Happy one week till Christmas, all. You've got Katy again this week. This week I visited a Jimjilbang (pronounced "jim-jill-bong"), which is a pretty culturally specific Korean establishment, and I'd like to tell you about it. Unfortunately, given the nature of them, I don't have any pictures to show.
A Jimjilbang is a public bathhouse that typically consists of hot tubs, showers, saunas, and a lounge, though technically the word "jimjilbang" in Korean only refers to the saunas. In Korea, many people visit these bathhouses about once a month or once every other month. They are communal bathing spaces that are segregated by gender in parts, and attended completely disrobed in those spaces. In spaces where both genders intermingle, such as the dry saunas, attendants are issued identical pant and shirt outfits that are one-size-fits-all so that everyone is clad in the exact same outfit when robed at all. Ours happened to be bright orange and the elastic was barely enough to keep the pants up on my small hips. We looked to me like inmates. Another aspect of note is that many people don't just drop by to clean up and leave, most it seemed were there to spend the better part of the day. It is even permitted to stay the night, and so many people will treat the local Jimjilbang as a cheap hotel in a town they are passing through. The cost is only about 20,000 won ($19) to enter, and you can stay as long as you like.
What follows is my experience with the progression of bathing ritual in the Jimjilbang that I attended with two of my Korean friends, and one fellow foreigner. Upon arriving we purchased keys (the 20,000 won fine) which would be used for the lockers to hold our belongings. We removed our shoes immediately before moving on into gender segregated locker rooms. Once inside, most people were wandering around comfortably naked headed to and from various spaces.
The first stop was the squatting showers (which sounds strange, I know). It's worth noting here, in case I haven't already in one of these blogs, that Koreans are very good at squatting, flat footed, nearly all the way onto the floor. You will see people sitting like this waiting for bus stops, or at restaurants where there is floor seating only. This is a flexibility largely lost on most adult westerners who spend most of their seated time in chairs. Now then, back to these squatting showers. There were rows of mirrors sitting on the floor, about 3 feet tall, with sinks and handheld shower hoses coming out of them. At this height, one had to squat, or sit on tiny stools to be at the appropriate height to see in the mirror, or use the length of the shower hose. There you rinsed off before wandering over to the hot tubs, which were more like hot pools given the sizes.
There were four tubs of varying heats and most people worked their way up to the hottest where they soaked for as long as they could without getting overheated or pruny. Once you were good and water-logged, you returned to your shower station (there were dozens all in these little rows) where you used a Korean scrubbing towel (the sandpaper of washcloths) to fiercely scrub at your skin until the dead skin began to roll off in little spaghetti strings. Once you were pink, slightly raw feeling and left with nothing but the youngest skin, you suds up and rinse off. Note that we haven't yet washed our hair. Why? Because now it's sauna time.
So you head into the locker room, put on your orange, canvas uniform, and move into the gender-mixed lounge and saunas. The saunas are similarly arranged by heat, and are all dry. There was even one ice sauna (is it still called a sauna if it is iced?) which was lined with ice blocks and you had to wear slippers and sit on crates in order to not freeze burn your skin. Obviously, I was less of a fan of this room. I spent most of my time in the hottest room, pouring sweat and happy as a clam. Groups of women huddled together inside chatting, while a few individuals meditated. Again, there were mats and crates to keep you from burning your feet. The two hottest saunas were a salt sauna and a sandalwood sauna. It seems as though these things are supposed to be good for your health, though I didn't quite understand the justification. In the cooler salt sauna, there were even bags of salt that people used as pillows while they napped inside, sweating away.
The lounge that was the common space between sauna's offered multiple massage chairs, a large open space, and a flat screen TV which played K-dramas. In the large open space there were mats, like thick yoga mats, and small blocks which people used as pillows. Most people napped, though many talked and sipped on the enormous jugs of cold sweetened rice tea for sale at a convenience store located inside the lounge. There was even a restaurant in this space for those who intended to spend the night. We spent most of our time in this space, wandering from sauna to sauna, and napping in the lounge between trips to cool off. Finally, once we were done sweating and napping, we moved back into the gender segregated spaces, showered again, and this time washed our hair. Feeling the cleanest I have ever felt, and relaxed to the point of clumsiness, we lotioned, re-dressed, and headed out.
All in all I believe we only spent about 5 hours at the jimjilbang, but it was clear that many people were there for the long haul. It is advisable for everyone, Korean and foreign alike, to go with a friend for the sake of scrubbing each other's back, socializing, and reminding each other to hydrate. Though for foreigners, I would say it is almost essential to go with a friend (ideally a Korean) to show you the ropes, and ease some of the awkwardness of being stared at while idling naked. I can speak for my foreign friend, and myself, when I say that it took about two hours before we stopped noticing how intently everyone was staring at our foreign bodies. Not the most comfortable of situations but definitely well worth it in the end.
And that's the story. It may seem strange to spend an entire post talking about bathing, but these public bathhouses in Korea are incredibly common and important cultural establishments. I was honored that my Korean friends felt comfortable enough with me to invite me along, and thrilled at the opportunity to experience something so strange to me.
We've got some big Christmas-y stuff coming up in the next week, so that will undoubtedly be the topic next Sunday.
Cheers!
-K
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