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Busan, Centum City, Shinsegae Department Store - SpaLand

====** For the month of December, parts of the sauna are being renovated (repaired?) so some discounts or time extensions may be offered**==== 
It is advertised that regular service will resume on December 29th.

Unfortunately for them, Spa Land has no English website.  Unimaginable, I know.  I mean, after all Shinsegae is one of the world's largest department stores.  Whatever guys, don't worry about it...

Actually that's one of the few complaints I had about this place.  5 to be exact; shall we get them out of the way, in a classic bad-news-first way?
1.  The aforementioned lack of a comprehensive English website.
2.  Not enough showers.  Maybe 30 sit-down and only 12 standing ones.  Even on a Thursday evening, there was a short queue at times to rinse off.
3.  Sauna is well-lit...  A little too well.  It's like a doctor's exam room in there!
4.  A couple of times while in the jjimjilbang rooms, I heard water rushing through pipes somewhere.  Not so relaxing.
5.  Minor, but it was kind of hard to find a water machine to fill up my bottle.  Get yours filled in the sauna.

OK, there.  The band-aid's off.  Now for the good stuff.  This place is (as expected) gorgeous.  What I didn't expect was for it to be so different from any other jjimjilbang I'd been to.  Instead of being just an up-scale version of a nice jjimjilbang, this is like stepping into a 5-star, ultra-modern hotel.  Cool, flat stone; glass partitions; restrained decorative appearance; and plentiful meditation areas distinguish both the sauna and jjimjilbang from others I've reviewed.  An open floor plan and high glass ceilings also lend themselves to the modern aesthetic.

At first, you'll notice the grand lobby welcoming you to buy a ticket.  It will cost you 12,000 won for a visit on a weekday, 14,000 on Saturday or Sunday (4 hour limit).  You may notice the lack of screaming, running rugrats.  The first real advantage of this spa: no children under 13 are allowed in.  This most certainly improves the overall peace.  As a side note, there's no sauna-only ticket option, so everyone gets 3 extra fluffy towels and a set of clothes. The locker room isn't really much different from another nice sauna's locker room.  The lockers are full-size, and have shelves and a jewelry rack inside. 

In the bathing area you'll start to notice the stark beauty and opulence of the place: lots of small baths, each of a different temperature.  In the center of the room are the naturally-fed hot springs.  One is sodium chloride (salt, benefiting the muscles and joints, as well as other body systems), the second is sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, said to "improve beauty of the skin").  Both have the added benefit of reducing the amount of water absorbed by the skin due to higher concentrations of salts in the water, so you don't prune up!  Now that's nice-uh!

There are also a massaging tub (around 38* with varied positions and a cave), a cool tub (~25*), a cold tub (18*), 2 dry sauna rooms, and an outdoor spa (women's sauna only).  Outdoors are two more naturally fed pools.  They are pretty hot - welcome this time of year, though.  The outdoor area is covered by a slatted wood dome to maintain privacy.  Hint 1: Next to the entrance from the locker room, they provide soaps and natural sea salt to scrub or soak your skin with, and all showers are stocked with shampoo and body wash.
 Hint 2: You can pay for anything in the jjimjilbang with your locker key, so don't bother bringing any money up.  Once you venture down the hall towards the jjimjilbang you'll be transported to the hotel I was talking about before.  Let me just list the rooms available to you here, with some description.
Charcoal Room -참숯방
Ice Room - 아이스방 / 어름방
Yellow Ocher Room - Hwang-to / 황토방.  Hot, but comfortably dry.
Hammam Room - 하맘룸, meant to replicate a Turkish-style bath sauna.
Bali Room - 발리룸, an open area with soft floor-mattresses where you can congregate with your friends and loved ones and talk freely.
Pyramid room - angled walls for a relaxing mood, or something.
Roman Room - 로만룸, replicates the feeling of a traditional Roman sauna room.  Warm and very humid, like Korean summers.  Stand over the steamer in the center with your towel over your head for max effect.
Body Sound Room -raised platforms which vibrate with the bass in the calming background music.  Bonus fake bamboo along the walls.
Wave Dream Room - places to lay along the sides, and from the middle lights are reflected through water waves for a meditative, colourful view on the ceiling.
SEV Room - therapeutic ions emitted into semi-private, wooden 2-seater benches lit by dim coloured lights.
Relax Room - an amazing 3-tiered arc-shaped space with reclining leather chairs together by two's, each one equipped with it's own mini TV!
Outdoor foot spa - In the chilly months, don one of the quilted jackets at the entrance to this patio with various temperatures of walking- and soaking-foot-tubs with seats for small or large groups, singles, or couples.
Massage & Therapy, nail shop, cafe & beverages, restaurant, DVD, PC, business rooms.
Turkish Hammam Room - smells A-mazing in here

Yeah, that's all.  Ha!  I only got lost a couple of times.  The restaurant is opulent and offers some great cuisine other jjimjilbang don't (udon with fried Japanese things, bulgogi stew, even the simple Korean foods are high-quality) the therapy room looks top-notch, and the DVD theatre is also fitted with reclining chairs.  Premium.  I highly recommend this place for a special treat - best enjoyed with friends, guests, or in a couple.  Off you go!

                Below: Resting areas in the connecting hall              Relax room's individual TV chairs
Lounging beds in Bali Room                                  Steamy Roman Room                     

Shinsegae Spa Land - right outside the Centum City subway stop on line 2, exit 12.
신세계백화점
부산광역시 해운대구 우1동 1495 센텀시티, 1-3층
Busan, Haeundae Gu, Woo 1-dong, 1495 Centum City, 1st-3rd floor
6:00 - 24:00  **Not open 24 hours - closes at midnight - cannot sleep overnight here!**

RATES
Basic: weekday - 12,000 / weekend* - 14,000
Early Bird (before 8AM): weekday - 7,000 / weekend* - 9,000
Night Owl: after 8PM Sun-Thurs -7,000 / after 10PM Fri, Sat - 9,000
* means Sat, Sun, & holidays

Sweet Forest: Korean blog entry about Spa Land (start from pic #6, then continue down to see photos of the jjimjilbang)
Shinsegae Department Store (Centum City location) - English, basic, but has a cute map.

Wikimapia of Shinsegae Spa Land


On Naver, the Anti English Spectrum, and what's next

Source: The Korea Herald, as edited from the Anti-English Spectrum's website.

The K-blogosphere is fast. Really fast. I'm sometimes amazed at how blogs like Brian in Jeollanam-do, Gusts of Popular Feeling, and First-Level Korean (among many others) can put together a story in as much time as a reporter may have - at 0% of the paycheck. Great work guys - it makes my blogging life a lot easier :) Different takes of the same story are posted on the Korea Times or the Korea Herald, but it's the bloggers that can reverse some of the spin received during the treatment of the story.

The summary, for those too busy to keep up with umpteen blogs with umpteen versions of the same story: Andrea Vandom, with support from ATEK, wrote a letter to NHN (the parent company of Naver) demanding that they remove much of the text from the Anti-English Spectrum for being against Naver's community principles, as well as against Korean law and UN guidelines. Ms. Vandom specifically pointed out the AES's xenophobic and racist tendencies, along with vigilante-style stalking of suspected illegal actions. The response from Naver was less than helpful (from the Korea Times):
Naver has rejected a request by native English teachers to remove what they call derogatory and racial postings on a blog known as the “Anti-English Spectrum.”

NHN, the operator of Naver, told The Korea Times Thursday they had concluded that they don’t see anything in the blog that violates the standing regulations or its internal rules.

“Our monitoring team examined cases stipulated in the request and concluded that Andrea Vandom’s claim doesn’t merit any corrective action,” said Kim Hyun-chang, Naver’s PR official.
Apparently they either didn't look very closely or didn't understand Korean very well. Adam Walsh's article in the Korea Herald claims some of the most offensive content has been removed (see the last paragraph), yet discussions about stalking foreigners continue. An excerpt from that article:

An issue many have with Anti-English Spectrum is its past use of racist language, such as referring to foreigners as "Black pigs," saying that foreigners engage in "sexual molestation," and that they "target children."

Another AES action that has gone further than your friendly neighborhood watch involves them engaging in types of vigilantism. The group's administrator admits to stalking foreigners. "Whenever I have to prepare a policy report or embark on the pursuit of an illegal foreign lecturer, then I end up working until dawn because I throw myself into it, braving fire and water. Then because I have to be at work in the morning, I don't get any sleep, and therefore am physically very tired." They have also stored information and photographs on their website of non-Koreans they have followed.

As for charges of racism, Anti-English Spectrum's host Naver.com, said they have received no complaints. The PR department for Korea's biggest portal stated that even though the cafe is rather large -- having 17,000 members -- prior to being contacted by The Korea Herald a representative said she was unaware of the group. When asked about the "black pig" comment, the representative stated that "in this case 'black pig' is definitely a racist comment."

So why hasn't action been taken? Could it be because Naver doesn't want to stir up some 17,000 supposed members - some of which are the biggest netizens in the country? Or is ignorance of the group by Naver truly bliss? It's harder to take action against something if you don't personally feel affected by it - and foreigners that barely use their website isn't likely to force their hand.

It seems quite surprising that few people have tossed the 'L' word around yet. Yes, that 'L' word - Libel. Pick out almost dictionary definition you can find - damaging someone else's reputation through writing is the common thread. I know it sounds ironic for a foreigner to take a Korean to court for damaging our reputation - but look at one definition for yourself, as taken from an online business law glossary:
Libel: A libel case consists of published material with the following criteria: (1) The material is defamatory; (2) the written statements are about someone who is identifiable and living; (3) the material is distributed to someone other than the victim. A key in a libel case is that the victim's reputation must suffer as a result of these written words in order for the action to be actionable.
Have foreigners' reputations been damaged as a direct result of AES? Whether a Korean libel lawsuit would allow for multiple plantiffs or just a single one, Almost any decent lawyer could argue all three points as mentioned above.

Who is the guilty party, though? The AES as a whole? Naver, for not shutting down a website that is against the law / their own principles? The person / people whose posts are allowed to promote a racist / xenophobic agenda? The lawmakers who go on record with the same racist / xenophobic agenda? And how has a foreigner's reputation been damaged? Both of those things would have to be figured out before a libel case could go forward.

If it were just a 'hate group' of people who simply don't like foreigners, they might be easy enough to ignore. But these people have the ears of government officials - the ones in charge of making the rules allowing us to come to Korea.

How to respond? Kushibo recently posted an e-mail he sent to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (e-mail them yourself at [email protected] or [email protected]). There's also an online contact form to send in a complaints to that organization at http://www.humanrights.go.kr/english/guide/application_01.jsp (see this page for more information); you can also call them at 1331 from Seoul; 02-1331 outside of Seoul. If you want to make an appearance in person, their office is on Euljiro-1-ga - Kushibo has a map to it - copied and pasted from his blog:



I wonder how they might respond to a group of
hundreds of English teachers, showing up in their office at the same time, with the same complaint.

Readers: comments are open. Is there a libel case against the AES? How has your reputation been damaged by AES? Are they even to blame for the reputation of foreigners in Korea?

Creative Commons License © Chris Backe - 2009

 

The colors of fall

A bit late to the party with pictures fall colors - especially that many of them have now faded. Darn these cameras with their new-fangled memory cards ;) Actually I've just been quite busy. Most were taken around my neck of the woods in northeastern Seoul:




I loved the backlighting of the leaf; a little contrast boost helps the colors to shine.






Hope you enjoyed!


Creative Commons License © Chris Backe - 2009

Uirimsa Valley

18 Oct 2009, It's a beautiful Sunday to visit a Korean Buddist temple and hike through a quiet forested valley.

Fear and Chicken Rice in Singapore

We've just arrived in Singapore and I'm in the middle of some sort of Asian food crisis of faith. It started in Penang. Things were going well - six square meals a day - a cornucopia of new experiences, and a ruddy faith in the brilliance of Asia and the sanctity of street food. Then for some reason (perhaps gluttony?) it all went bad. I banged a bad oyster and that was it. I was out of action for 24 hours and puked until I hit bile

Now I seem to have developed an aversion to Asian food. For the first few days after I was ill I avoided it mainly on the basis of the chilli content. Now I'm starting to think it runs a bit deeper - like some weird associative thing that equates 24 hours aboard the chunder express with the beautiful and varied flavours of the continent I've called home for the last sixteen months.


With less than two weeks to go, I find myself craving Western more than ever - if I'm not careful I could blow this Singapore thing. I'm in trouble, and I need a saviour.




I thought this might have been it. Chicken Rice. The dish lionized by Anthony Bourdain in his Singapore No Reservations, and basically my whole reason for coming to the Lion City-State in the first place. I got this at the Lau Pa Sat hawker centre smack bang in the middle of the financial district - a beautiful, turn of the century arcade, cast in wrought iron imported from our own dear green Glasgow.


Much like the Vietnamese equivalent, Com Ga, Hainanese Chicken Rice is an easy dish to underestimate. While this unassuming plate of protein and carbohydrates may look run of the mill, the kicker (as Anthony explains) is in the rice. Simmered in a mixture of chicken stock and spices until just the right sort of fluffy and tender, this stuff should make risotto look clumsy. Add some meat and a wicked triumverate of sauces (chilli, soy, and garlic) and that's pretty much everything I hold dear on a plate.


For some reason, however, this one failed to bite. Perhaps it was my lack of appetite, but it was like something was jamming the signal. My mouth knew it was good, but that information wasn't getting through to my brain in the usual fashion.


The search for redemption continues.

Fear and Chicken Rice in Singapore

We’ve just arrived in Singapore and I’m in the middle of some sort of Asian food crisis of faith. It started in Penang. Things were going well – six square meals a day – a cornucopia of new experiences, and a ruddy faith in the brilliance of Asia and the sanctity of street food. Then for some reason (perhaps gluttony?) it all went bad. I banged a bad oyster and that was it. I was out of action for 24 hours and puked until I hit bile

Now I seem to have developed an aversion to Asian food. For the first few days after I was ill I avoided it mainly on the basis of the chilli content. Now I’m starting to think it runs a bit deeper – like some weird associative thing that equates 24 hours aboard the chunder express with the beautiful and varied flavours of the continent I’ve called home for the last sixteen months.

With less than two weeks to go, I find myself craving Western more than ever – if I’m not careful I could blow this Singapore thing. I’m in trouble, and I need a saviour.


I thought this might have been it. Chicken Rice. The dish lionized by Anthony Bourdain in his Singapore No Reservations, and basically my whole reason for coming to the Lion City-State in the first place. I got this at the Lau Pa Sat hawker centre smack bang in the middle of the financial district – a beautiful, turn of the century arcade, cast in wrought iron imported from our own dear green Glasgow.

Much like the Vietnamese equivalent, Com Ga, Hainanese Chicken Rice is an easy dish to underestimate. While this unassuming plate of protein and carbohydrates may look run of the mill, the kicker (as Anthony explains) is in the rice. Simmered in a mixture of chicken stock and spices until just the right sort of fluffy and tender, this stuff should make risotto look clumsy. Add some meat and a wicked triumverate of sauces (chilli, soy, and garlic) and that’s pretty much everything I hold dear on a plate.

For some reason, however, this one failed to bite. Perhaps it was my lack of appetite, but it was like something was jamming the signal. My mouth knew it was good, but that information wasn’t getting through to my brain in the usual fashion.

The search for redemption continues.

ADVERTISING? AN-DAE!

Recently I got an email offering to give me a bit of money if I let their company advertise on my blog. I know I have legions of loyal readers, in front of which advertisers are drooling to parade their wares and services, but the day I accept advertising on this blog is the day I shut the fucking thing down.

I don't blog for money. Nor am I here to take pictures of temples, give newbies pointers on where to buy laundry racks, or to do posts on Korean pop culture and bore the tits off the annointed few who do stop in from time to time and grace these pages with their eyes. Like my man Scouser, I'm here to tell the truth and entertain myself. If anyone else enjoys it, that's gravy.

This shit ain't for sale, kids.

That is all.

Destination: World Cup Park, part 2


My last visit to the World Cup Park seemed far too short, yet I spent most of the day there. This time around, I went with a better knowledge of where things were and how they were organized. Across the street from the World Cup Stadium was a large market. Plenty of fish, vegetables, and fruits for the locals or curious tourists courageous enough to meander in.


Grinding red peppers to make gochujang, or red pepper paste.



It's not just garlic, it's almost artsy.


A jangseung, or Korean totem pole intended to scare away evil spirits. There's quite a few in the first section of the World Cup Park in front of a convenience store.


Wide open spaces with plenty of room to move around, or just take a picnic if the weather were warmer.


A walk up several zig-zags worth of stairs to reach Hanuel Park - the grass park built on top of a landfill. Although it's quite large - 192,000 square meters - a majority is dedicated to the grasses that grow here. The Eulalia and Cogongrass grow on the northern side of the park, while sunflowers and buckwheat grow on the southern side. Amazing what some official websites will tell you.


The view looking down at the rest of World Cup Park - Pyeonghwa Park to be specific. That the view is spoiled by the smog can't be helped.


After walking up the stairs and to the right, you'll eventually see a monument welcoming you to Haneul Park.


The main dirt paths are wide enough for the crowds, although there are a few that cut into and around the grassy areas as well:





While one of the more spread-out places in Seoul, it definitely earns the 'environmentally friendly' award, as well as a great reuse of land. There's not as much to see up there, and I wish signs displayed more English to help people realize the accomplishment. In the end, the entire area is worth exploring, but give it a full day or more. Don't forget your good walking shoes!

Ratings (out of 5 taeguks):
Ease to arrive:

Foreigner-friendly:

Convenience facilities:

Worth the visit:


Creative Commons License © Chris Backe - 2009

Too Big to Fail

We are fucked.

That eloquent three-word summary generally sums up my opinion of our world situation. I am far from a fatalist (nihilist?): I am pretty happy lately, what with most of my health besides a couple quirks (ow, my foot, ow, my torn bicep, ow, my teeth) and a journey to South Korea now just three months away. I am paying off bills nicely with this temp. gig. I have a family that loves me, good friends and a stable sense of myself, more than I have ever had in my 30 years.

But, we are still fucked.

It comes down to our lifestyle, what we have grown accustomed to, what our neighbors (globally speaking) are growing accustomed to and what this planet can tolerate from its most prolifically reproducing bipeds. Whether you believe in global warming or not, whether you believe free-trade and the allowance of an American-style of life worldwide is good or not, whether you believe in God or not and some bigger, greater plan for us all beyond this life, unless you are in some sort of self-sustaining delusion because any other conclusion would be far too much to handle, our planet in this life continues to move apace toward catastrophe and there are not enough “carbon offsets,” “regulations,” “green technology” or the like to stop it because, like the big banks last year, we have become “too big to fail.”

Remember that? When banks and investment firms so tightly tied to not only American finance but to the world's had reached such dire straits (money for nothing?) that the United States government needed to hand them bailouts to survive on the theory that they were “too big to fail,” meaning everything, from your business to your house, would burst into flame if they bit the big one? That isn't just about Manny Fae and Macky Fack. It's your disposable diapers.

I would not begrudge any new parent the seemingly small luxury of dumping junior's poopy pants in the trash instead of cleaning and cleaning and cleaning cloth diapers like they did in the olden days before individually wrapped prunes and reality television. New parents already have a lot of shit to deal with than to deal with that shit, too. But, where do those diapers go? What would a world look like if every single new parent on the entire planet was throwing their child's crap-filled Huggies into landfills? There are some biodegradable diapers out there that you can flush or compost, but they're more expensive and not widely available. But, is the majority of overtired new parents, especially those with severely stretched incomes, thinking about that? Can you blame them?

So much of everything in this world is now tied to everything else. If we all stop driving our cars, the auto industry fails and tens of thousands of people are out of work. If they are unemployed, they don't buy as much stuff, which then causes other businesses to go under, laying more people off. People collect unemployment checks for months, sometimes beyond a year and beyond, which causes governments to go deeper into debt, forcing them to borrow more money, which increasingly loses value. And so on.

So, we continue to create need. The need for a car (and the batteries that power it, the tasteful leather appointments that accentuate its interior, the electronic components for the sweet sound system), need for entertainment (when times are tough, who would fault anyone for a little escapism?), the need for clean diapers (and the adhesives that keep Junior from giving the neighbors an impromptu peep show), the need for food beyond the essential (do the Dew). That food needs to be packaged to be shipped across the world, so those Gala apples from New Zealand get packed into cardboard boxes. If we stop eating apples from the other side of the world, both that apple farmer and box maker go out of business. Some want to eat locally but it costs twice as much for the apple two towns over as it does from the farm 10,000 miles away because that one has been subsidized to death. We want to be good stewards to the planet and I want my siblings' children not to inherant a planet where the disadvantages outweigh the advantages and there is trash up to their assholes but what am I to do, Whoppers are $1.50 this week at Burger King. A man's gotta eat.

Am I exaggerating? Beyond their election campaign platitudes, would any large enough group of influential people in this world try and test the theories? What is their motivation, really?

Look at Tata and Chery (sic) Motors of India and China, respectively. Until only a few decades ago, much of these large countries were lightyears behind the standard Western technologies we have grown accustomed to, nay, demand today. Much of both countries remain deeply rural and “behind the times,” yet each has begun to significantly get onboard with a Western way of thinking. Tata and Chery have made strong pushes toward becoming globally viable automobile manufacturers, with India's Tata introducing the Nano, a car made so affordable as to allow everyone the opportunity to own one. Truly, the people's car.

On its surface it sounds great; and, perhaps, to the many poor who might see the automobile as a way out of poverty it is. While there has always been a disparity between the very rich and very poor, that gulf has narrowed over just the last several decades as we have become a much more global society. And with each passing year, the gulf's distance between the two islands narrows faster. Again, the poor person in India might not see anything wrong with this. And there is the problem.

There isn't anything wrong with this. Who am I to say you cannot buy this car or that house or that plasma-screen television or those apples from New Zealand or those disposable diapers? And even if I have that right, who is going to listen?

Which is why we are fucked. Because, as the somewhat smug but well-pointed Thomas Friedman declared in a recent New York Times opinion piece, “The world keeps getting flatter — more and more people can now see how we live, aspire to our lifestyle and even take our jobs so they can live how we live. So not only are we adding 2.5 billion people by 2050, but many more will live like 'Americans' — with American-size homes, American-size cars, eating American-size Big Macs.”

In a section in my Lonely Planet travel guide to South Korea, in the section on Busan, it mentions a particularly chi-chi portion of the city that actually has, gasp, Western-style, single family homes. I feign a gasp because anyone around these parts would ask what the big deal is. Having been to Korea once already, I can attest that I saw absolutely no Western-style houses. Most people in cities tend to live in large apartment complexes. In rural communities, most live in smaller, more traditional homes. While the Korean McMansion is an oddity rare enough to get a travel book bullet point, imagine if families beyond one tony neighborhood in that one city decided they wanted to live like we do, eat like we do, travel like we do, drive like we do (wait, they already are doing that). Now, imagine every developed nation thinking like that. Now, imagine every nation thinking like that.

Whenever I get into this sort of mood I think about the Mike Judge movie Idiocracy. If you have not seen it, you really should. Like Office Space, it has quietly amassed a pretty faithful cult following. While Office Space touched on the sort of inane, pointless business culture that I see throughout this temp. job – where we argue whether “web” should be spelled “Web” and then have our clients change their minds in the next edit. While it keeps me employed just a little longer, none of it really matters if you allow yourself a moment or two more to think about it – Idiocracy, taking place 500 years in the future, presents an exaggerated, but still very plausible world. Almost everyone is soft and dumb, an energy drink is sprayed on crops because it has electrolytes and advertisers have proclaimed “it's what plants crave” and the same seat that you use when watching the hit television show “Ow! My balls!”, a show of shots of people getting kicked in the crotch (America's Funniest Home Videos?), is also the same seat where you relieve your bowels. You know what I did this morning while taking a dump? I checked my e-mail on my laptop. And I loved it.

Which is why we are fucked. Because all of us, if given the opportunity, would do the very same thing. And there's nothing, and everything, wrong with that.

But, after all this, I am still in a good mood. Why not? I do some of what I can, I try to be aware of what is going on in the world and know the consequences of my actions and know that, ultimately, none of it matters all that much. It doesn't mean I stop trying. But, when you know things are so completely out of your control, it takes a little of the pressure off. If only the leaders of nations, of stupid little companies, thought this way, maybe things would be a little more pleasant more often. But, they can't -- because everything is too big to fail, and those diapers aren't going to change themselves.

—John Dunphy

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