Han River Park and Jjimjibang

On Sunday, Mike, Tina, Drew, and I went over to Gangnam, or south of the Han River. The Han River divides the city of Seoul into two halves. The north side, where we spent 95% of our time is older with all of the historic stuff. The south side of the river,Gangnam, is the newer, richer, snootier side of town. Snooty? Snotty..... :) Anyways, we had lunch at a great Japanese ramen place that reminded me a lot of say the Denver Cherry Creek Mall area. Then, we walked to the park that follows the river itself for miles.  Saw lots of bike riders, even tandem bikes. There are also 7-11s every 100 yards or so, so you never need anything. We found a shady spot under an awning and camped out for a few hours, snoozing, listening to music, and the guys even tossed the football around a bit. 

One cool tidbit about Seoul I forgot to mention. They have an imaginary animal called the haechi that is their city mascot. It is a lion, bear, dragon type creature, and its statue can be found inside every palace in the city, as seen below.

                                      

This is the modern, cartoon version. He's a cute little guy huh?

After the park, Mike, Drew, and I went to the infamous jjinjibang, or Korean bath. It was essentially a YMCA on steroids. You walk in, and immediately men and women split and head into the locker rooms and bath. You can take a shower if you want in a communal bathing area, then you change into a modest uniform of a tshirt and cloth shorts. Men wear white and women wear orange. This all happens on the 1st floor. The 2nd floor is an open area with a snack bar, a noodle shop, a play place for kids, and a hangout room where people nap or relax. The 3rd floor is a large tv room, a gym, and a table tennis room. (You know we took advantage of that.) This is Drew taking advantage of a back inverter at the gym.

                                               

4th floor are the saunas. There are literally 10 different types of saunas. There is the crazy hot one at 86 degrees C that looks like you're walking into the gates of hell. Then, there is the crazy cold one that is a gloomy -13 degrees C. I think there is supposed to be some sort of health benefit when you go back and forth between the two. Next are the  themed saunas. There is the jade sauna which is 60 degrees C and the floor is covered in jade stones. The stones were too hot for us to touch with bare skin, but since we had our uniforms on we were ok. There were other old Korean women though who came in and almost buried themselves in the jade stones. Must have had skin like leather or something to not get burned. There was a similar salt sauna, charcoal sauna (here charcoal wood lined the ceiling not the floor), ans yellow loess sauna. Finally, there was the oxygen room which just pumped extra oxygen into a normal temp room. There were several people snoozing in here. 

The 5th floor was a dormitory filled with bunk beds. The whole place costed $10 to get in for the day. If you wanted to stay overnight in one of the bunks, it was an extra $5. Not a bad way to spend a night huh? We saw families just hanging out together. Little kids were doing hw on the floor while parents moved in and out of the saunas. Dinner at the noodle shop. Watch some TV together. Sleep in the bunks. It was a relaxing place.

After the saunas, it was really bath time, so men and women split again. The baths were definitely the most unique experience, as you just see naked women everywhere. It's not like in a locker room where you can stare ahead at your locker while you are changing. You are in a giant tile room with no where else to look. (0.o) But, one you realize nobody cares, it's ok. You also realize how different our bodies really are, and I as a Westerner definitely stood out. 

 Inside the bath room was a large shower area where it was not uncommon to see old ladies scrubbing each others backs. There were also jacuzzis, again with different themes. A massage one, a jade one, a loess one, and a freezing cold one. I did the massage one, the jade one, then finished with the cold one. That was a system shocker, but it's supposed to be good for you. Finally, if you wanted, you could pay a few extra bucks to have a lady give you a Korean buff, meaning you laid on a table while she scrubbed the crap out of your skin, leaving you exfoliated and squeaky clean. As I wasn't sure of the sanitary situation there and it reminded a bit of Dexter, I opted out of the buff, but my excuse was that all of the tables were full, which was true. 

So ends the jjimjibang bath experience. They really do need these things in the US.