December's things to do

Mija Seoul has been making waves since it first opened in May. The restaurant focuses on creating a dinner menu inspired by hearty Korean fare made with local and seasonal ingredients. Apart from using produce from the restaurant's rooftop garden, they also take time to source from local farms. Here, you’ll find Danish chef Kevin Kroløkke, who brings with him 10 years of restaurant experience from the now defunct, Michelin-starred, Restaurant Relæ. He helms the restaurant with his partner Tina Choi (also known as Doobydobap on TikTok and Instagram).

In Seoul, there’s a vast field of white roses that come to life when night falls. In fact, there are 25,550 of them planted on the grounds of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, emitting a dazzling nebula of cool, white lights. The figures speak to the 70th anniversary of Gwangbok-Jeol (Independence Day): 365 days times 70 years equals 25,550 roses. As the garden is split into two elongated areas, “Rose Road” might have also been appropriate. When the sun sets, the artificial roses light up to give off a slightly greenish tinge. Look inside the bud and you’ll see exactly why—each rose is made out of fabric to house a micro LED bulb, not much bigger than the size of a thumbnail. The roses at the DDP shut down when the sun comes up, so make sure to head over when the sparkle and the magic happen.

As soon as you’re in, watch out! You might accidentally sign up for a year membership. For those of you who don’t like to exercise but want to gain some muscles, or those who want to live back the moments when you were a child playing sports, Sports Monster is the place for you. Taking up around 5290 square meters on the 4th and rooftop, it is the world’s first ‘sportainment’ theme park. Basketball, volleyball and futsal, just to mention a few ball games, along with indoor rock-climbing, LED sports court, trampolines (that can make you jump more than 4m), 8.5m parachuting, bike racing, a dizzying rope course and Icarus flying experience are among the 30 varieties of sport contents that can be enjoyed. You can spend the whole day here without even noticing the minutes and hours pass right by you. You might even find yourself urging to return to the mall just to come back to Sports Monster.