You Want to Massage WHAT?

It’s my first day in Hong Kong, meeting my husband who came in yesterday from mainland China. From here we are traveling to Japan for some much appreciated time together. Before boarding our cruise tomorrow afternoon, I am planning on enjoying a morning massage while my husband heads off to a conference.

There are massage signs all over as I walk through the streets. Most are up on the 2nd or 3rd floors of buildings so it’s impossible to see what they look like from the streets. To find a legit and safe place to enjoy a massage, I’ll be asking the hotel concierge for recommendations and I will also have them write down what I’m looking for in Cantonese. It’s a Thai massage that I’d like to try, though this photo from a previous trip to Hong Kong has me very curious:

No, not the ear candling – that sounds downright painful! It’s the 45-minute breast massage that got my notice. I wanted to ask the owner just how much this service is requested but sadly, my Cantonese Chinese is limited.

I’ve had many different types of massages traveling the world though have never seen this before. Swedish, Lymphatic, deep tissue … yes, all of these are common massage types, but breast massage? Seriously, they want me to pay someone to massage my breasts? And how can it take 45 minutes?

I had to Google this. And I had to ask my massage therapist while at my recent spa experience in Norway. Google returns breast massage reasons for blocked ducts, which I guess makes sense for a breast-feeding woman, which I am long past. My massage therapist relayed that this type of massage is great for draining toxins from the breasts’ extensive lymphatic system. Ah, now this I understand as I do like lymphatic massages for the benefits of moving around the lymph.

My husband weighed in with his thoughts, too. He said that he’d just park a chair outside the place and offer the service for free! I can just picture him coming home from a rough day at “work” with a huge grin on his face.

As for what I’ll be doing tomorrow … it all depends on whether I’m brave enough to ask the concierge for a recommended place for a breast massage. Asking a male concierge for recommendations for a Thai massage — no problem. Looking him in the eye and asking for a breast massage recommendation — that’s a different story.

Any pearls of wisdom from experienced breast massagees? Or are you going to be lining up your chair next to my husband’s?