The jjimjiibang

The Jjimjiibang:

A place few Westerners can imagine is that of a communal comfort in the nude. Definitely something I could not imagine before attending a jjimjiibang, and definitely something I found difficult while experiencing. Not that I wasn’t comfortable with my own nudity (as I kept their kind gesture of an exit from their cultural norm - i.e. a uniform - on at all times), it was more that I was uncomfortable with the visual imagery. For instance, as soon as I walked in I was greeted by a Korean woman in her fifties, not overweight, but not thin, and also full frontal and full side as she did her business at her locker. I didn’t stare, though I doubt that'd be unusual as they stare unashamed at everything. And I also didn’t laugh, amazing really because I’m the annoying type that laughs at every wrong moment. So in all, my actions weren’t seemingly uncomfortable for those around me. It was purely the image that was being ingrained into my mind- even at a glance. That image of twenty or so naked, sagging women all shriveling with each passing second. Their sweat glistening off their morphing belly as they walked from shower to locker and back- some I think were making unnecessary trips! It was just the scene of it all, and the wicked thought in the back of my mind that I should participate. I certainly felt the disdain in my toes, for I know that I’m open about everything but nudity- ironic really, as nudity is the truest form of humanity- it’s what reminds us that we are merely mortal and thus should treat everyone as equals, i.e. we are all doomed to the same fate so make it a party while we’re all still alive. 

Anyways, that is what I should think about, and tried to think about the whole time. Yet, some nasty little, conservative thought that is most likely ingrained in my head from hundreds of years of wearing thick layers of clothes in the freezing hills of Norway and then Wisconsin came into my head, 

“This is absolutely disgusting... It’s fricking hot as hell in here and these women are all shriveling prunes groping each other.” 

They actually wash each other, but to my mind, they’re groping because, like I said, I could see only the dirtiness of it all. 

“I’m in the cesspit of the ninth circle of hell. I wonder how many diseases I’m contracting by sitting here in God knows what, left by God knows who and by God knows where on their bodies! I cannot believe this is normal for anyone. I cannot believe I agreed to a cultural experience in which the backs of my eyelids will never allow me to forget! These sweat-ridden women will be the last thing I see before I sleep every night of my life! I am haunted!” 

On and on my mind raced with these narrow thoughts and became worse with the escalating dehydration- from the sauna and from the alcohol ingestion an hour earlier. I was honestly one of the worst travelers since Magellan got killed in the Philippines for being a dink-wad. Meaning, I could not accept their differences because I was too worried about my own past to see the beauty in their tradition, even if it was seemingly a cesspit of sweaty old boobs and cellulite. The point is I was small minded, and in a way this is my confession and my assistance to anyone who may find themselves in a similarly ‘sticky’ situation. 

1.Do not be afraid of the clammy butt parked next to you, yours is and/or can be the same. 

2.Do not shun the different, for you are quite different yourself. 

3.And lastly, do not dwell on nasty thoughts because they get you no more knowledge or power or happiness. If anything, nasty thoughts poison a situation and can truly make it a hell for you, and anyone sitting next to you. Especially in a jjimjiibang where irritation only makes more steam, thereby clamming your cheeks together like superglue to cellophane.

 It is really the importance of the experience that you’ll miss, and therefore the happiness you might have found even if only pea-sized. I left that bath-house with the greatest disdain, yet in hindsight with the utmost regret. Narrowness can only bring about regret, thus I shall dare to go back. I shall dare to be open! A traveler is not true if he/she does not try everything, so it is everything that I will try. Whether it be molten saunas or wriggling urchins or 5,000 foot mountains or a hundred men with guns and communist flags -okay maybe not that extreme, but I will openly experience whatever my travels throw at me because I’m happy to be a traveler. Furthermore, I’m happy to be weary. Weariness proves that the life quota each of us has been given is being used to the max, thus being fulfilled in some shape or form. It is another thing that reminds us that we’re alive. So I love it, and I love travel because of it. From the depths of my soul, this traveler is ever so gladly weary from missing home’s pull on her heart and from the push of the new experiences on her head. They’re a conundrum for any soul, thus I will do my very best to choose good, to choose love, and to choose happiness.  I will choose experience. I will choose the jjimjiibang!