Feet-eating Fishies

Warning: Possible queasiness may occur.

I went to Gangnam today with a bunch of CIEE friends for one thing, and one thing only. To hunt down Dr. Fish. What is Dr. Fish, you ask? It is the name a cafe has given to its pool of fish that eats the dead skin off of your feet.

I retype, there is a cafe in Gangnam, about 150 feet from exit 6 and a little past Paris Croissant, on the second floor, that has patbingsoo, gelato, tea, drinks, self-serve bread AKA all you can eat bread... and a small pool in which you put your feet. A pool that is filled with maybe fifty fish about as long as your fingers, with gaping little mouths opening and closing, aching for the chance to eat your ddeh.

I do not know WHY Dr. Fish is in a cafe, of all places, or HOW they got this idea, but I do know that my feet were the most POPULAR feet in the small rectangular pool! There were four other pairs of feet but wherever my feet went they would come. Am I particularly tasty? Are my feet particularly attractive? I do not know...

Let's just say it is super creepy to have little fish eating your dead skin. It is really ticklish and doesn't hurt at all, but... for goodness sake, there are silvery fish as big as my fingers swarming around my feet. And yes, that is the whole point but I didn't know how weird it would be until I did it. I was alternating between screaming through clenched teeth and digging my fingers into my roommate's arm (she was next to me). I couldn't look the whole time. Thanks to a certain male someone who was there, however, I couldn't stop freaking out because his commentary was something like this: "Wow Christine! There are so many fish around your feet! Wherever you go they're following you! Whoa that is a really, really big fish at your toe. They are going crazy!" And then of course I imagined it even if I wasn't seeing it and I'd freak out all over again. X_X (My roommate tried to pretend they were kissing her. That didn't help me, though.)

After having our feet in the pool for about 15 minutes, we got out, rinsed our feet, put on our shoes again, and left the cafe. Yep, just another group of people in and out. Not like we had living creatures which live off of people's dead skin cells eat our flesh or anything...

But of course, now that I've done it, I'm happy I did it and think everyone should try it. Cultural experience? Not necessarily, I doubt this is widespread in Korea. But still, you're not going to find a cafe with flesh-nibbling fish anywhere in America, I'm sure.

Pictures to come :D (Said male friend took a short video too. If he puts it on YouTube I will share it with you.)