S. Korea Day 2: A Day in Daejon

It’s Day 2 in S. Korea and we’re headed to Daejeon. These are O’s old stomping grounds. We make a superfast jump on the KTX, S. Korea’s high speed train system. A first class seat is a little pricey, but it was nice to have a seat by the window. There wasn’t much to see though, buildings and concrete mostly. We landed in the center of downtown. Though there were still piles of snow on the ground, it seemed a few degrees warmer in Daejeon, which was great for me. Our first stop was a cute coffee spot, The Mill, for lunch. The place was run by the cutest Korean couple. With a nice selection of sandwiches, teas, and coffees, I could see this being a regular hang out spot. And, added bonus, they serve ice cream with all the sandwiches. How cool is that?! After that we attempted shopping, albeit very halfheartedly. We wandered around a bit, visited a friend of O’s, and tried to think of what else we could do in Daejeon during the day. Nightlife is pretty hoppin’ in S. Korea, but during the day it’s pretty quiet. We finally decided to hit up a jimjilban, the biggest in Daejeon. O had been wanting to take me to one, as he said it was essential to experiencing S. Korea. So, here’s the set up: You begin at the cashier. It costs anywhere from $5-7 to get in. After you pay you receive a locker key, a uniform (t-shirt/shorts), and a towel. Your first stop is your shoe locker to drop off your shoes, and and then you head to the sauna. At the sauna you go to your other locker. It is also the place where all the naked people are. Now let me explain. The saunas are separated by gender, so I didn’t see all of the naked people in the jimjilban, just all of the naked females. Now, if you have never been in a huge locker room setting, this can be a little daunting. Even more daunting is the fact the you (well me) are literally the only brown girl in the joint. It took me a minute to adjust. So, when I got to my locker and began to undress, I meticulously folded every piece of clothing as I went along, even my socks. The closer I got to exposing myself, the more meticulous I got. Finally, standing in my skivvies staring at my neatly folded clothes, and beating myself up for not shaving my legs, I just said screw it and got down to the birthday suit. I did my best to cover up with the strip of towel I had been given and headed off to the showers. You have to shower before you can enter the hot rooms. O had briefed my before we went into this deal since no one around would speak English, and he wouldn’t be there to help. In our briefing he had mentioned something about communal soap, but all the ladies I saw had their own. When I finally jumped into the next free shower I wasn’t really sure what to do. With all those naked bodies in such close proximity, it did not feel right to have a “look around” to find any soap. Lucky for me someone had left behind a container of something. I stole a few squirts of soap, scrubbed up as best I could, and got the hell out of there. I was so happy to have my uniform on. Now the next step, the hot rooms.

All jimjilbans have common areas with hot rooms. The temperatures range from 68c – 80c. There is also a big area with mats, a place to get water, an ice room, and a snack counter. This jimjilban had a waterfall wall, and a floor with themed rooms. There was also a room temperature room with a weird animal displace case and green lights. There are sleeping caves in jimjilbans for people who want to overnight. It’s certainly cheaper than getting a hotel. After meeting back up with a squeaky clean O, we started our sweat session in a room that was 72c. It was nice and toasty. We moved up to 78c next, and I finally started to work up a sweat. After a nice nap in the green light room, we headed back to 72c. After a couple hours of sweating and napping it was time to hit the showers again. Maybe it was the heat, or maybe the second time around is not a big deal, but when I hit the shower room this time, I did not care. I bought a nice red ginger scrub and a scrubby towel from the soap counter and hit the showers like a pro. When I finally walked out of the jimjilban I felt clean and refreshed. It was awesome, and I can’t wait to do it again. We ended the night at an odenbar run by a friend of O’s known as big Perm. An odenbar is a place where you got to drink fish broth and eat cheese or chicken on a stick. Oh, and drink. It sounds a little funky, but it’s actually quite nice. Not to mention that Perm is one of the sweetest guys on the planet. A few hours and a few beers later we took a less expensive train back to Cheonan. Another awesome day.