The Korean Bathroom
There wasn't much I hated about Korea (no Venti Starbucks was high on the list) but one thing I did was the bathroom. Part of it was that I just didn't understand. But the larger part was that it was just...annoying.
First, imagine your shower. It might have a curtain or a door, but it's enclosed in some way. Now, add your toilet, sink, towell rack--everything else in the bahroom. That's right, put it IN the shower. Now, take away that enclosure. Poof! You have a Korean bathroom. Why? Why not close it in? Why not give it it's own floor so that you're not walking around in the bathroom in the evening when everything is still wet from your morning shower.
Like any other Asian country that I know of, shoes aren't worn indoors. There's always a ledge or something to keep your shoes on when you walk inside (even in resturants!). In the bathroom, however, you're expected to wear shoes. Why? Because the floor is wet! You bring your flip flops or use those provided by the hotel--whichever you prefer.
There are no floor mats--why have those? They'd just get wet. We had to hang our towells outside of the bathroom, thus leaving the nice, warm, steamy bathroom to get dry. Logic seems to have escaped this culture when it comes to the design of bathrooms. For whatever reason, they see no problem with this. We were told that when Koreans visit the U.S., they don't even think to close the shower curtain, not giving it much thought. Of course, the entire hotel bathroom gets soaked. I wonder what hotel cleaning staff think when they enter a room and see the entire bathroom soaked.
First, imagine your shower. It might have a curtain or a door, but it's enclosed in some way. Now, add your toilet, sink, towell rack--everything else in the bahroom. That's right, put it IN the shower. Now, take away that enclosure. Poof! You have a Korean bathroom. Why? Why not close it in? Why not give it it's own floor so that you're not walking around in the bathroom in the evening when everything is still wet from your morning shower.
Like any other Asian country that I know of, shoes aren't worn indoors. There's always a ledge or something to keep your shoes on when you walk inside (even in resturants!). In the bathroom, however, you're expected to wear shoes. Why? Because the floor is wet! You bring your flip flops or use those provided by the hotel--whichever you prefer.
There are no floor mats--why have those? They'd just get wet. We had to hang our towells outside of the bathroom, thus leaving the nice, warm, steamy bathroom to get dry. Logic seems to have escaped this culture when it comes to the design of bathrooms. For whatever reason, they see no problem with this. We were told that when Koreans visit the U.S., they don't even think to close the shower curtain, not giving it much thought. Of course, the entire hotel bathroom gets soaked. I wonder what hotel cleaning staff think when they enter a room and see the entire bathroom soaked.
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