another reason to love asians

event: karoke & spa
"type" of asian: Koreans

my friends chose to break me into the east coast thing easy.
ok- lets be honest, they already had this planned and i happened to get in town on the perfect night to party.
but i digress...

what these new easterners called "krazy korean night" was a trip:

first, we went to this korean restaurant. i will give you the short version of korean food as i see it:

• naughty
• spicy
• ricy
• somewhat rubbery (octopus... ew.)

good stuff though.... just exnay the swimming things and it is a perfect meal for me.

then, we went into a little room in the restaurant (no, i am not about to tell you this was a korean brothel or anything) where we sang karoke. it is awesome! the room goes krazy (ok, that is the last time i will spell crazy with a k...) with the lights every time a new song comes on. 1/2 of the people spoke korean and so they sang some korean songs (neckties on their heads and all), but there were a few english types in there too...

the white chicks and i wailed to a one certain "rainin men" and laughed the whole time. karoke = serious good times/workout for the abdominals. speaking of- who has the pictures from said event? i need— i need.

and then, we went to spa world.
here is where korea starts to look more awesome than its neighbors.

so, when you go to a korean spa, you first check in your shoes. i am told this is standard. they give you a little locker and an itty key and you put your shoes in there till you leave. i guess asians revere their footwear like we do our IDs... cause it seemed to be a collateral hold more than a welcome gesture. nonetheless...

then you get into these little outfits here. -->
like scrubs but not. and they all wear their towels in this Princess Leia style too... none of us could figure out how to do it... i guess we coulda asked but we didn't think it polite. then you enter one of these few sauna rooms and just chill there till you are sweating unbearably. the first one was only 135° or so and it took a while for this arizonan to sweat in there, but eventually we did and then we ventured through the rest. they all have a theme. there is a "rock" room, with little balls of rock. they are warm though so you just lay in em and it pretty much feels amazing until your air passageway is blocked by the steam that builds up in the chestal region.

koreans get their heat from their heated flooring. this is the floor that they will just put a mat on and sleep on (a very thin non-padded mat. hey- maybe this is why they don't have butts... hmm...). between sauna trips and bathing you can just chill here and eat (you buy food with your little key on your wrist) or watch olympics on a huge screen. side note: we were the only ones that really watched the olympics, maybe it isn't their thing. or maybe they are only into the asian male gymnasts- for which i would not blame them. Yang Wei* anyone?

this is the best part. the part that makes it authentically korean: the bathhouse.
in some of these spas in america, they will have a similar bathing room/pool/hot tub room, but you might be co-ed... or at least clothed. not at this one. at first, i was sort of terrified at the thought of baring all to at least a dozen other nude strangers, but it took watching my friend (who served in korea and has no fear of such a place) just rip off her clothes and walk in, for me to see it was no big deal. i dropped em and went in.

the bathhouse has a little area that you wash up in first before you get into the pools. you sit on a little plastic stool hoo-ha with a mirror in front of you (coulda done without the mirror, thanks) and there is a hand-held shower thinger and soap, wash cloth...etc. you just bathe! so after i "bathed" (or "splashed some water on myself for a few minutes") i went and found the hot tubs. no one was in them. one was "aloe" and it was green. and one was marked "rose" and it was pink. they were yummy and made your skin feel like butta. then there is a main pool which is basically like swimming in your bath water or like the 97° temperature of an outdoor swimming pool in the AZ. there were waterfalls and little places where you can sit that jet water into your flabby thighs, and even one that shoots water straight up so you can basically float there on top of the water pressure**.

there is a little area down in the corner where asians are getting greasy naked rub-downs, and you can pay extra for any of those normal spa-type services. they put it on your key along with any food you purchase and then you pay for it as you leave.

after the yummy wash down there are showers with shampoo/conditioner and things so you can re-wash off, and then you go get back into your scrubs and do it all over again. (only, we didn't.) we played some mexican train (how fitting, right?) and then we were going to sleep over, cause we could, but we didn't. they have segregated (men/women) rooms for sleeping that are like the open room with mats—only dark. my ride had to be up early so we just went home.

long story short,
asians = yum.
i will be returning to the spa shortly. i thank you.


* thanks- i know he's not korean. but go with me here.
** i call this the colon blow