Spray anywhere you like! (in our Korean bathroom)
Written by Bessie on Thursday, May 07, 2009 in Korea, Republic of
Feelin' normal
On the flight over to Korea, I was reading this book called Culture Shock - Korea, this book series that explains all sorts of nuances about a country. The book said this about bathrooms in Korea:Feelin' normal
"Bathroom floors are rarely dry. When many Koreans bathe at home, they stand on the floor and spray the shower nozzle over themselves. All Korean bathrooms have a drain on the floor for this purpose. A pair of rubber shoes is kept just outside every bathroom, so that the feet do not get wet whenever one steps inside. A bathroom is usually cleaned by splashing water over the mirror, sink, and floor."
Huh, I thought to myself, we didn't see pictures of our bathroom. This might be interesting...
The Reality.
I was pretty relieved to see typical western bathroom fixtures - normal sit-down flush toilet, typical glass shower doors, sink, the works. And actually, the bathroom passes my test of a good place to live - a strong, hot shower. Happy. :)
view from the doorway
The one way that our bathroom is Korean is that it's made to spray water all over the darn place - the outlet is even water-proof (although I'm not testing its limits). There's a good one inch gap under the shower doors so that water intentionally gets all over the floor when you shower. The bathroom also drops down about 3 inches so unless you were swimming, the water wouldn't really get out in the hallway.
Koreans seem to pride themselves on cleanliness, so I'm guessing this is to regularly wash the bathroom floor. Lucky for dry socks everywhere, it's typical to put these wood "mats" that are raised off the floor. It was one of the first things we bought.
So thanks to the Culture Shock book, I knew the deal with water getting everywhere, and actually was pretty excited to do just that - spray the water everywhere. Most bathrooms are the opposite, right? Keep the water in the tub! Don't splash around! But not here, splash as much as you like!
Cleaning in Action:
I think it's pretty efficient. I was able to scrub the heck out of the entire room, and then give it a solid spray down. For a while, I'm going to let Kyle get away with not cleaning the bathroom - it's too much fun to share. That is, at least until it feels like work...
Share with the Dogs?
We have a Korean friend with two little dogs, and she has them trained to do their business on the bathroom floor. Has it's perks, right? Living high up in an apartment building, you don't have to walk your dogs all the time, and it's as easy as spraying away the #1 and throwing the #2 in the toilet. I tried to convince Kyle that we could buy a cute pekingese puppy from the E-Mart & train him like this, but he didn't really dig the idea. (some day I'll get a dog!)
Well, now you know what to do if you ever walk into a Korean bathroom and see a yellow puddle on the floor - stick to the wood mats!
Comments on "Spray anywhere you like! (in our Korean bathroom)"
our dogs are NOT trained to do their business in the bathroom, but sometimes do it anyways. i think i'm going to try to find some wooden mats.... :)
Your Korean bathroom is not unlike those Dad and I saw in Italy. Although we did not have the spray everywhere feature, actually a great quickie clean up idea, the "leaking" shower was found in several hotels. The floors dip to a center drain as water pour out under the raised door when the shower was in use. Some of our showers were about 3'x3' so you could barely soap up and rinse off without rubbing against the walls and door! Hope yours is larger!
Yeah, actually our shower is a tad smaller than 3' x 3', but the (fairly) consistent hot water makes up for it!
The center bathroom drain sounds really awkward! We stayed in a few places with that, but the drain was always near the shower. It was just odd to have the entire room slanting toward the drain...
Love your bathroom!! I waaaaaaaaaaaaaant one! LOL Hmmmmm. I wonder how many of those bathrooms get installed in the U.S.?
Yeah, it's pretty great for easy cleaning! I imagine a designer could do it - you just might be the only one... :)
Thank you for the pictures of your bathroom. I just returned from teaching English in South Korea and came home to a bathroom in need of remodeling. I loved the showers in Korea! Easy to clean and fun to not have to worry about a leaking shower curtain! We are in the process of trying to find materials. Any suggestions? Where did you find the wood mats? Brand names of the fixtures? Another amazing bathroom item I found in Korea is the washlet toilet. It's a paperless toilet with a bidet, blow dryer, purifier, and heated seat. Some even play music - that feature is a little over the top for me! I have one on order, without music!
I don't know anything about getting these sorts of things in North America if that's where you're looking. I'm sure there's a market for people that want Korean bathrooms - maybe there are suppliers in big cities where there are Korean neighborhoods... Awesome that you could order that toilet though - they're really great!
I love your apartment!! Thanks so much for sharing. Sounds like things are going good for you.
by shawna davidson at May 08, 2009 09:20 AMLove
Shawna