Global Stress-Busters

By Sara Reistad-Long

Can watching jellyfish counteract a bad day at work? Would beating up a bartender (for a fee) make you relax about your credit-card bills? When stress hits women all over the globe, you'd be surprised by what they do about it.

JELLYFISH WATCHING IN ENOSHIMA, JAPAN

A sleepover at an aquarium may seem more middle-school field trip than a means to greater well-being, but among Japanese women, demand for Enoshima Aquarium's $120 overnight package is so high, its 30 weekly spots are distributed by lottery. The draw? Ongoing studies at the aquarium, in partnership with Jikei and Nihon Universities, show that watching jellyfish is literally drool-inducing: It stimulates the production of a compound in the saliva associated with relaxation. Lucky winners with sleeping bags get prime slumber space before a wall of undulating jellyfish—an experience some liken to actually floating inside the tank. Also included: a Lomi Lomi massage class, bento-box meals, and a chance to reach in and touch a live specimen. The Japanese rank third in the world in terms of the longest work week, topped only by first-ranked South Korea and, in a close second, the U.S. Pet jellyfish, anyone?

STEAMING AWAY STRESS IN STYRIA, AUSTRIA

At the Rogner Bad Blumau spa's coed, clothing-optional, scented sauna, overtaxed Austrians recline while they're immersed in up to eight different sweet-smelling, health-boosting "atmospheres." Each aroma is mixed with water, then poured over the sauna's hot rocks, turning devotees into a sort of human infusion. The Good Morning infusion (with lemongrass or birch oil) invigorates, the Honey nourishes your skin, the Ice—a burst of cold mist—cures bronchial ailments, while the signature mineral-water infusion—in which you're enveloped by steam from the resort's indigenous hot springs—treats, well, everything else: the liver, gallbladder, kidneys, and bladder. Plus, in a 2006 study from the University of Maribar in Slovenia, mineral-water treatments killed 21 percent of cervical cancer cells. (www.blumau.com)

BEATING UP BARTENDERS IN NANING, CHINA

Women in Eastern China have found a whole new reason to call it happy hour. The Rising Sun Anger Release Bar lets patrons yell, scream, break glasses, and even beat up one of 20 muscle-bound staffers, all for the low, low price of $6.25 to $37.50 per session (depending on what you want/need to do). Area psych students are also on hand to help sort out pressing problems. As it happens, most clients are female—a preponderance work at karaoke bars or massage parlors, says 29-year-old Wu Gong, a migrant worker from the province of Anhui who opened the bar last April. He may be on to something: A 2003 University of Michigan study found a direct correlation between suppressed anger and early mortality, particularly for women. We say, rage on!