By Iwazaru
One night I took my artist friend up on the offer to check out the bar in the basement of his building with a room salon story in mind. He said the place had appeared to have changed ownership several times since he’d been in the building and it all seemed rather unofficial. We walked down a dark, dank staircase under a sign that said “GO” and through a heavy metal door into a clean, well lit vestibule that looked newly painted, tiled and paneled.
In the interests of finding out more about the room salon culture 3WM was put in touch with a Korean banker in Seoul who was admittedly addicted to room salons for more than a year after he moved to the city from a rural area. 3WM promised him anonymity in exchange for details about his experience and an overview of the room salon culture.
1. Tell us about your first visit to a room salon.
It was about when I got a job at my company, and I went to a room salon with my co-workers.
By 3WM
In the interests of finding out more about the room salon culture 3WM was put in touch with a Korean banker in Seoul who was admittedly addicted to room salons for more than a year after he moved to the city from a rural area. 3WM promised him anonymity in exchange for details about his experience and an overview of the room salon culture. 
1. Tell us about your first visit to a room salon.
It was about when I got a job at my company, and I went to a room salon with my co-workers. It was a large salon in the Kangnam area, but was a Bukchang-dong style*. We were really close to the place, and went there to experience a new culture together. Having no idea about the Bukchang-dong style room salons, I was a bit surprised. The rather audacious service by the girls made me think that they were being trained through a set program. The salon was on such a large scale that it felt like a big company or something.
*Bukchang is an area in Seoul near City Hall that has innumerable room salons that are rather lewd.
2. Tell us if you revisited there. And, if you did, why did you want to go back?
Right to the point, yes, I went there again, and continued to visit there. The reason? When I drank with friends and got tipsy, we would go for the next round. And we naturally thought of women (you know, we were hot-blooded and had money). In that situation, we have two options: a night club or a room salon. Our choice would change kind of periodically. If we all agreed that we wanted women, then we’d go for a salon. Or we might go to a night club to hunt girls. But you get tired if you go to one of the two too often, so we’d go to one or the other alternately.
By Iwazaru
A few years ago I was sitting at a small local bar called Mambo in the sleepy upscale neighborhood of Gaepo-dong in southern Seoul for a last beer after my two Korean friends had headed home when a man from India took a seat a few stools down from me. This was peculiar for a number of reasons but mostly because I had rarely seen a foreigner anywhere in the neighborhood and never at this particular bar.
He wore a neat dark suit and carried a traditional black briefcase which he placed in the stool next to him. I guess that he was in his late 30s. He ordered Scotch on the rocks from the attractive female bartender I had stayed to talk to then looked around
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 Kikazaru |
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