Adam discovered last week that there is a jimjilbang just one block away from our new apartment. I’ve been sick with a cold for maybe three weeks now, so we decided that today was the day to explore our local spa. It’s perfect, and now I feel so relaxed and refreshed.
I love the jimjilbang.
I’ve mentioned going to a Korean jimjilbang sauna before, but I’ve never really gone into detail. Here I go…
The jimjilbang is such an important, common piece of Korean culture that very few foreigners choose to tap into. The jimjilbang begins in a lobby where you pay a small fee, between 5,000-10,000 won ($5-10). You get your two mini towels and clothes for the sauna, reminiscent of a junior high gym suit. Then men and women go to their respective locker rooms.
Now, I can only speak for the women’s side. The locker rooms are always really nice with a little concession desk, sometimes a tv, with women wearing mud masks lounging around on the heated wood floor. You find your locker and strip down, abandoning the idea of covering yourself up with the tiny towel provided.
Grab your toiletries and proceed to the bath area. You first go to the side to shower. Choose either a standing or sitting shower. All around you, there are grandmothers, mothers, daughters, friends, saggy ajumas, trim 20-somethings, little kids scrubbing each other’s back. If you’re alone, someone will probably offer to scrub your back for you.
After you’re squeaky clean, you are ready for the baths. There are always many different types and temperatures of baths. There are jade baths, ginseng baths, green tea, mud, charcoal, scalding hot, temperate, and frigid baths. Some baths have little fountains, some have powerful jets, some bubble. Between your different baths, you can visit the steam room and sauna.
If you want a massage or hot stone treatment, you can pay 15,000 won for that service on the far side of the bath area. The ladies giving the massages are fierce, but man do you feel loose afterward.
But that’s not all.
Head back to the locker room for your provided tee shirt and shorts then proceed to the common area. This is where the men and women meet up again. There is a restaurant and snack bar, a mini internet cafe, massage chairs, and a huge screen tv in an open area with heated floor. Families lounge around, eat hard boiled eggs, watch tv, read, sleep and play games. At some jimjilbangs, you can even get a manicure or exercise on a treadmill.
Radiating off of the common room are many specialty saunas. Again, there are hot, temperate and cold rooms. There are salt saunas, mineral saunas, oxygenated rooms, ice rooms, and jade saunas, to name a few. This is a very social experience for Koreans.
You can spend hours here. And if you do, and you’re far from home, head to a sleeping room where you can sleep all night on a provided mat with pillow and blanket. Wake up in the morning, head back to the baths for a rinse off, then to the locker room to get ready for work. The locker room even provides hair dryers and lotion.
Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? It pretty much is. And every part of Seoul has one.
-Jessica
*all of these photos were borrowed from the internet. I don’t think it’s smiled upon to take a camera into the jimjilbang.
