Dr. Fish

Since the military has given us this "all expenses paid, 3 year vacation" to a foreign country I want to be sure and make the most of our time here and experience as much as I can.  So when I heard about this place that Americans call Dr. Fish I was very intrigued.  I was told it was coffee shop that had these tubs with special fish that when you put your feet in the fish will eat the dead skin off of them.  Now, who could pass up an opportunity to check this out?  So, for one of the girls and my weekly adventures we set out to find Dr. Fish.  As with all of our other adventures, the directions were a bit sketchy, but we really didn't have to difficult of a time finding this place.

Once inside we were pleasantly surprised at the relaxed atmosphere.

In order to do the fish part you have to order coffee or other drinks.  We placed our order and the boy behind the counter told us we could do the fish before we had our drinks.  It only cost 2000 won (about $1.80) for 20 min in the fish pools and Lucy was free. (What a deal!)

There were 2 kinds of fish, smaller ones that were about 1 inch long and larger ones that were about 3 inches long.  The boy helping us told us there were only a few rules:
1. No food or drinks around the fish
2. No standing in the tubs
3. No screaming (??)
I wondered about that 3rd rule but figured it wouldn't be a problem for the 3 of us.   

We opted to do the smaller fish first.  The girls were pretty apprehensive about this adventure so I stuck my feet in first.  The smaller ones felt like little vibrations all over your legs and feet.  It took a few seconds to get used to, but after that it felt pretty good.  It freaked me out a little bit when they got between my toes, but overall I liked the sensation and soon the girls had their feet in the tub and were enjoying it as well.

It was hard to get a picture of the little fish because the water was moving and everything was blurry.   But here you can see how high up my leg they came.  They would just nibble for a split second then move onto another spot.  It felt good.

After about 10 min in the small fish tub we decided to move to the large fish tub.  Now, these fish were a little more intimidating to all of us because as soon as you got close to the tub the large fish all came to the top and were flapping around in the water.

The large fish all coming to the surface of the water.

The girls were scared to put their feet in this tank (and if we are being totally honest, so was I) which left me to do it first.  I immediately realized why rule number 3 was a rule.  It was all I could do to keep from screaming.  As it was, I started to laugh hysterically (and loudly).  I don't really have very ticklish feet, but this was extremely ticklish.  At first, I could only handle keeping my foot in the tub for about 15 seconds then I had to pull it out.  It was so ticklish.  Seeing my response didn't really put the girls at ease, so it took quite a bit of convincing from me to get them to dip their feet in.  Both girls immediately started to laugh deep belly laughs.  As if we don't draw enough attention to ourselves being American in a very foreign country, now all 3 of us are laughing our heads off as fish eat the dead skin off our feet in a coffee shop.  What a crazy experience.

At first I just put one foot in.  They all attacked my foot. 

Here I finally worked up the courage to put both feet in.  After I left them in for about a minute I got a little more comfortable with the sensation and while I never thought it felt awesome I didn't mind it.

Here they are attacking one of the girls legs.

It didn't hurt at all.  It wasn't like they were biting us, it was more like a nibble.
I started to laugh at the girls laughing.  

After the fish, we washed off our feet and had some lemonade and brownies.  (Since that seems like a normal thing to do after fish nibble on your feet.)

A picture on the way out the door.

As we were leaving we all commented how soft our feet felt.  Even that night as we were telling Russ about our adventure he told us our skin was very smooth.
It was a great adventure and one that we will definitely do again.

Our "on the way home" subway picture.

I know some of you are wondering what kind of fish they are...I don't really know.  I looked it up on the internet and did find some information about them, but it was all pretty vague.  As best I could tell they come from China and Turkey.