Class contrast in juicy bars
before going to korea, i had no idea what a juicy bar or juicy girl was. but now after experiencing them personally, i understand that they’re just a form of hostess club. a form that’s probably less classy than a hostess club in general, but that probably depends on where exactly u go.
so the first of these clubs i went to was outside seoul. the street on which this club is located is filled with other such clubs. at night, the street is bathed in the sickly glow of flashing neon. walking down the street, u get the feel of a red light district. girls in slutty clothes beckon from half-opened doorways.
the particular juicy club i entered had a side business. they ran a fake handbag shop next door. if u wanted any of the name brand stuff, they’d open a side door leading into the club. they led u past the bored and dull eyed juicy girls and into the women’s bathroom. through this bathroom, they unlock a door into the fake handbag storage area. but i digress. this night there was no buying of handbags. we were there to enjoy the completion of our work for this trip.
the bar was probably typical of any chincy establishment that tried to pry young drunk foreign soldiers of their pay. it had a small dancefloor with a noreibang/karaoke machine. these juicy girls did more than just drink with their patrons, they sang. the girls were all filipino and all had kids back in the philippines. they were each recruited by the korean mamasan (madam equivalent) and had signed contracts that determined the lengths of their stay. they lived in dorm equivalents above the bar and were not allowed to leave under normal circumstances. girls who had been at this club for an entire year had only been to seoul once, and the only part they saw was the subway station. they had to spend $250 of their own money to do even that.
typically, the only way they have free time is if they sell 15 drinks in a night. effectively, this means they never have free time. this is what poor girls from economically backward nations are reduced to in a capitalist world. these were the dregs of juicy girls. they looked prematurely old, dressed in slutty skin revealing clothes even if they were overweight, and were very unattractive. instead of inspiring any kind of lust or even minor enjoyment, it was more pity i felt. i was pretty happy to leave.
example of filipino juicy girls
a short time later that same trip, we visited another juicy bar in a district of seoul known as itaewon. the area is very touristy, has a number of nice restaurants and some foreign embassies are located nearby. the difference in the bars was that korean college girls worked the bar. they were all hot and all spoke english to cater to the soldiers and foreign businessmen there. i chatted with yu han na, one of the hottest girls there. she had a beautiful face, perfect skin, great teeth, and her dress was elegant and not slutty. it was amazing to me that they charged patrons the same amount to buy girls a drink here as they did in the other bar. i learned that the circumstances of the girls here was much much better. the girls in this bar mostly worked for spare change. she could come in whenever she wanted to make some extra dough. she was an art history student, so she was even cultured and told me about the art exhibits from europe, china and japan that had come through seoul.
example of what the korean juicy girls looked like to me (actually a kpop group)
interestingly, she told me her views on her patrons. she might easily have been lying, but the resentment i saw in her eyes makes me think she wasn’t. she also knew my ethnicity and citizenship and some of what she said wouldn’t necessarily have ingratiated her to me. she said the patrons she hated the most were US soldiers. they would constantly be trying to touch her, ask how much she charged for sex, and wanted to take her to a hotel, but she wasn’t there for that. she was only willing to drink and talk with her customers. she preferred older foreign businessmen as customers b/c they treated her with a little more respect. i asked her point blank if she was into foreign white guys and she said she wasn’t. she liked homegrown korean men. i couldn’t help but smile at that answer. but maybe she knew me better than i knew myself, b/c i bought her another drink for that. haha.
it was remarkable to see how much things changed with a little physical distance. in seoul, hot, very desirable korean women worked these bars for seemingly the same pay as the ugly, very undesirable filipino women outside of seoul (don’t mistake me here… filipinos can be attractive, but these filipinos weren’t). the koreans were students who wanted money to buy expensive handbags and visit art museums while the filipinos were selling fake handbags and saving to feed their multiple kids back home. i would imagine that the filipino girls would love to work at the place in seoul, but they simply wouldn’t be able to compete. the girls in seoul might be able to command a higher fee outside of seoul, but it wouldn’t be worth it b/c they’d have to leave seoul and change colleges. in the US suburbs, it’s not often a middle class person encounters such widely varying disparities. i’m sure this in typical of any large urban area, but it was new and interesting to me at least.
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The filipinos could not afford plastic surgery.
how much is a glass of juice?
woops, i missed this. a glass is $20, and the girl will usually sit and talk w/ u for about 20 mins, give or take.
another funny thing i heard was that dumb GIs sometimes fall in love w/ the girls and will offer to buy out the contracts w/ the mamasans. they think the girls are so in love and indebted to them that they’ll get married or something. most of the time what happens is that the girl pockets the pay she’s owed and buys herself a ticket back to the philippines. pwnd!