The People You Meet in the Sauna...

I love saunas.

It's where I go to relax.

It's where I go to brainstorm and ideate.

It's also a great place to meet people and chat. When you're semi/totally naked, people are much more willing to converse.

The other day, I met a therapist, a retired Psychology professor who had just become a minister, two Korean men who told me about WWII and the Japanese, and a guy from El Salvador whom I may end up hiring to paint my house.

The NFO once told me that it would be a mistake to have a sauna in my house (this was pre-economic meltdown..and it wasn't ever an option then anyway), because I'd lose the social aspect. She was right.

Sauna 2nd thoughts...

I've reconsidered my position on saunas. After a visit to one the other day where I had a great chat with some Indians who work at the World Bank, one of them shared his experience of trying to convince his wife to buy one.

She argued (pragmatically) that:

1. you have a jacuzzi you never use, prove to me you'll use the sauna first and then we'll talk
2. it's expensive to buy and maintain
3. you will miss the social element

Point #3 made the biggest impact on me. I've long said that some of my best random conversations happen with people in saunas.

I'm no longer going to get one of my own. Just go more often!

Saunas and the Guiness Book of World Records

In my previous post on Saunas, I talked about my friend, Heikki, from Finland and how we bonded in Japan. We met at the International University of Japan and enjoyed the saunas there.

Well, it looks like our legacy lives on because the current crop of IUJ students have just set a World Record for most nationalities (50!) represented in a sauna at once. Read more here.

Wish I could have been there. Congrats, IUJ!