An interesting spa day

I bought a Groupon about a month ago for a spa relatively close to home to reward myself for when I dropped below 200, which I've been consistently at for the past week now.  I made a call yesterday to set something up for next weekend, since the paper I printed said to call a week ahead.

When I called yesterday (Saturday), they asked if I wanted to come in that day or today.  I was surprised I could come in so soon, but I chose noon today.  The Groupon was for a 30-minute Shiatsu massage and general admission to the rest of the facility.  I asked at that time what the general admission meant, and the lady said it was a number of different dry saunas, the pool, a couple wet saunas, and the jacuzzi.  I said, "Oh, okay, then I'll bring my bathing suit."  She replied that in the pool area, nudity was mandatory.  [insert needle screeeeeeeech here]  WHAT?  I asked her to repeat that part.  "In the pool area, nudity is mandatory."  What I didn't know is that this is a Korean spa, and that's how they do things.

Uh... okay.  Now, in all fairness, the pool areas are separated by gender, so I'd only be naked around other chicks.  Cuz that's better.  Yep.

So I get there today with five minutes to spare before my massage appointment.  I am called into the room, take off my top, and lay prone on the table.  Can I just say that Shiatsu apparently stands for "oh holy hell, I hurt worse now than I did when I came in here"?  Now, in fairness, I definitely had some tight muscles between my shoulders.  But once she got started, it was very apparent that my lumbar area was also very tight.  If I wasn't sure based on how it felt, her comments of, "Oooohhh no!" were dead giveaways that I was, apparently, in pretty rough shape.  She commended me for being "good" -- apparently meaning that she was impressed that I wasn't crying out like a big baby at the pain she was inflicting.  She topped off the pain-fest by walking on my legs and butt.

The dry saunas were all pretty cool and were in the co-ed part, which meant clothing.  Thankfully.  Each one was a different temperature and made of different materials, along with a plaque describing what each one was good for.

Then I went to the bade pool, which is a big pool with different "stations" with water jets which hit the different areas of your body.  There are also three different jacuzzis with temps ranging from 64 up to 104, a wet sauna, showers, a bathing area, and a section for body scrubs.  The fun began when I was required to disrobe before going in.  And the towels they provide are about the size of a standard hand towel, so there is NO hiding any of your bits.  It was uncomfortable for the first minute or so, but after that, I settled right in, walking around as if I owned the joint.  More people looked like me than didn't, so that made me feel more at ease.  It was a veritable vaginapalooza.

I decided to REALLY treat myself and got the body scrub as well.  I decided that I wanted to gift myself with something once I lost 100 pounds, but I'm only about 7 pounds away from that, which could occur in a couple weeks.  I figured it would be cheaper and easier to do it today and treat myself ahead of time than to try to figure out something else.

If you've never had a full body scrub, let me just tell you, there's nothing like it.  You're laying on a table, buck naked, while a lady works on you in her bra and panties.  They use varying levels of scrub, from coarser to less coarse.  I'm sure the first scrub was called something like Lovely Lava Stone, and it was finished with Soothing Sand.  Ugh...  That was followed by a baby oil rub, warm water washes, a cucumber mask for my face, and some sort of hair treatment.  This chick saw more than my gyno ever has, and I give her much credit for doing so.

They have a restaurant and a juice bar there, as well, so I was able to get some lunch.

I spent five hours there, and I would most definitely go back some day.