My dad, sometimes my uncle too, used to take me and my brother to bath houses in Seoul when we were little, here visiting our mom's family. It was fun back then - a multitude of huge tubs at different temperatures, bubbles and jet streams massaging us while we soaked up the heat, fountains and spigots flooding our faces as we reclined on the marble benches encircling the tub, our scrawny legs floating aimlessly like socks in the wind. I remember bearing the dry heat in the adjacent sauna, the faint charcoal and distinct heat-resistant wood odor scathing my nostril hairs, forcing me to inhale at a slow, metered pace. We would sit in the swelter, sweating unstoppably, mesmerized by the pink sand falling in the hour glass kindly provided to make sure you don't overheat.
Our visits to Korea were not infrequent, but nor were they consistent or for all that long a period. Eventually puberty hit, and we spent a majority of that insecure time living in the States. Returning one year when I was around fourteen, I was suddenly not interested in making our usual trip. Well, interested maybe, but carrying far too much shame and embarrassment to go willingly. I was persuaded once, and like Adam after eating the fruit, spent much of the time desperately seeking a leaf.
Things change though. While spending 8 weeks in Tokyo (http://how-to-speak-engrish.blogspot.com/), I learned to enjoy and even look forward to the bathhouse which was part of the gym I joined. At first I was solaced in the assurance that these were complete strangers. But even when the emergency department residents all got together and took me out to what is to date the most epic bathhouse I've experienced, I quickly got comfortable wearing only my hair.
For the record, I would never propose a group outing to a public bathhouse, certainly never in the States. But if people in a bathing culture are down - fuck it, why not. They called it naked bonding. They also said they did naked bonding in a bus on some group trip - this I think is weird.
After an ego-devastating evening learning my match results for residency (Stony Brook Radiology - a strong program, but not my top choice, and not one I expected to match at), I needed to clear my head. So I went to a 찜찔방.
Though I was quite unstoppably perseverating on how it came to be that I will be moving to Long Island next year, there is something about being in a room full of fellow bathers that is immediately calming. Everyone is chilling, our communal stresses wafting up with the steam of the bathwater. Which, in this particular 찜찔방 was treated in a particular way to give each tub a characteristic hue. A greenish bath (hot!) for rejuvenation, a purple one for health, and a blue one for something I didn't have the vocabulary to translate.
Let me be clear about one thing - maintaining upward gaze is so key in a bathhouse. More so to guard against the burning-in of unwanted mental images into your brain than out of respect, though the latter is observed at a baseline. Nevertheless, peripheral glimpses of wang are unavoidable. And in this inescapable flashing, I noticed something - most Koreans are circumcised. While this is certainly the overwhelming norm in the United States (and Australia, curiously), and among Jews and Muslims, it is a practice which has no logical place in Korea. And in fact did not exist in any appreciable way before the Korean War. Even more startling, some cursory research indicates that the average age of circumcision is twelve. That seems cruel.
Perhaps it will "fall out of style" with equal rapidity once foreskin restoration takes off as the new hot cosmetic procedure. I can't believe something like this exists!
Thank you wiki, for so much TMI.
Back to the bathhouse, I've spent a considerable amount of time trying to parse the cultural characteristics of public bathing. Why Japan and Korea, but not China? Why Turkey, Hungary, and Russia, but not Western Europe? They could use it, for sure.
Maybe its the presence of natural hot springs. When you find a natural bath, it only makes sense that you bathe au naturale.
Western Europeans, for all their sexual liberalism, are generally not on board with naked bonding. Americans, for all their "wildness," are among the most uptight about it; never a nipple without a tipple.
In my view, it's something inherent in the culture that allows this practice to evolve into something widespread and common. Whether its a minimum level of politeness/respect, or a general sense of not giving a fuck, or the absence (or successful squelching) of homosexuality, is unclear to me. Probably a combination of these and more.
I don't think public bathing as it exists in Korea and Japan could ever exist in the States. It's too much of a melting pot. It's too brash and obnoxious. The deep roots of family as a unit don't exist in the same way, an important consideration if you imagine a pedophile with access to a public bath.
And that's just too bad: because I left this 찜찔방 relaxed, centered, and with a clear mind and fresh perspective on the things that lay ahead of me. Not to mention I was clean as a hell.
