Formerly Mad Man Diana's Pressure Cooker

It’s time for me to talk about my experience with two personal services I have used in Korea: one efficient and awesome, one comically horrifying.

Part I: Awesome

My eyesight is constantly getting worse, and so recently I decided I should stop into one of the many glasses storefronts in my city to get a new pair. Here, you don’t need to get a prescription from an eye doctor to get new glasses, they just check your eyesight in the store. I have long admired the store around the corner from my apartment – such a huge selection! – so I decided to go there.

After getting my eyes checked, I browsed their selection of frames. These things are amazingly cheap. I ended up choosing two pairs – one was about 10,000 won ($10) and one was closer to 50,000 won ($50). With the lenses included, my grand total was exactly 100,000 won. SO CHEAP.

Now, here’s the best, most unexpected part. Whenever I’ve gotten glasses in the U.S., I have to wait days or weeks before I can actually pick them up. You can pay extra to have it expedited so that it is only 2 or 3 days instead of a week or more. I expected it to be like that here, which is one reason I chose a store near my home. But no. They had a lens-cutting machine in the store, and both my pairs of glasses were finished and ready to take home in 15 minutes. I was thrilled.

I think I’ll get a few more pairs before I come home. Cheap, efficient, awesome colors – get on the stick, America!

As an added bonus, they have this cool vending machine that will clean your glasses for you.

I usually see this thing outside in front of the store, and I watched people using it a few times when I first got to Korea and I frequently called people back home from the payphone by the glasses store. It was indoors and empty when I went because it was cold outside and the water would freeze. But you dip your glasses in the dish, flip the switch, and the water vibrates or something to get the grime off. Pretty neat!

Part II: Disgusting

Now it’s time for the gross personal service story time. I specifically did this activity because it sounded disgusting, and I was not disappointed.

I paid a visit to the Doctor Fish.

Doctor Fish is a thing you can do at Lotte Mart, which is a big department store similar to Target. I say Target because it’s cleaner and nicer than Wal-mart, but like Wal-Mart, Lotte Mart has several mini shops within the store where you can get services, including this nail salon that houses the Doctor Fish.

This is where you put your feet in a pool of water that contains many small fish. The fish swim up and eat the dead skin and nastiness off your feet. I went with my friend Megan. First of all, you have to soak your feet in a sink full of something that kills the germs, so the fish don’t die. Then you  dry your feet and come over to the fish pond.

I was kind of freaked out at first and I almost wanted to stop. It looks and feels like bugs all over you. But I was able to remain calm and let the fish chew on my feet for the duration of our 20-minute session. It didn’t hurt, it just tickled. The fish were very attracted to me; I guess because all the walking I do here makes my feet crusty and disgusting. I will probably have nightmares about this, but it seems like it worked pretty well. I don’t think I’ll do it again, though. It’s currently illegal in the United States because it’s unsanitary.