Korean Job Discussion Forums

[gtanime]

Hello,

I'm moving to Seoul in a couple of months. Maybe nobody else considers this when moving to a new location, but for me it's high on the list of things to look up.

How hard is to find public bathrooms? I've been a frequent bathroom user. That in conjunction with my Irritable Bowel trouble, that affects me from time to time, means that when I have to go, I have to go right away.

Thank you.

[NYC_Gal]

Practice horse stance and always carry wet naps. I'd recommend buying some pants you can throw away and practice squatting over your toilet.

Also, always carry wet naps here. Many places do have decent bathrooms, but if you have IBD, you'll eventually need to use a nasty hole-in-the-floor-burn-your-shoes-after stall at a subway station.

[warmachinenkorea]

I hope your not scared of germs. Because when you find one it's probably gonna be nasty.

When I gotta pee at my rural bus station, that I have to go to, I actually piss in an automotive funnel. The old urinal fell off the wall so they just put a funnel in the pipe. It's about a foot and a half high. I try to guide the streem directly in the hole. If another dude is pissing in the adjacent funnel I wait because they don;t care if piss splatters everywhere.

The squaters are just big holes in the floor to an endless pit of poop. But it won't fill up anytime soon because people keep missing the hole. Crap is all over the floor. Many older Koreans in my area think anywhere 10 feet off the curb is a public bathroom. When I take my dog for his morning bathroom duty I see old women or men doing #1 or #2 in the grass all the time.

Keep in mind I come from the boonies so for a guy to piss outside is nothing new to me. Or if you're fishing and there is no house with in sight crappin' outside is the only option. But here it's all a public restroom.

Enjoy Korea.

[conrad2]

The abundance of public bathrooms is something Korea does right. Ever try to find a public bathroom in an American city? Its really hard. Thank the homeless and drug addicts for that.

[warmachinenkorea]

[NYC_Gal]

[crossmr]

If you're in Seoul. Don't worry. You're never more than a few minutes from a train station. Basically every train station has a washroom here. Most are in decent shape. They will have a mix of squat toilets and sit toilets. The older the station the more likely that mix will be slanted towards squat toilets. They may or may not have toilet paper. Bring a little individual kleenex pack in your bag.
Most restaurants are in buildings here and often don't have their own bathroom like you'd find in NA. Usually there are shared bathrooms in a building. If the building is old, these can be absolutely nightmarish. If it is new you can probably expect a sit toilet and paper. However you can freely walk into a lot of places here and just use the washroom and they won't hassle you like back in NA where most people wouldn't even consider just wandering into a place and using the bathroom without getting service there. I wouldn't do it to the same place everyday but if you had a one time emergency don't feel too bad about running into a burger king or something to find a guaranteed western toilet.

Figure out your routine, figure out where the bathrooms are. Take the train, not the bus. Trying to get off at a random unfamiliar stop and finding a public washroom could be an issue.
But each station has a bathroom so if you're on the subway and gotta go you can just get off at the next stop and run up the stairs.

I've got IBS too, and in 2 years I've only had to use a squat in an emergency once, but I'd also say my IBS is about 50% better here than back home.

[ticktocktocktick]

Always carry paper. Except in Bundang, for some reason all the public toilets there seem to have paper, and are generally clean. Anybody know why?

Also, a little bottle of hand sanitizer is a good idea. Precious few bathrooms in Korea have soap and hot water. You've gotta wonder why Koreans aren't big hand washers...

[katsu]

i always carry my own toilet paper, or some tissue, sanitizer and paper soap

[nobbyken]

[ticktocktocktick]

[jvalmer]

Tons of toilets, can use toilets on the main floor of high rises too. But, make sure you carry a pack of butt paper and some hand sanitizer.

[jonpurdy]

[Stalin84]

Remember:

Malls, Department Stores, Coffee Shops, Movie Theaters, stores in Subway stations (not the ones in the stations itself), Nice restaurants etc. always have the best bathrooms.

If you have to go, try to go in one of these places. Stairwell bathrooms in highrises are usually disgusting.

[conrad2]