I've written before about bathhouses in Asia, but I've recently seen new developments in Korea that warrant further discussion. I didn't have anyone to stay with in Seoul for a couple of days, so I had to make other arrangements. I could have chosen a nice hostel for about $20 a night, but I instead decided to check into the next generation of jim-jil-bang (spas) here in the city. I spent about 24 hours in total at two newly opened establishments. You gain admission for a maximum of twelve hours for $10. I believe this price will probably rise soon, but considering the vast amenities I will detail below, this still seems quite a bargain to most folks (even Koreans).
Normally, one would pay about half that to stay the night in a much smaller spa. These are both economical housing options for out of towners visiting their family and for those who stay out so late that public transportation stops running. As in Tokyo, the astronomical taxi fares simply don't calculate. I used to think that this was the Korean version of the Japanese capsule hotel for drunk businessmen, but it is something entirely different and distinct. Contrary to the capsule revelry, jimjilbang do not admit drunks as a rule. Still, if you aren't too tipsy, I'm sure one could feign sobriety long enough to gain access. However, it is the wrong kind of environment for them anyway. The patrons of these spas are mostly families - loud, stumbling drunks just wouldn't mix well with the wives and kids running around.
Once you check into a spa, you may not leave without paying full readmission. You get issued a pair of clothes at the door move to your respective gender's locker room to get changed. Most folks immediately get naked and hop in a series of baths and saunas. They come in all kinds of flavors and temperatures... green tea baths, salty baths, medicinal herb baths, Jacuzzis constructed with special kinds of wood, steam rooms, salt saunas, mud saunas, etc, etc. It is probably dangerous to try them all in one go, especially if you are into shocking your system with a cold bath between them... which many are. After this you could get a haircut, body scrub, or any other sort of upscale massage/beauty treatment if you had the money, time, and inclination. Most people just shave, groom, and brush their teeth teeth in a well outfitted locker room type in preparation to go into the co-ed areas of the spa.
Many different rooms are ringed around one large “grand resting room” that usually has a big screen TV in its center and stacks of sleeping mats and pillows ringing the perimeter. The main cafeteria is located here as well, next to the manicure station for women and rows massage chairs. Patrons make all their purchases inside with an magnetic wrist band that is swiped across electronic sensors attached to “cash” registers. This device also acts as your locker key, thus eliminating the need to carry anything on your person.
The floor of the grand resting room is composed of unevenly heated tiles. I don't know exactly why or how this works, but it it is a strong tradition which continues today... most Korean homes are still heated through the floor. Most people sleep on the tiles and they normally test out the temperature patterns of a particular area to try and align their feet and head with hotter tiles. I liked sleeping in the other rooms that offered different climates, air compositions, and ambiance. There was a high oxygen room, a charcoal room, a room with walls composed entirely of salt, an aromatic room, a green wood room, an ice room (basically a walk in freezer), a charcoal room, and a “kiln” room complete with working fireplace. I even saw people sleeping out by the pool and in the rooftop garden.
My own regimen went something like this. Arrive around midnight after dinner – shower – warm medicinal herb bath – hot green tea bath – cold bath with water massage (high pressure nozzles) – sauna – cold saltwater bath – steam room – lay on the “jade infrared tile bed” (weird) – shower, shave, and brush the teeth – get dressed – go downstairs and watch a movie on my laptop in the cafeteria – find a place to sleep – wake up and eat the snack I illegally brought in – hit the workout room for an hour – go for a swim – go through the bath routine again – check out. That took about twelve hours with seven of them used for sleep. It was on the whole a great experience... on balance maybe even better than some couchsurfing stays I've had.
However, I remain fully ambivalent about its supposed health benefits. The Koreans have all kinds of explanations for how and why certain “treatments” taken in a certain order will promote health or cure specific illnesses. Do most people believe them? I cannot say. I put about as much stock in them as I do in praying to saints, doing a particular yoga pose purging my liver of toxins, or getting cupped. I know there are physiological effects when one spends an extended amount of time in such environments, but the specific effects would be very difficult to assess. Given that Korea was a very class stratified society in which only the rich had access to such facilities, it seems normal for the masses to now assume that the gentry knew what they were doing. I find the same issues with some of their most popular "fitness" machines... a life size mechanical horse... those silly belt massage machines we abandoned after the second world war?!
My scientific skepticism is not the main point of this report. We're just as gullible over here. It is the social function such an institution serves that interests me most. Again, I am just an outside observer... the only foreigner in the room... the hairy one Koreans usually find somewhat scary. I did have a few good conversations beyond, “Hello? How are you? Where are you from?”, and I even shared some digital media with other laptoppers. However, despite the expansive amenities the jimjilbang offers, it is really appealings to Koreans because of its cultural context.
This is the only place I have seen where the village setting has been successfully reconstructed within a hyper modern context. On the weekends there are a few hundred people in these places for the night. Children play, adolescents walk around holding hands with their same sex friends, women and men cavort in their age sets. Then, everyone falls asleep together on a floor somewhere. This happens at different times for different people... I got to sleep at about 3AM and I observed many children still very much awake at this hour. People were still playing on the computers and video game systems in the electronics room. People were still up conversing, reminiscing, even arguing. In a very conservative country, young couples are allowed to sleep together, or at least near each other, because what naughtiness could happen in such a public space? There are no strict rules about time and activity here because they would be unnecessary and counter to the spirit of the space. I must say that it was a beautiful thing to behold.
Could such a place exist in the US? Could it be profitable? What American in their right mind would sleep on the floor instead of in their bed? Wouldn't some loud, troublesome people (old or young) start yelling or fighting and need to be ejected? Perhaps stripping at the entrance would be more appropriate as to disarm guests and keep other contraband out. Are people even comfortable with seeing each other naked for prolonged periods of time anymore? Has the increased importance and insecurity placed on our bodies made this an impossibility? Aren't spas just for rich old white folks at country clubs and resorts? Where is our equivalent public space? The mall... the beach... the theme park? They just aren't as intimate. If I were to bring back the public bath in America, I would certainly take the jimjilbang on as the guiding model. And if I were to draw up the next generation of master planned communities, it would be central to the design.
