Bikini Bars

One of the fun things about life in Korea is the ease with which you can find at least a decent bar. The sheer number and variety of drinking establishments is a testament to the important place drinking holds in modern Korean society. Nearly as ubiquitous as the bars — and, of course, usually pretty close by — are the brothels. Naturally the two industries tend to combine in various ways, some more licit than others — there is actually a chain of bars called Sexy Girl and bars of that ilk are known as sexy bars, which are basically bars where the waitresses wear bikinis.

I never went to one as the prices are steep, but apparently some of them could be getting in trouble soon. Perhaps you should go while there’s still time!

If women servers wear extremely skimpy outfits in regular restaurants, could they become the target of regulation due to a breakdown in public morals?

All eyes are on whether the prosecution will file charges against a ‘bikini bar’ the police cracked down on for creating problems for public order.

The Gunsan Police Department is waiting for a decision by the prosecution on whether to file charges against Mr. Park (43), owner of a ‘bikini bar’ in Gunsan City’s Miryong-dong where female servers in revealing outfits entertain guests, on suspicion of violation of public morals in food safety regulations.

In case the prosecution decides to indict this business without detention or more heavily, the police plan to pursue a vigorous investigation of bikini bars in the province. This is the first time in the country for an autonomous police force to regulate bikini bars. The police are looking at this decision as a test case for charging bikini bars with public morals offences.

It was announced that there are 3 or 4 such bikini bars in the province, and it appears that from the day that prosecution is decided in this matter any business classified as a normal restaurant and having servers in revealing costume will be the target of regulation.

One member of the police force emphasized that “regular restaurants that sell food with excessively-exposed servers entertaining guests are clearly going to be the target of regulation.”

However business owner Park retorted the investigation by asking “Is that level of exposure in business disallowed in society’s usual sense of morality?”

In other news, on the 11th the Daegu District Court ruled about a prosecuted bikini bar that “When women workers wait tables while clad in underwear there are two things — exceeding the bounds of lewdness to attract customers’ gaze, and obscene actions” and gave a bikini bar which fell into that category an administrative punishment of a 2-month suspension of business.

Nightclub thieves

Today we bring you a pair of  true translated crime stories.  As you spend your weekend in Polly’s Kettle or whichever fine establishment you choose to get sloshed in, please keep this delightful little tale in mind.

The Busan police have issued a warrant for the arrest of nightclub worker Hwang (32) on suspicion of stealing money from customers while dancing away from their tables.

Hwang is accused of having stolen the clothes and bags of 12 customers who came to dance at nightclub “M” where he worked.

Hwang was once caught and punished by police for stealing customer’s cellphones.

Soju, beer, and inflation, oh my!

The article translated here is on a subject no doubt near and dear to many of our readers’ hearts — the price of alcohol. Readers without experience of the intoxicating cheapness of Korean spirits may be surprised at the positively Marxist indignation given to a lousy 3-penny rise in their prices, but we think once you try them you’ll see it’s imperative that they be as cheap as can be.

Thanks go once again to the Munhwa Ilbo.

In line with those of natural gas, transportation, and oil, the prices of beer and soju are going up.

With the cost of living rising with them as if in a competition, the shoulders of the common people, afflicted by the severe economic hardship of these times, are increasingly weighed down.

On the third, following business circles, the domestic beer market leader Hite Beer raised production of all of its brands by 1.9% starting today. Following this, the price of Hite bottles (500 ml) has gone up from 923.65 won to 941.2 won. The prices of black beer Hite Stout (1,034.75 to 1,054.41 won) and 330 ml-sized Exfeel (767.42 to 782.00 won) also went up. Regular shops will raise prices by approximately 50 won. Following Hite Beer’s presentation of factory costs OB Beer, second in market share, is expected to follow suit.

A Hite Beer representative said “Due to the recent sharp increase in the price of domestic barley and the multiplying costs of other raw materials, production costs are increasing and so is the cost of beer.”

The representative ‘common man’s drink’, soju, is also showing signs of a price increase. Jinro, leader in the soju market, announced that its factory costs will eventually increase by 30 won per 800-ml bottle. This is due to a rise in the cost of its basic ingredient ethanol. A Jinro representative said “It’s not definite yet” but that “The truth is that because for the last three years the price of soju has not gone up even in the face of greatly increased raw materials costs, well, that’s the reason.” Jinro manager Yun Jong-woong also said at a press conference that he couldn’t deny the possibility of a price hike.

The rise of soju prices began around the end of last year. It was then that Doosan, seeking to defray the cost of the rise in ethanol prices, raised the retail price of 처음처럼 from 730 to 770 won.

A Night in Bukchang-dong

The first translation we bring is a true tale of woe, wherein we find a once-proud rock of the Korean drinking establishment laid low, and finally done in by a truly dirty deed.

Thanks go here to the Munhwa Ilbo.

Midnight on the 2nd. Seoul’s once-representative pleasure street, the packed-with-drinking-houses Bukchang-dong, which used to be busier at night than in the day, now has no partner to equal it in boredom. As far as the oft-heard phrase ‘Bukchang-dong style’ goes, the bars here, which used to carry so much competitive power, have lately had many fruitless nights. It’s a place where taking a day off is the usual state of affairs. As every day the total price of businesses for sale is over W1,000,000,000, [~$1,200,000] the once prosperous Bukchangdong has been hit by a typhoon of depression, economic stagnation, and the ‘affair of the chaebol director’s revenge’.

It’s nearly impossible to find customers here. This writer went to Bukchang-dong at about 11:30 on the 2nd. Just as in the days of old, it was the time for boozers across the city to gather together for the first round, but the street was silent. A street barker, gone out on the street in the hopes of somehow pulling in the nowhere-to-be-seen customers, caught my attention. To the people who occasionally passed by he said ‘come have some fun’ and waved his hand to invite them, but there was nobody who took even one step towards the bar.

As the location of Hanhwa Group chairman Kim Seung-yeon’s violent revenge is being discovered to actually be in Bukchang-dong, the street here is filling up not with drinkers hunting for a bar but only by reporters looking for a story and police officers on patrol. Recently, police patrols from the squads in this jurisdiction have become frequent, and in addition, in search of a story about the police coming out to search the area, reporters are busying themselves through every street. This is understood to be the reason that people off for a drink are wary of Bukchang-dong, which is trying to attract the eyes and ears of society. In the face of this failure, a few establishments are thinking outside the box to present themselves as “discount stores” but it is beyond their ability to pull in customers.

Kim, 27, a worker at establishment “B”, complained that “these days in Bukchang-dong it’s half reporters and half cops” and “finding customers is really tough.” Park, 32, at establishment “N”, said, “being on TV like this, I wonder who would come” and “with no business turning up there are many times when we close the doors all day.”

Born in the 1980s, there was a time when Bukchang-dong was Seoul’s top spot for pleasure-seeking. Starting in the late 1990s the ‘Bukchang-dong style’ type of nightlife gained widespread fame. In fact, on either side of the year 2000 Bukchang-dong had achieved the feat of being crowded with over 100 bars. A representative of one such establishment said, “When business was good every place was in the black and recording sales of 5 to 10 million won a day,” and “as business slowly decreased there are now only 17 places left.” It’s not only drinking establishments as regular restaurants are also feeling nervous. They are fretting, worrying over whether there will be repercussions on their businesses from the ‘Hanhwa Affair’.

Also, as Seoul has set a target of attracting 12 million foreign tourists, and even though foreign tourists can already eat in cheap stores, support is coming out for the administration of a “Korean Food Zone” and as it may or may not have positive effects the atmosphere is tense. Chinese restaurant owner Choi, 58, worries that “with the changing of Bukchang-dong putting such stress on the commercial power of the drinking establishments this will be the area’s deathblow.”