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Seeker
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London Ontario
Jan 1970
time: 00:25
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In Canada and North America there are few public bathhouses. I've never seen one.
In fact, the typical Canadian male is rarely naked with other males, especially since mandatory communal showering died out in the 60s 70s, except for certain sports teams.
I had assumed that 'jim-jil bang' was a sauna, 'cause that's what my guide book said, and in Canada most saunas are simply wooden rooms where one has a towel to cover ones modesty.
Our secretary, who took us, mislead us a little when she said they give you a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Indeed they do, AFTER an hour in bath house!
There is a 'boy's floor' and a 'girls floor', and basically there we were a bunch of naked whities in this huge 'Turkish bath' sort of place, with Saunas, cold tubs and showers, hot showers, and the red hot 50 C tub. The idea is that you shower, shave, nails, etc (even haircut) and then you work your way up from the lukewarm to the death level saunas and tubs.
Then you get out and walk to the sadistic cold pool, where high pressure ice water torments you to 'open pores'.
There are naked lawn chairs (sun room?), and if you want a male attendant will rub oil into your naked body and give massage. I skipped that part, nobody kneads my dough but me thank you.
Anyway, there we were, very out of place. It's all ages and there were a few Korean teenage boys who were blatantly staring and stuff, I would run to get into the tubs, passed on sauna after 1.
They did have this massage chair that was awesome, and a cinema, a cafe, a mini-bar, a gym, and a ondul area (hot floor for napping), in the non-naked mixed sex area.
I can't imagine such a place in Canada, given that bath houses are associated with gays.
Wierd things: micro-towel. Koreans insist there is no homosexuality in Korea, but we saw some wierd stuff like males washing each other with sponges.
Definetly not a place for the sexually insecure, I can't imagine such a place in Canada, Koreans go every week, all ages, all together. It is impossible for me to imagine the sexually insecure North American teenager frequenting such a place 'for fun' every week.
It is also a real cultural center, the Koreans feel they can go to Jim-jil bang and be themselves, it is here that you see the "Real Korea".
Do they have these kinds of bath house spa places in other countries? I can only think of Turkey, and maybe perverted places like Sweden or Belgium.
Surely not in England?
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12-01-2003 11:59
. You know what they say about Asians...
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