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Room Salon 룸살롱 Room Sah-lohn

Sex in a Glass

One of the most interesting and popular attractions of the nighttime entertainment trades in Korea are the so-called room salon (room sah-lohn), or night spots, that are similar to some of the more intimate cabarets and nightclubs in Japan, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Manila, and other Asian cities that feature beautiful female hostesses and cater exclusively to male clientele. But unlike their counterparts in most other Asian countries, Korea’s room salons are usually more intimate in that they feature private rooms for each individual group of customers (and more closely resemble teahouses in Taiwan). The typical room is furnished “home” style with sofas arranged around one or more coffee tables, depending on its size. A small amount of floor space is left open for dancing.

Some of the larger salons have live music, with a band playing onstage in a central area and sometimes going from room to room. In the latter instance the musicians play for customers who want to sing to live music. Songbooks, usually with lyrics in Japanese and English as well as Korean, are invariably on hand for the use of patrons.

Each customer who enters a room salon is automatically assigned a hostess who acts as a dancing partner and a very convivial table companion, pouring drinks, engaging in word and hand games, and generally creating a stimulating atmosphere. There is an unwritten rule that a patron who is unhappy with a hostess assigned to him may ask for a different hostess at least once and sometimes twice. Most places frown on customers changing hostesses more than twice.

The most prestigious, and common, drink in the salons is Scotch whiskey. Some regular patrons have their own bottles kept for them at their favorite place. Thereafter they pay for the services of the hostesses and whatever they eat rather than their drinks. Snack items served at room salons, called anju (ahnjuu), include such things as nuts, dried peas, steamed beans in the pod, senbei crackers, fish, and fruit. Some regular patrons run tabs at their favorite places, which they, or their company, pay monthly. This makes it possible for them to entertain guests and then walk out without any reference to the bill, something that is quite impressive to first-time foreign visitors.

Some of the most beautiful, best-educated, and most talented women in Korea work in salons as full-time professional hostesses. Others are students or office workers during the day and hostesses at night. Some housewives also work as hostesses.

Korea’s salon hostesses are a modern version of the traditional kisaeng, who ply their trade in kisaeng houses (in the manner of Japan’s geisha) and are far too expensive for the average man-about-town. All salons are relatively expensive. High-class clubs, such as those in major international hotels, have high-class prices. The tip for a popular hostess in such places can run to a week’s salary for an ordinary working man. Most of the patrons of Korean’s provocative salons are therefore local businessmen who have generous allowances for entertaining clients and business prospects, and they make the most of them, especially where foreign visitors are concerned.

Because of the custom of entertaining business guests, salons generally offer foreign businessmen in Korea on short trips the only practical opportunity they have to meet and socialize in an intimate setting with young Korean women—a situation that Korean businessmen and politicians use to their fullest advantage. Korean businessmen (like their counterparts in Japan and other parts of Asia) learned a long time ago that nothing softens and disarms men more rapidly or completely than the company of women, and salon hostesses play a leading role in their business relationships. The services of some salon hostesses are used regularly by the same clients to impress and influence their own customers and when they are engaged in especially important negotiations and are seeking some additional favorable influence on the side.

Western businessmen who have traveled widely in Asia and experienced the charms of cabaret hostesses in Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Manila say that only the most outstanding hostesses in Manila compare with those in Korea in terms of both beauty and sensuality. While the “sex” they sell is mostly the intangible kind, it is nevertheless a potent combination of physical beauty and feminine charms made all the more powerful by the atmosphere.

Foreign businesspeople who are visiting in Korea or are still new on the local scene but want to use room salons for their own entertainment purposes are advised to get the help of an experienced Korean associate to brief them on how the system works so they will be able to control the cost of an evening’s entertainment while making sure that the expectations of their guests are met and everyone has a good time.

Another popular choice for people who want to spend a less expensive evening on the town are so-called “Hofs,” which are German-style beer halls featuring such typical German snack items as sausages and potatoes. Some people start out their evening at a Hofs, then go elsewhere for dinner. Others do just the opposite—have dinner and then go to a Hofs to talk, sing, drink, and have fun.

Western-style nightclubs (or cabarets) also abound in Korea, many of them on the premises of major international hotels. Like the room salons, their primary drawing cards are their elegantly dressed and perfectly coifed hostesses, many of whom literally radiate maeryok (mayer-yohk), or “sensual charm.”