Dajayo: The Old Jeju Stone Wall House That Made Our Family Trip
A family trip to Jeju staying at Dajayo — an old stone-walled house in Sinpung-ri. What a space that holds the old Jeju feeling looks like.
Dajayo is in Sinpung-ri, Seongsan, Jeju — a small cluster of old stone-walled houses that have been converted into a family guesthouse.
We went with our son in February, off-season. The island was quiet in a way it never is in summer. We arrived in rain, which turned out to be exactly right.
The Space
The "dajayo" in the name is the Jeju dialect word for "all together" — as in, everyone gather here. The complex consists of two main houses arranged around a shared courtyard with Jeju volcanic stone walls and a garden that in season fills with tangerines.
The Jeju thatched-roof buildings have mostly disappeared. These structures are not original but have been built to look and feel continuous with the traditional form: low ceilings, stone walls thick enough to block wind from any direction, wooden floors that respond to the weight of feet.
Sinpung-ri
The village outside the gate is almost entirely agricultural. In February, the tangerine harvest is finished. The fields are being prepared. The road is narrow enough that our rental car felt oversized.
My son, who is otherwise primarily interested in things with screens, spent an hour chasing snails along the stone wall. I didn't point it out to him. Some things should be allowed to happen without documentation.
What Jeju Is For
We have been to Jeju in summer with beach plans and a schedule and left feeling like we had successfully consumed the island rather than visited it.
This trip was different. The rain meant we stayed mostly in and around the guesthouse. We ate from local shops where nobody was performing tourism. We walked where there was nothing to walk toward.
My son fell asleep in the car every evening before we reached the main road.
This is what Jeju is for.