Roman Baths

Finally, after being here for 7 months, I got myself to a jimjibang.  A jimjibang is kind of like a sauna/spa thing.  There's no exact replica in America, so allow me:

On Sunday, Lydia picked Robby and me up and took us to the jimjibang.  She said stage one is taking a shower in front of a bunch of naked people.  Separate rooms for boys and girls.  She said to me "everyone will stare at you because you are a foreigner and the agimas will touch you."  Oh goody.  So we undress and walk into the shower room and I am immediately reminded of what I imagine Roman times to have been.  There are huge public baths spouting water from stone replicas of dragon heads.  There are tons of naked women parading around, splashing about, washing themselves...it's like the empire never fell, they just developed squintier eyes.

Stage two is the sauna.  These saunas are HOT.  We choose to go into the hottest one because we like a challenge.  So Robby, Lydia, and I walk (and by watch I kinda mean crawl) into the sauna that is 90 degrees Celsius.  Remember that 100 degrees Celsius is boiling.  The sauna isn't a room exactly, it's a cave.  There are a bunch of mini caves set up with varies degrees of heat.  So you choose which level of heat will suit you and then you open the cave door and crawl into the heated cave.  While we are in the 90 degree cave I can't help but think of every Sci-Fi movie I've ever seen.  The caves look like caves.  Protruding from the interior walls are huge (probably fake) quartz crystals.  And on one side of the cave is a huge metal plate from which the heat is obtruding.  One second thought, maybe it's what planet Krypton looks like...

Then, if you want to cool down, you can go into the ice room.  This can't be good for your health, going from one extreme temperature to the other.  The ice room has crystals hanging from the ceiling and a huge block of ice sticking out of three of the walls.

After you've had enough of the heat caves, you go back to she shower room, shower once more, and that is the average jimjibang experience.  I'm happy to report I was not touched by any agimas...this time.