STAR BOX 스타 박스

After a rather embarrassing mix up due to pronunciation, Jack and I finally stopped scouring the Starbucks building and headed across the street to the star box (스타 박스) building. We have been looking for a health club to join. We looked all over. We discovered one directly across the street from our apartment building. It is Fitness FM located on the second and basement floor of the building Tom and Tom's is in. Tom and Tom's is the coffee shop of choice for all the young hip Koreans. As such the prices of the health club establishment are higher priced to attract them. Granted it is a beautiful gym and you get a member ship at both the gym and sauna, but you pay for it. It is 130,000 a month. We ventured down the street a bit to the less cool gym (where we honestly fit in better) and paid 130,000 for three months. Not a bad change. It was a lot cheaper.

Also we can pay a little extra and get a sauna membership as well, but I didn't think we would go enough to need it. You can pay 5,000 (approx. $4.41) to have a day pass to all the baths, steam rooms, and massages you could possibly need. It is a nice deal as long as you don't mind being publicly naked with members of the same sex. They split up the guys and girls, so there are no worries that way, but if you are super modest, this is not the place for you. The Jjimjilbang (찜질방) is no place for the shy. They offer massages, body scrubs, hot rooms, cold rooms, air rooms, hot rock rooms, etc. You need it, they got it. Just keep in mind all the women around you will be naked. It is a nice idea, but I would say go with a group (preferably with someone who knows Korean) so you don't accidentally wind up in the coed room butt naked.

The gym is nice. It is four floors up from the sauna on the seventh floor. The changing rooms are equipped with towels as well as clothes to work out in. When you are done you simply go in for a shower toss your clothes in the laundry and change back into your work clothes. The only thing you are expected to provide are your shoes. Also, the membership entails free aerobics and yoga classes. I figured while in Asia, do what the Asians do. Yoga it is. They have a million machines for cardio and a full weight machine and free weights section too. I am very excited to begin the training. Jack and I have set up a rewards program if we both reach our goal weights. His prize of choice was a PSP. Mine is a new ipod touch. Wish us luck. We have a long way to go.

A side note: Jack has already lost twenty pounds. Stupid boys: they skip a meal and lose a pants size. I diet for weeks and lose one pound. Somehow I have a feeling he will have his PSP long before I get my ipod...