| Unwinding In An Oulu Parlour |
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| By Nina Lah | ||||||
| Tuesday, 17 April 2007 | ||||||
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The Easter holidays are over. And what better way to relax than to treat yourself with a nice massage that you definitely deserve after surviving Easter with your family? If it’s a massage you want then Oulu has a quite a lot of choice. Some are clean and professional and some, as I discovered, require you to be a little careful.
There are many trained private masseurs, fitness centres (Oulun Kuntokeskus, Rehapolis, Kiviharjunlenkki 4, 90220 Oulu) and other places around Oulu ready to help you get back on your feet. But although it is easy to find someone willing to massage you is not as easy for those who actually do it for a living. Marjatta from ‘Aktivo’ (Kiilakiventie 1, 5th floor, 90250 Oulu) says it is not easy since there are two schools that annually produce new professional physicians and masseuses. In her opinion the competition in this area is quite hard and the only way to be competitive is to provide a high quality service. That is why their staff have further professional education and training every year. These ‘new things’ include aromatherapy massage; a massage in which ‘essential oils’ and other aromatic compounds from plants are used for the purpose of affecting a person's mood or health. There is Shiatsu, a form of Japanese massage that uses thumb pressure and works along the ‘energy meridians.’ Thai massage is usually soothing because of its emphasis on stretching and loosening the body. The receiver is put into many yoga-like positions during the course of the massage. Also, ‘stone massage’ includes smooth hot or cold stones, usually basalt or marble, used to massage the body. According to Marion, those who visit Klinikka 21 are in 99% of cases women between 30 – 45 years old. Klinikka 21’s special feature is an English-speaking staff, which, Marion says, is quite rare in her business. She was proved correct when I tried to get information from ‘Thai Massage’ in Tuira. I explained to the mother and daughter that ran it, in my broken Finnish, that I was writing an article about massage in Oulu. The mother and daughter, who neither understood nor spoke English, concluded from my Finnish that I was trying to sell them a magazine. They replied: “Ei mainoksia,” which means ‘no junk mail.’ Those Oulu massage parlours with websites aren’t very forthcoming about their prices. In general, though, prices for a half hour massage are between 15 (Aadan terapiat, Kirkkokatu 27A 43 90100 Oulu) and 35 (Lehtorannan Medifys Oy, Valtatie 65, 90500 Oulu) euros. Private masseurs seem to be cheaper than spas (Eden spa, Nallikari) and gyms. For one hour massage you must be prepared to pay anything from 25 (Ritva Juvani, Hallituskatu 26 A, 2nd floor, 90100 Oulu) to 45 euros (Oulun Biofysio Oy, Isokatu 82, 90100 Oulu). Because I really like a massage, I decided to get one in Oulu . . . though it didn’t go too well. I chose to go to a Finnish home masseur. Fifty minutes for 20 euros seemed like a very good deal. He had a small apartment and the massage table was in his bedroom. Imagine how awkward I felt as I was getting half naked in this stranger’s bedroom! He was polite enough to go out of the room while I took my shirt off but after doing that I noticed he was just outside the door and surprise surprise, he could easily see me through the mirror closet right next to the door! I jumped onto the table and he was there immediately. He oiled his hands and for the next fifty minutes massaged the hell out of my back. I didn’t say anything at the time but it was hardly relaxing. In the days after the treatment, my back was in pain like someone had beaten me with a stick and even a light touch was agony. There also seems to be some at least perceived connection in Oulu between ‘Thai Massage’ and prostitution. A significant proportion of prostitutes in Finland are immigrants – many Russian or Russian-speaking Estonians – and the offer of ‘Thai Massage’ appears to be seen as a code for prostitution by some men, especially if the masseuse is a female immigrant. Marion has already had to explain to Finnish men that she is not in the sex trade and that biodynamic massage is in fact only a massage. She believes that her foreign name and the name of her massage give a wrong impression to some men since her Finnish colleagues do not have the same problem.
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