Full disclosure…no pictures to accompany this post as a foreigner taking pictures of nude women bathing would NOT go over well. You’ll just have to take my word for it and imagine the setting I paint below.
Korean bathhouses/saunas or “Jjimjilbang” (literally heated room) are quite famous and many tourists make this experience a priority when they visit Korea. The fanciest and most well-known one in Seoul is “Dragon Hill” spa and I think Bill and I will try to go there so we can compare it to the much more authentic/low-brow local spa we’ve frequented in Seongbukdong. For starters, at “Dragon Hill” visitors get pajama like outfits versus parading around in the nude which is the only option at the Seongbukdong saunas! Since I’m always striving to get deeper into the world around us, I was determined to go to a real jjimjilbang and asked by Korean friend for a referral last year. She gave me two options near us and I’ve tried both. Bill is not a fan (for reasons which may become apparent below) and so now I go solo whenever I gather up the courage!
This is NOT for the faint-hearted and even I have to steel myself when I walk in and pay roughly $6 for my towel (the size of a dishtowel and not meant to cover anything) and to have access to the facilities which are open 24 hrs/day. Women and men go to separate areas so at least one doesn’t have to be buck naked with the opposite sex. STILL…hard to strip down as a 53 yr. old foreigner in front of lots of naked Korean women of all ages…90 year old grandmothers down to children, but mostly folks my age and older. There are often mother-daughter, or granddaugher-daugher pairs who bathe together and scrub (or shaves each others’ back of neck area as I saw today?!) I’ve never seen a foreigner at the sauna so am not surprised that everyone recognizes me now that I”m somewhat of a regular.
Most everyone brings their own toilettries in a plastic basket à la boarding school/college routine, but there are mini shampoos, razors, scrub mitts, etc for sale if needed. Once naked, I bravely “stroll” into the giant room full of soaking tubs, saunas, shower stations and scrubbing section. Fortunately, I guessed that the first stop should be to bathe under one of the shower heads around the perimeter of the room before getting into a soaking tub…this would have been a GRAVE mistake as Koreans are absolutely fastidious about cleanliness. The whole bathing area is very clean and doesn’t smell at all of chlorine and yet the water in the pools is so clean and nice. All of the pools (roughly the size of above-ground hot tubs) have their temperatures posted, but in Celcius, and I’ve thus far only been able to tolerate the coolest pool (39.9 C/102 F degrees) for any length of time. The one next to this is 47 C (116 F) and there are always women hanging in that one. There’s one labeled 89.9 C which is 194 F?!!! I stuck my hand in it today and there is absolutely NO WAY I could get in that water and yet I saw several women soak there for 10 minutes or so at a time. Admittedly, I’m not nearly as good at good at soaking in hot water as Bill is, but I have a hard time staying even the coolest pool for a long period of time. This is problematic since it is somewhat comforting to be submerged, albeit still naked, than it is to just sit naked on the edge. I spend time soaking in this pool as well as another cooler one that has a slanted back and lots of jets so I can lean back and have my back, neck and feet peppered by the jets. I don’t go in any of the three sauna rooms that ring the perimeter of the room and have the following temperatures posted: 54 C, 78 C and 89C There are warning signs posted on the doors in Korean which I can’t translate without the help of my phone and Google Translate so don’t dare to brave these experiences. At the rear of the room, there’s a big pool of cold water that women use before/after entering the sauna (aka torture chambers). I’m sure Eloise would be game to try this, but I am way too chicken.
My first time visiting a sauna, I was keen to get a scrub since I’d heard that one’s skin feels amazing afterwards. Of course, when I entered the room full of naked Korean women, I was so shocked that it took me awhile to figure out how to get this service. I just sat and soaked while I tried to read the minimal signage (in Korean…so I failed and certainly didn’t have my phone with Google Translate with me) and tried to avoid making eye contact with others. I finally noticed the 3 ajummas (middle aged women) who were wearing net panties and bras ONLY and were scrubbing women on plastic beds in the corner. After a lot of gesturing and smiling I was able to get this service and have been back 4 more times.
Now, I’m somewhat of a pro and know to immediately place my wristlet with locker key “in line” with the ajummas before I do anything else. On average, I soak, often with my eyes closed to minimize the awkwardness, for an hour before it is my turn. Today, I nodded a silent “hello” to two elderly ladies..tiny expat steps forward. The wait is well worth it as the next two hours are a crazy experience that I’ve grown to love. Again, this is not for everyone and certainly not for someone who can’t take a bit of pain since one is literally scrubbed raw in places and the massage is definitely a Deep Tissue vs Swedish one. I always ask for the most expensive service…roughly $55…since I figure that I deserve it after all the scary moments leading up to getting on the scrub table.
My eyes are closed or covered for the whole thing so I can’t really explain what happens but I’m slowly gathering information each time I go. The fist step is to lie on your back and be thoroughly scrubbed with some sort of textured soap by the ajumma who wears coarse hand scrubbing mits. These ajummas are STRONG and really work every single milimeter or your body…with the exception of your crotch (thankfully!). Your neck, ears, armpits, boobs and butt crack are fair game however! She manoevers me all over the table, positioning my arms and legs and turning me on my back, side and tummy to get all the dead skin off. Periodically, she grabs a small tub of hot water and throws it on me and the table to wash off all the dead skin piles that I can feel accummulating around my body. Just when you think she’s done, she switches to another kind of soap and scrubs with another kind of mitt. By the end, I swear I’ve shed a 1/4 a CUP of deadskin and I BATHE everyday, I promise!! Finally, the scrubbing mitts come off and she uses a much friendlier washcloth to bathe me in a liquid, sweet smelly soap.
Next comes the massage portion of the treatment. She retrieves soaking wet hot towels and puts them on your torso and around your limbs, pressing firmly your muscles as she goes and slapping loudly. Then, the real pressure is applied and I’ve seen how this is done to others while I’m soaking Above each of the plastic padded tables, there is a bar/pipe attached to the ceiling with a towel hanging off of it. The ajummas literally stand on their “victims”, holding onto the towel for balance, as they march up and down your body “massaging” your muscles. All of this feels absolutely wonderful to me who loves firm massages. My arms and legs are moved around in a manner that worries me a bit and the backbend she pulls me into is far deeper than any I ever do myself in yoga, but I’ve yet to be injured so she must have a sense of just how far to push and pull my body!
A vigorous face massage is next and it can almost hurt as she grinds the heel of hand into my cheek, jawbone and neck. The scalp gets a full workout too, all with a nice aromatic oil. Next she squirts some foaming face cleanser into my hands and motions me to go wash my face under the shower. When I lie back down on the table, she spreads strawberry yogurt (!!)…and yes, I’ve asked because I was just so curious and had these Korean words at my disposal…all over my face. She then applies fresh cucumber which I can hear her peeling beforehand and can certainly smell and feel as the cool juice pools down my neck. My entire head is then wrapped in a towel while she speads another 30 mins. or so massaging gobs of oil into my whole bad, front, sides and back. A final milky white oily cream or more yogurt perhaps is applied after the oil has been mostly absorbed and worked into my body.
The final step involves flipping around the other end of the table and getting a full shampoo and conditioning treatment. When I finally open my eyes and get off the table, bowing my thanks deeply, I am SQUEAKY CLEAN AND WELL OILED!! In the past, I’ve quickly changed into my clothes and left, but today I decided to dry my hair since the walk home with wet hair wasn’t too appealing. I had to feed coins (roughly 10 cents) into the machine to use the hairdryer, but I happily “hung” with the other Koreans while I finished dressing. A big step forward for this brave American!! All told, the sauna experience is usually a 3+ hour adventure, 2 hours of which is spent on that pink plastic table. A unique bit of heaven for me!
I DARE ANYONE TO DO THIS WHEN THEY VISIT US!! I’m dying to “share” the experience with someone else, but not literally necessarily since being naked with friends, or even my own daughters for such an extended period of time, is a bit daunting. It’s definitely easier in some ways to be naked among strangers…I guess?! ANYONE? ANYONE?
CLAIRE HERE. My mother wants me to verify all of the above. It’s true. Though I really don’t believe that the saunas/hot tubs could possibly be 89.9C, seeing as that’s 10 degrees from boiling! To give my two cents on the whole experience, it’s intense, but definitely worth it. My mother seems to think that the scariest part of the baths is sitting around with the naked Korean ladies for an hour waiting for the scrub, and I don’t know that I agree with that. That didn’t particularly bother me (and I’ve also been to a Korean spa in the Fillmore in SF that’s very similar), but the scrub and massage are serious. Also absurd. I was having trouble not laughing at the end of it when I thought about what was happening – naked, sliding around on a bright pink vinyl table, covered in strawberry yogurt, as a topless Korean lady in sheer underwear beats me up, surrounded by lots of other naked Korean ladies, with absolutely no idea what’s going on or what anyone is saying to me. When all was said an done though, my skin and muscles felt incredible, and 100% worth experience.
seoulfulsojourn.net 