Jjimjilbang

A quick shout out to my parents who now have access to reading my blog through my brother. In all honesty, I’m slightly regretting the decision to give my brother the go ahead since I’ve been a lot more apprehensive about what I write in here, so expect a cleaner mouthed version of the Andy most of you know (see previous posts) since I can’t disappoint my mom with my bad language.

We went to a jjimjilbang this Sunday, kinda like a super spa. It was pretty awesome and really relaxing. The one we went to was 2 floors. The first floor contained the shower area and a whole bunch of baths. Everyone is naked, segregated by sex of course, and there are different pools that are at different temperatures, ranging from 22 degrees Celsius (71F) to 41 degrees C (106F). Each had lay down areas or massage jets. There was also a sauna that was 71 degrees C (160F). That was really brutal, so much so that it hurt to move after sitting for about 2 minutes. Like when you waved your hand in the sauna, it felt like a burning sensation. Walking out of the room was pretty painful as well. The other floor was much more interesting. There are a series of rooms situated around the out perimeter of an area, each at a different temperature, ranging from 8 degress C (46F) all the way to 100 degrees C (212F). The 100 degree C one was out of control! It looked like entering the mouth of hell due to all the heaters. It was ridiculously hot in there and everything bad from my body got sweated out. On top of that, the men in the group Rock-Paper-Scissored and the loser had to do ten pushups in the hottest room. Another room which was about 37 degrees C (99F) had a bunch of little rocks on the ground that you lay down on then pile some on your chest for some extra heat exposure. The rocks were hot enough where putting your feet down too long was a little painful. After each foray into a hot room, we’d cool off in the coldest room. In the middle of this area, there are a bunch of little beds, massage machines, and some food places on the outside. The jjimjilbangs are open 24 hours a day, so it’s a popular place to go and just stay all night in one of the sleeping areas of sleeping room. It was a really relaxing day full of some good cultural experience.