Korea Life Blog - In the News (1)

I've decided to make a regular series out of strange stories in the newspaper. Take a look at this piece from today's Korea Herald:

Adult site offers evening at a posh bar


A popular Internet movie site for adults is bidding a night out for two at a posh room salon in Gangnam, southern Seoul, inviting both public criticism and apprehension.

For the grand prize of an event they are hosting as part of their one-year anniversary celebrations.

According to the Web site, one adult who watches a pay-per-view clip by the end of October will be chosen at random and given an all-expenses-paid night out worth over 2 million won, according to the website

The night, dubbed "enjoy sensual pleasures," will include expensive foreign liquor, live bands, complimentary food and women who will entertain at will, the Internet site advertises.

First and second runners-up will each receive a bottle of liquor, while the third runner-up will get a DVD, the fourth a box of soju and the fifth a box of condoms.

"If the prize winner is a woman, we plan to give a gift certificate of equal monetary value to another nightspot if she does not care for the room salon," Yonhap News Agency quoted an unnamed organizer as saying.

Of its 500,000 members, 80 percent are between the ages of 25 and 45, reports showed.

"Although some criticize our event as being crude, none of our members have opposed it," another official at the site was quoted as saying. "Instead, the feedback we have received from our members is that the event is original and fresh."

(shong@heraldm.com)


This story cracks me up. The winner will get an all expenses paid trip to a room salon including women who will entertain at will. Trust me, that entertainment will not include juggling apples, at least not literally. Room salons, a most certain future topic here, are basically very expensive brothels (some debate going on about this: see comments) that generally cater to businessmen often at company expense (and who's says Korean jobs don't have any perks?) When I lived in Ulsan, headquarters of Hyundai, there was an entire room salon section of the city with hundreds of the places. For a long time I wondered about what they were as the buildings were really fancy, everyone was going in and out wearing business suits, and at night that part of town resembled Las Vegas with all the lights. A girl I knew lived in the area. She didn't know what they were either - she just thought her neighborhood was so nice and clean and modern. She was abhorred when she discovered the truth, that she basically lived in a prostitution town.

I love the title of the event: Enjoy Sensual Pleasures. More than that though are the runner up prizes. What a jip! A bottle of liquor? A DVD? A box of soju? And poor 5th place: one measly box of condoms.

I'm sure the majority of the sites whopping 500,000 members are not women, but if a woman does win, her prize is apparently a 2,000,000 Won gift certificate to a regular night club. I can just see her walking into the club to redeem her certificate which basically says to everyone, "Yeah, I'm the woman that won the porn site prize."

Finally, that last quote kills me. What a big surprise that none of the members objected to the event.