The jimjilbang

I went out last weekend with some friends. We had a normal Saturday night near Hungik University, which is my favorite drinking spot. After drinking, we decided to stay in a jimjilbang.

I've been avoiding going to jimjilbangs. They are probably one of the biggest differences between Western and Korean cultures. Every Westerner goes to one eventually, but the first experience is always very awkward.

It's a bathhouse, and people usually go there after a night of drinking and spend the night there. There's a men's only floor, a women's only floor, and communal areas. The communal areas will have everything: Saunas, restaurants, and a huge heated floor where people go and sleep on during the night. Usually people will go to a jimjilbang after drinking and get up in the morning and head home.

The men and women's only section is a bathhouse, a shower and a steam room. Everyone's walking around butt naked. So imagine if you will, walking into a room at 6 am with a friend barefoot and seeing naked men in a changeroom sleeping naked. You're handed some clothes to wear and a locker key. To get to your locker, you have to walk over naked men. There's also one man who might be masturbating and another one who puts his thumb in his foreskin.

My friend fell asleep somewhere, and I couldn't find him, so I fell asleep somewhere else and we met up the next morning. We hit up a Sauna, and then hit up Seoul. I don't think we'll ever talk about the place again, although we'll probably both go to a jimjilbang again separately.

The next morning we went around Seoul and saw a palace. Right now isn't the best time to go, but it will be nice soon enough I'm sure. While walking about Seoul we got to see some people dancing in green. The Korean girl that was with us told us about the election that's taking place next week.

So we were lucky to see people campaigning for the Korean equivalent of the House of Commons (or Congress for those Americans out there). Rather than say what they wanted to do, they were trying to gardener votes with happy pictures and people giving thumbs up and dancing. I just had to laugh and wondered if we do anything quite as entertaining to a foreigner during elections.

I just thought that learning about a candidate's policies with singing and dancing was like learning about the Bible from this game. (I'm a big fan of Noah and Jesus)

I'm heading out to Japan in a few days for a short visit. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone in Japan and having real sushi. I'll let you all know how it goes.