Right now Seoul is hosting the Seoul International Garden Show. Last year it was held at Boramae Park and featured the adorable Metamong (Ditto) Garden. This year the show is being held at Seoul Forest and features 167 themed gardens, including the Pokémon Secret Forest.
This time, the event space isn’t Ditto themed, but caters to a wider range of Pokémon… including a Pikachu Forest and an Eevee Tunnel. The second you enter this real-life Safari Zone, you’ll feel instantly transported into a world of Pokémon where all the different regions come together and you can find all of your favorite starters.
The space itself is basically one big aesthetic photo zone, which isn’t really a bad thing in this particular case. There are plenty of spaces to sit a rest your feet, different paths to walk along and plenty of hidden Pokémon to keep you searching for your favorite ones. There’s also and area where you can try out the new Pokopia game and receive a FREE pack of stickers and Peakychu visor. And if you follow them on YouTube, you can also get a FREE pick fan exclusive to this event.
On the wallet opening side of things, there is a photo booth where you can take pictures with an exclusive Pokémon border for 5,000 KRW. And naturally, there’s also a pop-up shop with Pokémon Secret Forest exclusive merch. While the main “Pokémon Urban Forest” collection are intended to be available for the duration of the event, the shop is known to feature limited drops throughout the event. When I went this past weekend, the limited drop was a bunch of super cute Eevee-lution merch and it was ALL sold out.
Entry to the area does require on onsite reservation, where you can input your Korean phone number or email and receive a notification when it’s your turn to enter. And although the space doesn’t open until noon, registration starts at 7:00 am. We went on a Saturday at around 7:20 am and got our notification to enter 11:58 am (just for reference). So, arriving early is definitely worth it if you want to free up the rest of your day or have your choice of merch, especially on a weekend.
Although the space is definitely crowd controlled, you will definitely need a bit of time and patience if you want to get all the freebies and some nice photos. Spatially unaware people aside, I really liked how this outdoor installation mixes nature with giant Pokémon displays, themed zones, hidden character spots, and exclusive merchandise. It genuinely feels less like a standard pop-up and more like a little Pokémon world hidden inside the city.
- 🗓 May 1 ~ June 21, 2026
- ⏰️ 12:00 pm – 7:00 pm
- 📍 Seoul Forest (Naver Map, Google Map)
Discover more from Seoul Searching
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
