But many salarymen make a habit of going alone, usually to unwind after a tough day at work, but mostly when they can't make it all the way home after a late night in the office. Bathhouses are open around the clock and almost all have cable TVs and sleeping rooms. Some saunas now even offer laundry and ironing services for these stragglers. At many companies, sauna visits can even be put on expense accounts. Global Infosys, an Internet consulting firm, for instance, hands out four sauna coupons every month to employees as a bonus.
Some people come all the way from Japan to take a bath.
I make sure to come whenever I can. More than half of Cheon Jin Yeon's guests are Japanese tourists. Yet mokyoktangs remain a quintessentially Korean tradition. In recent years, especially in movies and TV shows, they have become a symbol of the close community bonds that are increasingly disappearing in modern cities. Nostalgia-drenched movies like Downpour Bathhouse and TV shows like The Men of the Mokyoktang Owner's Family have been huge hits, while a book from photographer Park Hwa Ya, Women Bathing, filled with pictures of her neighbourhood bathhouse, was published to much fanfare a few years ago.