, the queer-coded characters (Peppermint Patty is a lesbian icon), or the heartfelt lessons on life, Peanuts has staying power beyond its humble premise.

I read a lot of comics as I walked through, and I found myself relating to Snoopy and his awkward, bumbling humans. This museum excelled at presenting the love between an artist and his work. Above all, it wanted to explain why people love it—the sentimentality, the humanity, and the relatability.

I also really like Woodstock, that little bird. He’s so cute.

The rest of the museum is outdoors, with seven or so little sections devoted to each character or theme.

We took lots of pictures, of course.

I don’t know if I’d say the museum alone is worth 18,000—it does a great job at its goal, but that’s still pricey to me. If you’re a big Peanuts fan, a museum-enthusiast, or just really like photo ops, then I’d say it’s worth the entry fee. It’s a beautifully executed endeavor, not just a cash grab. I wish I’d say I wasn’t surprised by that (so cynical) but I was.

Also, their gift shop was cute. I bought some socks.

Thanks for reading.