HERE fishy fishy fishy… June 17, 2008

So I’m of Scottish/British descent and my dude is of Korean descent. The culture thing hasn’t been a huge deal in our relationship (fortunately I love kimchi and he loves… ignoring me while I eat Marmite) but there are a few racial differences that always seem to come up. One of these subjects? What John lovingly (if you look deeply into the expression of disgust, that is, you can sense the love) refers to as my “honky feet”. I have way dry skin, yo. Like, my fingers and heels actually crack and bleed in the winter sometimes because they’re so dry. Ya. Ew. But John? I swear that guy doesn’t have a single dry patch on the bottom of his feet. They’re pristine and supple. And he insists it’s cuz “his people” just have nice skin (sidebar: his mother does have only 1-1/2 wrinkles and is pushing senior citizen status so he may be right).

ANYWAY

I’ve now found the answer to all my problems and IRONICALLY it comes from Korea. No, no, scratch that. I think it comes from Turkey but I’ve heard about it through the Koreans. My in-laws just got back from a trip to Seoul where they went to a little spa-resorty-waterparky funland that had this unique water-therapy feature (and y’all know I’m all about the water therapies). Anyhoo, check this:

It’s a hot tub-type pool filled with little tiny fish that eat dead skin! So you stick your honky feet into the water, try to ignore the sheer bizzarity as mini fish gnaw away all your scaly dead skin then pull them out and VOILA! They’re all buffed and beautiful (I imagine this to be a way stranger feet version of a bowling-ball-shiner: stick it in, pull it out: *gleam* “I can’t look directly at them! The glare off your feet is blinding!”) As a matter of interest, it doesn’t just have to be your feet, you could, as the brave woman in the pic seems to have done, plunge your entire body in there (sidebar2: she looks like she’s enjoying the mini fish a little too much, don’t you think? I mean, I like the idea of fish taking care of my honky feet but do I really want them gnawing all up in my crotchal area? Not so sure) (sidebar3: taking a closer look, does she even have any feet left? I think the fish might have eaten them clear off. In fact, they seem to be devouring her from the bottom up. She must has gots some NASTY honky shins).