Olympic Spa

I think I am the last woman in Los Angeles to find out about this place, but if you haven't gone, GO!

This is a real honest-to-goodness Korean spa (no natural hot springs, alas) on Olympic Blvd., run by a huge tribe of Korean women dressed in green robes and conservative black underwear.

For $15 you can go in and soak and steam and roast and lie wrapped in big institutional quilts on a radiant heat floor for as long as you want to hide from the world. On my first visit I stayed for three hours.

My friend Jill Tanner took me and I was already happy as I cruised down a new neighborhood on Olympic--in Koreatown--in search of urban adventure. That is the glorious thing about L.A..--you just never know what you are going to find.

And there, under an ugly looking sign, is a non-descript building that houses the spa. In back there is free valet parking. You get a towel, a robe, a little towel, and I bought a little scrubby wash cloth to scrape all the dead skin off.

The place is not pretty. It is functional and very Asian, with attempts at luxury, like a lot of marble and ugly faux leather couches.

But that does not matter. It is the Japanese bath house, brought to L.A.. There is a hot tub, a even hotter tub of mugwort (which promises to improve your menstrual cycle, give you energy, boost your immune sysem, make you smarter, and make you rich.) You can steep in there like a human tea bag, and feel the stress seeping out of your body. I swear. There is a cold tub, too. But not that cold--the temperature hovers around that of the ocean in June.

Then there are the hot rooms: the steam room, the sauna, and best of all a Korean hot room, with black volcanic rock stuck into the ceiling, stone walls, and mats made of circles of bamboo on the floor. You rest your head on a wooden pillow and zone out. It sounds austere, but the effect is fabulous.

Between soaks and steams you can lie on the big hot floor in a quilt, or drink barley tea, or get one of the myriad treatments in the warren of rooms upstairs. If you get hungry you can go into the kitchen and eat semi-naked in your green robe--a fabulous Korean meal made by women dressed just like you. Then you can go and detox all the kimchee right back out of your system.

You can also get your skin scraped and treated on big tables in a communal area by the pools, where other women walk by and watch as you are scrubbed like a new born baby.

Jill and I got the reflexology foot massage. Just do it. That is all I can say.

I love Beverly Hot Springs--also in Koreatown--with a real hot spring. But the rules there are so strict it is almost no fun. Here, too, there are signs saying stay quiet, don't jump in pools, etc., but you can talk to your friend and move around without feeling like you will be escorted out if you break a rule.

I am sorry gentleman, this place is only for women, and somehow that makes it better.

Jill said the Capital Spa down the street offers all the same services for men, plus an urban driving range.

But if you are feeling down, out, up, down, or just want to curl up naked in a big flesh-colored quilt and read a book in a place where no one can find you, GO!!! This can be your three hour trip to Seoul, and you can be home for dinner.