JimJilBang it up! Daejeon style!

A jimjilbang is a Korean bathhouse that has numerous baths - much like hot tubs and cold tubs all at different temperatures and different features. Some are massage baths some are mineral baths and some are natural hot springs. A word of caution though if you do decide to go to one - before getting in any bath, it is repectable and well expected for you to shower and wash for 20-30 minutes. . . Or else the ajoomas will attack you. haha Not really but they will give you dirty looks and not just the stares you get from being white.

Afterwards you are free to roam the rest of the building which will always have some sort of sauna. My definite favorite sauna was this really awesome salt sauna in the second jimjilbang we stayed in, there were also your usual saunas at varying temps. Another that was present in both that we stayed in was an amethyst sauna - where the power of the crystals ummm helps your chi? As well as an ice room where you kinda just sat in there and froze. But one of the things I would certainly recommend is the Dr. Fish Cafe if you ever happen to go to a bathhouse that has them. They are these sweet feet eating fish that eat off the dead skin your feet possess. These fish do not normally do this in the wild but have more or less been trained to do so. Simply if you give them less appealing food, they will prefer the feet but if there is a lack of customers they can always revert the the feed.

Our first jimjilbang we stayed in is located near the Government complex in Daejeon. It was highly recommended by our co teacher. This one was clearly the larger and nicer of the two, it also had a swimming pool with a side as well as a gym on the upper floors. I am sad I never had the opportunity to go check them out but perhaps there will be a next time. There was also another whole floor of saunas we missed too. However what we experienced was still amazing and I cold probably spend a whole weekend there and not tire from it.



Here our second jimjilbang is located in the Yuseong Spa district in Daejeon and is quite the smaller of the two; however they provided us actual mats to sleep on which is nice if you are not immune to the hard floor. Also they had the essential Dr. Fish Cafe that I was talking about, which was a must as far as new experiences go. They also had my favorite sauna, the salt sauna as well as these amazing kiwi slushies that were simply out of this world!