100 Things I Love About Korea: #65 - Replay - Bath House With the Pastors

This is a repost from May 12, 2010.

Yesterday, I went to a meeting of Cheonan pastors.  After lunch, we  played soccer at a field across town.   I asked if I'd be able to make  it back for my 5pm appointment.  "No problem.  We finish at 4pm."
We had a nice game on a short field with side walls and a back net thing that kept the ball in play.  No big fouls and two goals (one off the goalie's butt!).  Nice day for a defender.

After  the game, everyone decides to go to the public bath house for a "quick  15 minute shower."  I enjoy the shower, hot tub, sauna, and postlude  shower.  Then one of the other pastors asks me to scrub his back - not  kidding - and remember, we're completely naked.  This is actually a sign of friendship and care.  It's common to see father and son pairs giving each other a good scrub down.  After a few minutes, he offered to scrub my back.  It actually felt pretty good.

After about an hour, we finally left, and I was 30 minutes late for my appointment.  But ... good times.

100 Things I Love About Korea # 30: JimJil Bangs

Why is it relaxing just to get out of the house?  Somehow, going to a public space and just lying around calms the mind and soul.

Connected to most Korean bath houses is a common area called a JimJil Bang (or this can refer to the whole bath house).  The Jimjil Bang area is for both sexes, and the bath house provides special clothing for this area - usually some funky color so you won't be tempted to take it home.

The common area usually has a mixture of large open spaces and smaller specialty rooms.  Our local bath house has:

• salt room (where you can cover yourself in salt rocks)
• a charcoal room (where the walls are lined with charcoal - supposedly making the air cleaner)
• a super hot room (shaped like a cone, and so hot the area above the door is blackened and the door handle has an oven mitt permanently attached)
• a cold room (basically a huge refrigerator)
• a small restaurant
• a computer room
• massage chairs
• a play area for kids
• and a few different quiet rooms for sleeping.

We often bring a book and some snacks and just hang out in this room for an hour or two.  It's great with kids age 4 and older.  They can just run around and take care of themselves in a safe environment while the parents lounge, chat, read, or nap.

100 Things I Love About Korea # 24: Bath Houses

Last night, our family went to the local bathhouse (aka sauna) and soaked in hot-tubs and generally relaxed.  Korean bath houses usually have a variety of tubs.  There are different temperatures (from almost ice to scalding) and different flavors.  I've seen green tea baths, a plethora of herbal baths, wooden edged, and even a soju bath, which is the most popular Korean alcohol.  There are also often a variety of saunas or hot rooms - wet, dry, and Sahara desert- melt your face off - hot.
Some of the nicer bathhouses even have out door hot-tubs.  One of my favorite Korean memories is of sitting with Michael Palmer in the outdoor hot-tub at Paradise Spa with thick snow flakes falling on our heads and feet.
For the small price of about four dollars, you can pamper yourself and ease your tensions for a few hours.  We all love it, but John David's favorite part is always the movable shower head without any limitations about getting water all over the place.
Oh, and by the way, everyone's naked - men and women in totally separate rooms.