Created this file on Jan 1 2026 :skull: (TODO)
As one of the biggest impulse purchases that idkac has ever made, I recently went to Korea (North obviously) to visit the themed cafe Hamhampangpang, which is a cafe hosted/managed by the game development studio Project Moon. They are the studio behind Library of Ruina, which is one of, if not my current favorite game of all time. As such, Hamhampangpang has always been a dream of mine to visit ever since I first fell in love with the game in 2023.
Before I get to the actual Hhpp trip, I think a bit of background is necessary.
I first got into the game in late 2023. And like all other games, I found it from a youtube video with the game's soundtrack. The video was a LOR version of the meme that has been going around for a couple months, with the track Keter 3 playing in the background. My whole journey through the game is honestly quite blurry at this point, what I do remember playing the game religiously for a week during my trip to Mexico, racking up almost 70 hours in the span of a week, which I think is still my personal best to this day.
Dedication to say the least
Like I mentioned at the start of the blog, the main reason why I decided to suddenly visit Korea was because I was able to get a reservation at Hamhampangpang. One of the quirks about this cafe is that it's not just a standalone themed cafe/popup that you might see from other game studios/collabs. Rather, the cafe always has a dedicated theme that dictates what decorations, food, and merch are put out. The theme usually is based on a specific chapter of the story from one of the games that PM has made, whether it is Lobotomy Corp, a specific floor/level from Library of Ruina, or a Canto from Limbus Company. And with it comes a whole redesign of the cafe, theme specific food, and dedicated merch (though the merch usually come in the same form i.e. acrylics/pins/photocards). This weird theming system also leads to the cafe releasing their reservations in waves, usually coinciding with the announcement of the new themes. Given PM's dedicated and almost cult-like following, this has lead to the reservations basically selling out in under 3 minutes every single time, with basically 0 way of being able to get reservations for the entire theme period (usually a few months) if you miss that 3 minute window.
Now I usually wasn't one to care too much about these themes, since it would require me to travel all the way to Korea to experience it, and there's also the hassle of trying to get a reservation, so I have never really bothered with trying to come. But recently, I noticed that Hhpp was doing a Library theme, with every single floor as a part of the theme. Since Hhpp has been doing themes chronologically in LOR (i.e. progressing through the story for each theme), this probably meant that it was going to be the last time (for the forseeable future) that they will be doing a LOR based theme, and it was going to be my last chance to experience LOR in Hhpp should I choose to go. Coincidentally, the duration of the theme also lined up with the period that I will be taking a break before I start working full time, so this was really going to be my one chance to go before I never will have to chance to ever again.
I definitely am not a limbus player so that is not gonna entice me in the slightest
As such, I decided that this was going to be my one chance to finally do something that has been on my bucketlist for the last 3 years. Of course, given that you are reading this blog now, I was able to get a reservation for the cafe on the 30th of September. And with that done, I was officially going to Korea.
And since I will be going to Korea, I thought it would be nice to also bring one of my fumos with me, since they are all from a korean game as well. Which is why I also brought my Neru fumo along with me, so I can take some never kill yourself pictures.
My flight was at 1040 am in the morning, so I had to get up bright and early at 6 am. While I am not usually a window seat kind of person (my preference is aisle > window > middle), for this specific occassion it was actually preferred, since I get to take pictures of Neru with the scenery outside the window, which was nice.
Pictures of neru before and during liftoff
picture of the skyline i took, it never really occurred to me how strange clouds look from above
By the time I arrived in Korea, it was already about 3 pm local time in the afternoon. Adding on the fact that the shuttle took about an hour and a half, it was already 5 pm. So there wasn't much time to do anything that day. So all I did was check into the hotel, dump all my stuff, and walk out to find a restuarant for some food.
also apperently there was a 5 guys right next to the hotel, which is kinda surprising
I did want to get some kbbq, so I did walk to a nearby galbi restuarant. Unfortunately, I failed to remember that kbbqs in Korea mostly only serve 2+ people, so I was refused entry, and I was forced to look elsewhere. It was also extremely awkward as I spent about 3 minutes trying to convey to the server that I wanted a seat for 1 by pointing 1 finger up and saying 1, with her continuously signalling back that they only take 2 or more by signalling 2. I did eventually get the message and apologized and left.
And yes I did consider saying that I will eat 2 portions, but I thought that would be a bad look. So i decided against it
And since it was kinda late already, and I was too tired to try and find/go to a different restuarant, I just decided to go to the convenience store and get some rice balls instead.
in case you are curious the flavors were curry rice with chicken and pork, and pork kimchi stirfry, they were quite good
A little side note: because Hhpp frequently have scalpers who purchase and resell their merch on third party websites, they have recently implemented a anti-larper exam to weed out fake fans. When I was researching online into this topic, I got a lot of mixed responses in regards to the difficulty of the questions. It was basically always a 50/50 between whether the questions were piss easy or the hardest questions of all time. Given that I basically had 1 shot at taking and passing this larp exam, I was extremely stressed out and basically spent the rest of the night booting up the game and studying every single aspect of the game, anything from the story to the gameplay to the dialog. The only thing that I just couldn't be bothered with was the card stats, since I thought it would be bait for them to ask a question like that (though I did memorize the stats of a few notable/well known cards)
Which is also why you see in the picture that I got the game booted up
One cool thing I noticed about the hotel was that they did not provide any water bottles for environmental reasons, instead opting for a water dispenser, which I thought was pretty nice. Honestly, I think I prefer this over the actual water bottles.
They also had a bidet which was pretty cool (no picture though)
Since I am basically only coming to Korea for Hhpp and Hhpp only, I only booked myself 2 nights, which means that today is the big day. My mother had booked this hotel using her membership rewards (i did have to pay her the equivalent in cash though), which generously included breakfast as a membership benefit.
The pork was surprisingly good, and I forgot to bring Neru down so no fumopost
My reservation was at 5pm, so I had some time in the morning to burn. As such, I decided to go to Lolpark for a tour.
Last time I was here I remember there being art of league characters on the escalator, but I guess they got rid of it. A shame
One new addition to the arena was the columns with banners for each team, as well as fan signs plastered on each side:
Once that was done, I decided to go back to my hotel to do some last minute studying for my larp exam. One cool thing that I noticed about Korea was the fact that the cities are so much more walkable than it is in the states (at least relative to California) and so much more bike friendly. All the sidewalks have a dedicated biker lane indicated in red, which makes it much easier for bikes and pedestrians to share the sidewalk. Another cool QOL thing they have here are that the stoplights will have a stretch of lights on the floor that display the same lights as the stoplight, so if you are looking at your phone you can also see when the lights turn green. Of course, some people will complain that this shouldn't even need to be a thing in the first place if we just didn't look at our phones so much, but it is what it is.
I did also notice that Suwon (the city I am in) is much less tourist friendly compared to Seoul, with significantly less English translations and basically none of the restuarants having English support. This is probably because Seoul attracts much more tourists and thus they tend to have more English support, whereas theres less attraction to Suwon, so there was no need for English.
It did make my life a lot harder than it needed to be
Once I got back, I got a quick game of CS in to test my ping, did some more studying, and it already time to get ready for my reservation.
In case you were curious, I was basically on a 3 second delay. And despite my best efforts I was still able to get 2 kills, which is saying something
Here's also another picture of Neru in a cleanly made bed
I got to the cafe about 30 minutes early so I could take my time looking around and taking everything in. I had seen it before in promotional videos and vlogs from other people, but it feels completely different in person. There’s something about finally seeing a place you’ve always wanted to visit with your own eyes that makes it feel so much more surreal.
Once we started to line up, I am not going to lie, I was honestly really stressed out about the larp exam. It did not help that everyone (and yes I mean everyone) in the line was Korean, meaning that I was the singular foreigner in this reservation time frame. It also did not help when the employees brought out the question flash cards and they were genuinely thicker than a phone book (so probably about 5 inches thick).
Unfortunately I do not have pictures of the questions since I didn't wanna take pictures of the employees without their consent
Luckily for me, the employee that I talked to did know how to speak english. And of course I requested to answer LOR questions (out of the choice of LobCorp, LOR, and Limbus), which they did have readily made English questions for. Thankfully, the questions were piss easy, so I got by with a breeze. They were genuinely questions that could be answered by basically playing about 30 minutes of the game, so in hindsight there was no need to stress out so much about the questions.
I was genuinely so relieved when she asked the first question and it was literally asking for the definition of the city. Lowkey I thought she was gonna bait me with an easy one and then ask me something like: "what are the dice values of Forsaken Murderer's EGO page?"
In fact, I was so confident after the first 2 questions that I asked her for some real challenging questions. She then brought out another set of flashcards in Korean only, which was kinda intimidating. Unfortunately, the question was based on a Mili song, which I basically know all of them by heart, so it was not even close.
I also asked for a LobCorp question, since they only had 1 hard LOR question. Unfortunately it about an event in the late 40 days mark, so I was ousted as a larper for the game
On a side note, I was able to spot the person in front of me answering a question on Limbus, and it seemed to be about naming a character from the most recent canto, so maybe the limbus questions are just much harder than the ones from LobCorp and LOR
There was also a person behind me who was also stressed out of their mind, and kept taking deep breaths before the questions. I think they might have also been in a situtation similar to mine, though they did know how to speak Korean. He did pass the questions, and took a deep sigh of relief when he was done.
But once that was done, we were all let into the cafe, where we were first made to listen to an instructional video voiced by Roland and Angela. Unfortunately it's all in Korean, which is to be expected, so I did my best by providing a translation of it, though I have no gurantees of its accuracy.
(0:00) You can take a seat at the dining tables in Zone 3. (0:03) Of course, the tables are assigned based on reservations, so please make sure to check the name. (0:09) Was there anything else to mention? (0:11) Oh, I forgot to mention that you can grab extra napkins, (0:14) wet wipes, and small plates from the service bar in the center of Zone 3. (0:18) Ah, the spot with the water dispenser? (0:22) You all heard that, right? Just grab what you need from the center. (0:26) Food orders are only accepted for the first 40 minutes of your reservation, (0:30) so please place your orders in advance if there's anything you want to eat. (0:33) Oh, if you want to pay for food with cash, just call over the Librarians. (0:38) The machines there don't accept cash. (0:41) Some merchandise items have purchase limits per person, (0:45) so please check the price tags. (0:47) You're free to look around the shop during your visit. (0:51) Taking photos is fine, too, as long as you don't disturb other guests. (0:55) However, please look at the media screens, merchandise samples, and interior decor (0:59) with your eyes only—don't lean on them or touch them with your hands. (1:04) It’s a huge hassle if they get damaged. (1:07) I think that covers everything. (1:09) Hmm, got through that without a hitch. (1:12) Please wait just a moment. (1:14) The Librarians will be ready to show you in shortly. (1:18) Yes, thank you for tuning in.
But once we were let in, there is nothing I can really say about the decorum except that its mesmerizing. While it certainly isn't the most flashy cafe that I have been to, it does feel like love and effort was put into the theme, and as a avid LOR fan, I am definitely satisfied. Of course, they were playing LOR tracks in the background, and we opened to Gebura's theme, which I thought was kinda funny.
Here are some of the pictures I took of the cafe
At the front entrance of the cafe was also these 2 large screens which displayed different floors of the library, as well as a bookshelf which contained every single book that you can obtain from the game (outside of the general invitations)
After getting all the pictures I wanted, I sat down and actually ordered my food. Since it was probably my only time coming to Hhpp, I decided to just go all out and buy every dish that I wanted. As such, I bought both the Roland and Angela entrees, the Yesod and Netzach drink, and the Binah dessert.
In all honesty, the prices were not even that expensive and was basically ~10 dollars per dish, so it was not even that much of a spend
The first two dishes to come out were the Yesod drink and the Binah dessert, and their descriptions are as follows:
Yesod on left, Binah on right
The Yesod drink was quite nice, and tasted like grape and lavendar with sweet milk foam. The Binah dessert was not as nice. To me it tasted like cheese pudding with syrup, and the pudding was fine but definitely needed to be paired with the syrup (there was also a small gold leaf on top of the pudding, which was cool)
The next items to come out were the Roland entree and the Netzach drink. Now based on the descriptions, both items are alcoholic. And while I have never drank any alcohol before (ever), I had decided that for this special occassion, I would break that rule just so I can try out the Netzach drink (which I assumed to be similar to enkiphilin). I did order the Roland meal as non-alcoholic, but based on the taste of the drink and comparing it to the Netzach one, I had a feeling that they just decided to give me the alcoholic version regardless
I would say that they made a mistake, but maybe they just decided to let me have the full experience and gave me the alcoholic version regardless.
The roland meal had 3 scallion pancakes, and they were all pretty good. The left one had hints of seaweed, the middle one just tasted like a Chinese pancake, and the right one tasted like the first one but with dried shrimp inside. The drink tasted like a pear and apple calpis, which was quite nice. I would also like to note that there was 3 full ladels of the drink, which was definitely more than what I asked for.
To me the Netzach drink tasted more like a melon/pear/green apple calpis, and I basically could not taste the alcohol at all in it, more just like a soda. Though to be fair, I have never drank alcohol before so I don't really have a point of reference, just that I couldn't taste anything out of the ordinary. It was very enjoyable though.
At this point, I could definitely tell that my face was getting hot, though I wasn't really feeling any of the other effects of being drunk (my face was also not red). And the next item to come was the Angela stew, which I would say is the best dish I had.
It was essentially just a rustic meat stew with all the classic ingredients (onion, celery, potato, mushroom, tomato paste) with a bit of heavy cream, but it was done well so I have no complaints.
It was also while eating the stew that Poems of a Machine came up, which to be honest, is one of the songs that really defines LOR, so I got a video of it.
I also got a video of the cafe playing Keter 3, which was the song that really started this whole journey in the first place.
After this, I took some time to look around the merch store to see what they had to offer. Unfortunately, half the items were either for Limbus (which I didn't really care for), or items for LOR that I am not really going to use (like wtf am I gonna do with a photo card).
The notable items that caught my eye were the WCorp hat (I have recently started wearing hats when I go to work/go out, so adding another hat to the collection was nice), the librarian acrylics (which were random for some reason), the floor pin set, and the floor perfumes (which for some reason I didn't get a picture of).
Out of all the perfumes, the ones that stood out were Malkuth, Hod, and Binah. Unfortunately Binah was already sold out (which kinda makes sense since I also think it smelled the best out of all of them), so I had to pick between Hod and Malkuth. I ended up buying the Hod version.
I would also like to note that Tiperath's perfume smells literally just like a refurnished room, which is to say that it doesn't smell very good. Yesod's smells like hand sanitizer, which fits his character I guess. And the rest of them all smelled along the lines of soap, which I was not particularly interested in. Roland in particular
Once I made my checkout, I was directed to a different table where I would then pull the lottery for the librarian acrylics. In the end, I got Yesod, Hod, and 2 Geburas, which I was quite dissatisfied with, since I didn't really want duplicates. Luckily, another diner (THE ABSOLUTE GOAT) who was also pulling for acrylics walked up to me and offered to trade for my Gebura duplicates. For some reason the only one he didnt get was Gebura eventhough he bought like 10 acrylics, so I was able to get a generational trade and get both Roland and Angela. I think the only floor that I wanted but didnt get was Malkuth, but I basically got everything else, so I can't complain at all
When I was trading with the guy, one of the employees was ecstatic and was just clapping in the back while we did the trade. I think it was because she knew I was a foreinger and was unhappy with the fact that I got a duplicate, so she was really glad to see that someone was able to offer me a trade. And to be honest, that guy is the goat and I am super thankful.
I also think that I was super lucky with teh fact that I got basically everything that I wanted besides from malkuth, since there was a world where I would have gotten Netzach Hokma and 2 Tipherath dups and I would have killed myself on the spot.
In the merch section there was also signs of all the librarians giving you a warning that you shouldn't touch the displays, which I thought was kinda cute.
There was also a section which contained a lot of fan submitted art for the cafe, which was really nice to see. I think it was a really nice touch to have a section dedicated to fan art, and I think it really shows how much PM appreciates their fans.
But with that, that was all the time that I could spend in the cafe, and we were all ushered out. Here are just some final pictures I took in front of the Hhpp.
Honestly it looks nicer at night
And with that, my main goal for this trip was complete, the rest of this blog is just some of the residual pictures that I took while walking back as well as on the third day. This likely marks the end of a chapter for young idkac, with this visit to Hhpp as the climax to all the time that I have spent with this game. While this definitely does not mean that I will never interact with the game or it's fandom again, I do think this is a fitting conclusion to everything that I have wanted to do relating to the game. Of course, if PM ever decides to bring an LOR theme back in the future, I may consider visiting again. But at least for the forseeable future, this is the finale of the journey I have taken with this game. From playing the game religiously in Mexico, to engaging with the fandom and getting my friends to also try the game, to finally visiting Hhpp in person. It has been an experience, and once again, thank you to Project Moon and Mili for creating this master piece.
Here's just a photo dump of the rest of the pictures I took, and as always, thank you for reading.
