SEOUL - DECEMBER 5, 2000
Well there is only one thing left to talk about at this point. The public bathrooms of Korea. They seem to be good places to meet new Korean friends. Everytime I use a urinal, a Korean guys looks over at me and asks 'where you from?' and 'do you like Korea?' Maybe someday I will start teaching English in the bathrooms.
The other interesting aspects of the Korean bathroom, is they are often unisex. Many times the men's urinal will be right next to the mirror, and the toilet will be in the same room. So many times while you are taking your wizz, a woman will walk by behind on her way to the toilet. Its not all bad though, at least the toilet's are enclosed with four walls within the larger bathroom.
One of the more interesting bar bathrooms is at Woodstocks, a very famous Shinchon bar. The men's bathroom is a tiny little room which has two urinals side by side. One is right by the door, so no one can get in or out if someone is using it. Often the second person who is using the other urinal, will have to wait until the one is finished by the door before he can leave. The other interesting aspect of this bathroom is there isn't a doorknob, instead their is just a rather large 10-inch in circumference hole where the doorknob should be. The woman's bathroom is two steps away from the men's bathroom, and the place is so crowded that many people wait, or use the mirror or wash their hands in the space between the two bathrooms. So when you take your wizz in this bathroom, you have lean slightly at an angle, because your piss will be the first view someone might see through the rather large door knob hole, and that is where everyone waits, women and men.
I remember once an old girlfriend of mine when I was around 22-years-old, was obsessed with what a men's urinal looked like. She had never been in a men's bathroom before, but had alot of curiousity about them. If she were in this country now, I am quite certain her curiousity would have been satisfied.
Another fading type of Korean toilet, and these are throughout all of Asia, is the squat toilet. They are on the ground, and you have to squat over them to use them. They still flush and work exactly the same way as any other toilet, its just that you would never ever sit on one, you just squat over it.
Interesting page on the website, huh? Everything you ever wanted to know about Korean bathrooms and so much more. Actually, I recently saw a Korean TV show which was entirely dedicated to all of the many different Korean bathrooms. They also seem to show up in the strangest places, like in the stairwells of buildings. Theoretically with so many bathrooms in stairwells, bars and all of the bathrooms are basically open to the public (whereas in the States, they often enforce a 'customers only policy', you'd think you wouldn't see guys going in the streets, but if you walk past an alley at nighttime, you are still sure to see a few of the darker corners being occupied.
To read the Next Journal Entry: Stay Tuned!
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