dear jimjilbang,

Today’s post is re-posted from Chakra Khan’s blog.  CK is the awesome bodywork + art space I created with my friend Jesse back in Minneapolis.  She and Karen keep it going strong, and we all take turns posting on the CK blog.  Enjoy!

Dear Jimjilbang,

Thank you for making me a new person. I left your doors glowing and ready to revel in things like the jelly shoes studded with rhinestones someone was wearing right outside your door.

I arrived mind-muddled and a little dusty after the trek from the metro station. My shoulder was killing me and I felt confused. My skin was dull and pollution-y.

I entered your doors and a girl took my shoes and gave me an ID bracelet. I went up to the “woman soup” locker room and prepared for the bathing round.

I was please to find that mid-day at the jimjilbang is much quieter than my last visit on a Saturday evening. I sauna’d, cold showered, soaked, steamed, sauna’d, showered, and soaked to my heart’s content. Ahhhh, sweat that city out!

I then was given a pink spa outfit to wear and proceeded to the co-ed area. I peeked into the several yurt-shaped saunas: hot, hotter, hot with pink salt crystals, freezing.

I went into the room filled with reclining chairs that was showing movies the last time I visited. This time the room was quiet and the lights were low. I curled up and pulled the blanket over me. I breathed slowly for awhile.

I got up and went into the hot yurt for awhile. Then cold yurt. My shoulder still ached. Maybe I should check out massage on the 3rd floor.

The menu was partially in English, I was in luck! I chose JAPANESE MASSAGE, hoping it would be non-oily and something like shiatsu. It was! 90 minutes of serious pummeling and kneading by a tiny woman’s hands, feet and knees, in a room that looked oddly like a hotel room, but I didn’t think too hard about that.

One last mini-nap in one of the warm saunas, and I was ready to face the world again. No longer dusty or confused, I felt cleansed inside and out, rested and alert.

Thank you jimjilbang! I’ll be back.