Jjimjilbang

Fans of jjimjilbangs will find a brand-new one five-minutes' walk north of the bus terminal, on the same main road.

One morning in Daejeon, an unremarkable-looking city in the center of the country, I ducked into a drab office building housing a jimjilbang that seemed like a hidden water world.

Jjimjilbangs have been transplanted to the United States as the Korean-American population has grown in recent decades.

Within 48 hours of moving to Los Angeles 20-some-odd years ago, I'd already had six people talk my ear off about the city's plethora of jjimjilbang — more commonly known as Korean spas. A good jjimjilbang is a wonderland where you can sit in multiple saunas, stew yourself in a hot tub of medicinal mugwort tea, take a catnap in a room with heated jade floors, and indulge in a myriad of stellar spa treatments. Some jjimjilbang are even open 24 hours a day.

Discussing her own experience of Korean-American culture, Meghan said she and her mother, Doria Ragland, would visit the spa, known as the jjimjilbang, that focuses on relaxing, spending quality time with friends and family.