Trip to Busan

We spent the weekend in Busan, on Korea's southeast coast.  The weather was great (albeit a little windy) and the scenery beautiful.  After taking a boat tour of the shoreline, we spent most of Saturday afternoon sweating it out at a spa: sampling various steam rooms like "Yellow Ochre" and "Charcoal", taking nude dips in hot mineral baths (men and women separately), and eating ice cream in between.  It was quite the Korean cultural experience.

The spa was located inside Shinsegae Centum City, alleged to be the world's largest department store (it includes an ice skating rink on the 4th floor), it is also home to a "Water Bar", complete with "Water Advisor" and choice of Salt Water, Deep Sea Water, Sparkling Water, and Functional Water.  They had the most diverse selection of bottled water I'd ever seen.  We tried some deep sea stuff -- it tasted like... water.  At dinner, though, we had a chance to try a brand of soju we'd never had before called "좋은데이" or "Good Day" -- apparently it's the local brand, and tasted better than what we usually get in Seoul (which, really, isn't saying much).

Hopefully we'll have a chance to go back when it's warmer and take a dip in the sea.