Saturday afternoon I told Jason I wanted to go to the jimjilbang (Korean bathhouse). We had been once before with our friend Scott but had only experienced the three sauna rooms. This time I said I wanted to be bold and go in the baths. The naked, communal baths.
After a quick dinner we paid our 5000 won and entered the jimjilbang locker room, seperated by sex of course. I was super confused because when we paid our money the attendant only gave us towels and not the pink (blue for men) sweat outfit that you wear to the sauna. While in the bath is seperated by gender as everyone is wearing nothing but their birthday suites, the sauna is coed, you just put on the provided sweatsuit. After standing around looking confused for about five minutes, and vainly trying to contact Jason via text message to see what he was doing, I finally went back and asked the attendant where I could get the pink sweats. When I saw asked I mean I gestured "down" for the sauna (its downstairs), pointed at my clothes and shrugged my shoulders to mean "what?" -- she understood what I wanted and handed me the outfit, as I handed her an extra 1000 won. Last time this mix up didn't happen! Now I know there is a different. I guess I just looked ready for a bath.
I finally met Jason in the sauna. He was in his sweats from home. Apparently he was also confused and after hearing my story ran upstairs to pay, get the blue suit and come back down. We sweated together from about half an hour before decided to part. And go... to the baths!!! GULP.
To Koreans (and I believe also in Japan) bathing in a communal bath is compleatly normal and apart of many peoples lives and routines. Many people go once to twice a week. To us Westerners it is a very foriegn concept. Why would I want to bath with a bunch of strangers? And why would I want to do this NAKED? In Korea, it has a lot to do with differing sense of community and I'm guessing, in olden days, had a lot to do with individual families just not having private access to large bodies of clean, warm water. As it is, many bathrooms in Korea do not include tubs, only showers.
As apposed to the last time I was at the jimjilbang, this time the place was packed. There were women walking around naked all over the locker room. There were old ladies with sagging boobs and waist lines, there were firm bodied girls my age, there were three year old brothers and sisters, there were 10 year old girls hanging out alone. No one was ashamed to walk around, no one that it strange to blow dry their hair at the mirror, sans clothing.
The entrance to the baths is two glass doors, steamed from within and thus impossible to see through. Every time a child would run out of the bath to grab something I would try to catch a glimpse inside. Where their just showers? Was there a place to sit? How many people could fit at one time?
Finally I just had to know. I just had to do it. So I found my locker once more, stripped off my sweatsuit, grabbed my towel and walked towards the steaming doors. In the buff. Nude. Naked. Stripped bear.
While the first few steps are extremely awkward, you're just waiting for people to stare, after a few minutes you realize that everyone around you is naked too. And we all look the same, basically. And that no one cares.
Still, I quickly opened the doors, walked inside and sat down at the first pool of water I saw that wasn't surrounded by old ladies. I have to admit, the old ladies did stare a little. Obviously I was a foriegner and obviously I was the only foreigner in the place. It made me a little self concious but it was expected. It wasn't like anything was wrong with me, I was just different.
The inside of the bath was more spacious than expected. There were three large circular pools filled with hot water, one large pool filled with really cold water, two sauna like rooms, and many showers and vanities lining the walls. I didn't know it at the time but people come to the baths to actually bathe. There were mothers scrubbing their children, people brushing their teeth, washing their hair... There were large buckets you could use to dump the water over you while you stood as well. In one corner of the room there were cots set up where you could pay extra to have your body scrubbed down. The scrubbing was preformed by three old Korean women dressed in bras and panties, not bathing suits, bras and panties. People would lay on the cots and get facials, massages and extreme scrubbing action. I really wanted one.
While I was sitting this middle age woman came up to me and asked where I was from. Her English was perfect. It eventually came out that she was an English teacher, go figure! She was super sweet and told me how her son is studying in CA. She also said she, her sister, mother and husband come to the bath one or two times a week. I asked her how I could get a scrub down so she took me over to the women. She said something to them, the only thing I understood was foreigner (waygook) so I figured it was something like "this waygook wants a scrub." The whole thing was 17,000 won but unfortunately I would have had to wait half an hour and Jason and I had planned to meet in 15 minutes. (That gave us originally half an hour plus in the bath.) So I told her I'd have to wait until next time! Gotta get those dead skin sells off ya know!
In telling my coteachers about my experience today I said "oh I was nervous" and they said bluntly, "we don't care, its normal." I just don't want to run into a student. That would be awkward.
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