Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Doctor Fish at Kenji World

Doctor Fish Booth


After I screamed, a lot of American guys were curious and tried the spa too LOL


Foot spa :-)


The wood bench is where you sit and watch the doctor fish eating your dead skin hehehe

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Doctor Fish


Inside the Kenji World, they have this doctor fish's booth where you have to pay 1000 yen for 10 minutes and have this foot spa treatment. You just wash your feet first before dipping them in the small pool, sit down and relax. Once you dip your feet, the doctor fish will go after your feet and eat your dead skin leaving your skin smooth and healthy :-)

My daughter and I tried this treatment, we had a discount, 2 people for 1400 yen (~$15). As soon as my feet landed in the pool those doctor fish were fast and they were after my feet and started sucking my skin, it felt weird so I screamed so loud! LOL. I really can't explain and can't describe the words on how the feeling was, but it's a fascinating experience when the fish were nibbling my skin. I thought I couldn't take it anymore but I also thought of the amount of money I paid for this so.....I just stayed there and tried not to see the fish sucking my skin. After 5 minutes or so, I overcame the weird feeling and was able to take pictures of these doctor fish :-)

My husband and my son tried that too, they liked it.

According to wikipedia:

Doctor fish is the name given to two species of fish: Garra rufa and Cyprinion macrostomus. Other nicknames include nibble fish, kangal fish, little dermatologists and doctorfishen; in non-medical contexts, Garra rufa is called the reddish log sucker. They live and breed in the outdoor pools of some Turkish spas, where they feed on the skin of patients with psoriasis. The fish are like combfishes in that they only consume the affected and dead areas of the skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow, with the outdoor location of the treatment bringing beneficial effects. The spas are not meant as a treatment option, only as a temporary cure for symptoms, and patients usually revisit the spas every few months. Some patients have experienced complete cure of psoriasis after repeated treatments, but due to the unpredictable nature of the disease, which is strongly influenced by endogenous factors, this may simply be regression towards the mean.
In 2006, doctor fish spa resorts opened in Hakone, Japan, and in Umag, Croatia, where the fish are used to clean the bathers at the spa. There are also spas in resorts in Hainan, China, as well as Belgium [1], The Netherlands[1],South Korea, Singapore, Slovakia [2], Surat(INDIA), Indonesia and Malaysia In 2008, the first widely known doctor fish pedicure service was opened in the United States in Alexandria, Virginia and later in Woodbridge, Virginia. They are used to help treat patients suffering from various skin disorders, including psoriasis and eczema, since the fish will eat and remove any dead skin.

3 comments:

bertN said...

Do you get a rain check when the fishes are not hungry? Just kidding.

Missy said...

hahaha I hope so...but they're always hungry

The Nomadic Pinoy said...

That must be a ticklish experience but I'd love to do that one day. The last thing I want to see are the fish being served in a restaurant LOL!