Dec 13, 2018

[Weekender] Jjimjilbang: Sanctuaries of winter warmth

The freezing temperatures may make some want to climb into bed and snuggle deep under the covers, but for Koreans it is time to lay their backs on heated floors. The ideal place is a jjimjilbang, a ...

Dec 13, 2018

[Weekender] Survival guide: How to battle winter’s chill

After a drizzly day in early December that pushed temperatures in Seoul well below minus 10 degrees Celsius, office worker Lee Ja-yoon, 30, finally finished preparing her house for the full-fledged w...

Dec 6, 2018

[Weekender] Massage no longer taboo or luxury

In South Korea, the image of massage services has long been negative, viewed in relation to illicit sexual service providers. Either that, or massages were seen as the prerogative of the elite at pos...

Dec 6, 2018

[Weekender] Dropping in for a quick massage in Seoul: Is it worth it?

In most neighborhoods in Seoul, it’s easy to spot signs and posters advertising “massage shops.” Varying in type and pricing, these massage parlors cater primarily to office workers who work desk job...

Dec 6, 2018

[Weekender] Market for massage expands with more accessibility

To tackle pain in her back and hip, graduate school student Lee Yeon-hee uses a lacrosse ball every night to give herself a massage. “After rolling my back on this small massage ball for about 10 mi...

Nov 29, 2018

[Weekender] Reflecting gratitude towards life as you eat: Temple Food

You are what you eat, or so they say. For Buddhist practitioners in Korea, this idea develops further, and eating becomes part of spiritual practice. The dietary culture of Korean Buddhism is not mu...

Nov 29, 2018

[Weekender] Finding the Buddha inside through templestay

Buddhist temples are religious places, but temple stays offer participants a chance to look into themselves and find inner peace, regardless of their religion. For a one-day inner journey, I recentl...

Nov 29, 2018

[Weekender] Temple stay, a window into a different world

From ancient structures raised more than 1,600 years ago to modest venues located in commercial buildings, thousands of Buddhist temples dot South Korea. Buddhism is deeply entwined with the history...

Nov 22, 2018

[Weekender] Prenatal education in Korea focused on having ‘smart kids’

Care for unborn babies, called “taegyo” in Korean, exists both in Asian and Western countries to give birth to a healthy child. But prenatal care takes on a much more ambitious spin in South Korea, w...

Nov 22, 2018

[Weekender] Before you were born

Oh Ha-young, a 36-year-old mother of two in Seoul, remembers when she kept herself busy several years ago for the sake of her children, before they were even born. From knitting to drawing, she even...

Nov 22, 2018

[Weekender] Prenatal care market becomes blue ocean for retailers, hotels

South Korea’s birthrate has been in free fall in the past several years, but either despite or because of this, the interest in prenatal care among mothers-to-be is on the rise. The result has been ...

Nov 15, 2018

[Weekender] From Chanel to Gucci: Korean women turn into designer rent-a-holics

It is 7 a.m. on a Monday. Hong Mi-jin, 35, an office worker in Seoul, makes a fresh pot of coffee and jumps into the shower. Twenty minutes later, she comes out with a big towel wrapped around her ha...

Nov 15, 2018

[Weekender] Subscription plans bring readers back to books

The rate at which Koreans read books regularly is hitting new lows each year. Only 60 percent of adults read at least one book in 2017, down 5.4 percent from 2015, according to the Ministry of Cultur...

Nov 15, 2018

[Weekender] ‘Subscription economy’ reshaping Korean pop culture

When the press show for YouTube Premium series “Top Management” was held in Seoul in October, it received a great deal of attention from local media outlets. Starring up-and-coming actor and singer ...