짐질방 = Jim-Jill-Bahng

Last week I went to a 짐질방 (jim jil bang) for the first time. A jimjil bang is basically a public bathhouse in Korea. I tried to find some pictures but there aer very few... I even searched Korean websites and in Korean, not English, still I got only a little... But here's how it works
First you put your shoes in a locker by the entrance, then you pay and get another locker key and some clothes. It costs 10,000 won which is less than $10... but if you go during the daytime its only 7,000 won, but my pals and I went at night.

Then, if you came with a mixed gender group its time to split up. The girls go to the 여탕 ("yuh tang" women's bath) and guys go to the 남탕("nam tang" men's bath)... so now you know how to say: woman, man, and bath in Korean... and the funny thing is 탕 also means a type of soup... so When I first saw the 여탕 sign I thought it was pretty funny cause it looks like they want to cook us... I went with three foreign girls, one Korean girl and one foreign guy... us girls thought the sign was pretty funny.

Anyway, after splitting up we went to the women's locker room and that's where this becomes rather undoable in America... In Korea public showers are common, so most Korean people have no issue with being naked with friends and family... but in America... well I guess it would be strange. But you undress and go to the shower/bath room.

I really tried to find a pic of this room, cause its almost indescribable... I might have to draw something... well... there are all of these small little shower areas... its low to the floor cause you sit on a stool as you wash. Of course, wash the stool before you sit on it... you have no idea who was sitting there before! Then I sat there with three of my friends just scrubbing away and chatting. The room is really warm and humid, so its not uncomfortable at all that your not constantly showered with water.

Also, if you are feeling lazy or stressed you can pay an 아주마 ("a-ju-ma" a word that means a woman over 35ish, and generally married) to scrub you. HAHA, it was really funny. There is this area in the huge shower room with some beds and naked ladies laying on it and old women in black bras and underpants scrubbing away. I think if I had seen this when I first came to Korea I would have really experienced culture shock... but at this point I am ready to expect the unexpected. According to the guy who came with us, in the men's shower they have the same thing but the 아저시("ah-juh-she" a man over 35ish, generally married) who scrubs the customers is naked as well... I wonder why the difference?

After scrubbing there are several huge baths you can sit in. They all have a big electric sign showing the temperature in Celsius... the hot ones were always between 42 and 44 degrees Celsius... which is 107 to 111 degrees Fahrenheit!!! YIKES There was one pool that had a sign saying 일본탕 I was so happy that I could understand the sign! 일본 "ill-bone" means Japan, and as you already know 탕 means bath... so this was supposed to be a Japanese style bath... I think that just means it has plain hot water. There was also a gold bath and the water was the color of yellow Gatorade and a mud bath that was slightly brown and smelled like green tea... Those were all hot baths, and there was another hot bath, but I never went to check it out... I think it was just a regular one cause it was the biggest. And then there was a HUGE cold water pool 22 C... 71F... I know that doesn't sound very cold, but trust me it was cold!

I have a picture of the pools at home, but I'm at work now so I will have to upload it later. Then after you scrub and soak you go back to the locker room and get dressed in the clothes they gave you. Girls get pink and boys get blue or gray... depending on the 짐질방. We got pink shorts and a pink shirt... I wish we took a picture of this... I didn't even think about it. Then we went exploring...

There are little sleeping nooks all over the place. Private rooms, and public rooms, and little hidey holes where you have to crawl to get into them. You can grab a blanket and pillow and sleep there over night if you want. A lot of people do... you sleep on the floor, on top of some blankets (Korean style) but a Korean floor is much more comfortable than an American one... in Korea the floors are all heated, and in a 짐질방 they are REALLY warm... I think your muscles would melt into nothing after spending a night in a place like this. There was also a TV room where you can hang out and watch TV... they have one for just girls, and just boys and also a co-ed room. In the single sex rooms you always find people in varying degrees of undress. Strange, but oddly comforting that people can relax like this.

Then, after exploring... oh and there are also saunas (duh!) but we didn't use one... personally I don't like saunas.... and I was getting really dizzy from the heat. Extremes of hot and cold are not good for me.

After exploring we went to the co-ed area to eat. There is a restaurant and a juice bar. We ordered some yummy Korean food ... some pork thing which I know nothing about and we also got 떡볶기 ("duck-bo-gi" rice cake in spicy sauce) and lots of WONDERFUL side dishes... I think side dishes are my favorite thing about Korea... they are bottomless!!! And filled with veggie goodness :) We also had 식혜 ("she-keh" sweet rice drink) which is really strange, but I really like it... a little too sweet to have on a regular basis.

After eating we went back and changed. Two of us stayed over and I took a taxi back with the other two. The first taxi we tried to catch wouldn't take us... we were about a 20 min walk from home, and it was 12:30AM so most taxis wont pick you up at that time unless you are going far away... sigh... but the next guy picked us up and so I let him keep some of the change... not common in Korea, but he was a nice guy.


Ok well here are some pictures to try and explain the stuff I was talking about....



This is a picture of one of the rooms where you can hang out with guys and gals. You can see some people are ordering drinks, chatting, sleeping, probably watching TV too... its very warm in here and quite cozy... when I went there weren't any where near this many people... but I guess these places are pretty popular
Here is a sleeping room... this one actually has some mattresses... but you can just sleep on the floor if you like. Not all the rooms are lit up either, so you can sleep in a dark room or a bright room

This is "she-gay" the sweet rice drink... in this picture they put some pine nuts in it, but the one I had was sans pine nuts... good thing too cause I'm not a huge fan of the nuts!

Finally we end with yummy 떡볶기... its spicy, but chewy and has veggies too. good stuff and filling... though I don't think it is particularly nutritious.