Around 2014      (by Pat)

1.

Some years ago I wrote about the elaborate creation of boilermakers in Daegu, involving falling shot glasses and typhoons. Last week in Seoul I saw a combination and ritual I had not seen before.

We were having dinner with Han Angel at one of the sit on the floor restaurants in the alleys of Seoul. She had ordered soju and coke and made herself a Korean cocktail of the two. A number of young folks were at the table next to us, also with soju and coke, but they prepared it very differently.

First, a soju glass (think shot glass) was filled with soju and placed inside a small beer glass. Another soju glass was then filled with coke and placed inside the beer glass, inside the first soju glass. Lastly, the beer glass was filled with beer and the whole combination chugged down. Koreans seem to be endlessly creative when it comes to drinking.

2.

When Koreans get together, the evening tends to last long. First, they have dinner. (Or they meet at a coffee shop before dinner.) This first step is called il-cha. (“il” means one) Some drinking may begin at this stage.

The second step, 2-cha(yi-cha), is a drinking place. It could be coffee first, then, move onto alcohol – or you skip the coffee. Either way, you get a bit tipsy at this stage.

The third step, 3-cha(sam-cha), is typically a noraebang(karaoke). Belt out and digest & clean your soul! This is not an alcohol-free environment, either.

Then the evening can go on and on. Bar hopping. We have experienced up to 6-cha.

 

 

Norae Bang means “song” “room.” In any city or town in Korea – or anywhere Koreans go around the globe – you will find these establishments. You enter one, and you will see many rooms marked with a number on the door. You want to remember this number once a room is assigned to your group.

You rent a room by the hour – usually for around $10-15 per hour. Each room is equipped with the karaoke machine, two microphones, some noisemakers, and comfortable couches and a table in the middle. There should be a couple of volumes of available song lists. There are more than 20,000 songs from Korea, Japan, China, U.S. & U.K. on these lists, and new hit songs are added constantly.

The first order of things once you settle into a room is to order drinks and snacks. Mostly they sell beer and soju(known as the Korean vodka) and various chips, nuts, dried squid, fruit plates, and some places may offer warm dishes such as fried chicken and noodle soups. There usually is a call button in the room to get service.

Pick a song, note the number assigned to that song, and punch the number in the remote control for the machine. Keep putting in more songs, drink, dance, sing your hearts out, and go to the bathroom. When you return, the only way you can get back into your room is to find the room number on the door. All the rooms look the same, and all the rooms are noisy. You can never tell which room you walked out of unless you know the number!

Ready to try? Then get out and look for the signs with these characters on: 노래방

 

December 2017