The Dr. Fish Experience



How could we resist? It's a coffee shop that has good coffee. That in itself is a difficult thing to find in Korea. Ususally, coffee is burned, watered down, and comes in a dixie cup. There are very few places where you can get a real, large cup of coffee, which is why I love Starbucks at the moment. Starbucks feels like home. It is even decorated for Christmas already in true American fashion. It's still the beginning on November, in case no one has noticed!?!?!?!!?! But I am digressing from the importance of Dr. Fish.

It's a nice coffee shop where you can sit and relax (unless it's the weekend, and then it's a madhouse). You sip your coffee and eat free bread and waffles. Eventually your number comes up, and it's your turn for Dr. Fish. You are probably wondering what the hell Dr. Fish is (if I haven''t already called you and rambled on and on about it). Dr. Fish is where you have fish eat all of your dead skin. First, you wash your feet off, and then you sit in front of a nice window overlooking the busy street below. Next you stick your feet in a pool of water filled with hungry fish. The hungry fish bite you, eating the dead skin from your feet and ankles. For someone who is ticklish, this is pure torture. It's common to hear shrieks of horror from the waegooks (Korean word for foreigner) as the fish chomp away. The Koreans sit there like it is a normal thing to have hundreds of fish biting you at once. There are actually whole pools that you can lay in while fish eat skin off of your entire body. I don't think that I could handle doing that. It was hard enough to keep my feet in the water for 15 minutes at a coffee shop.

I learned from the menu that there are many benefits to Dr. Fish. Besides exfoliating, it gently massages your feet in a way that no person can do. It improves circulation, and it brings you closer to nature. You feel connected with the fish that are getting a meal of dead skin. Being a biologist, I see this as a mutualistic symbiotic relationship. I benefit by getting smoother, softer feet. The fish benefit by getting fat off dead skin. It's a win win situation. I'm just glad that I get to be the person and not the fish in this scenario.