(Much like Friday’s entry, this title is completely misleading.)
Prostitution in Korea is a strange thing. It’s illegal, but it exists. And I’m not talking like your usual American “hooker on a streetcorner” or “escort service” kind of exists. I’m talking more like “make a turn down the wrong street and it’s wall-to-wall hookers set up in their own storefronts” kind of exists.
Yes, storefronts:
This is where the term “window shopping” comes from. You see, each of those “shops” is actually a one-woman brothel. I’m not sure if they’re “independently owned and operated” businesses, or if there’s some kind of alley-pimp who runs the street. I do wonder what the rents are like though.And this isn’t some out of the way place either. This stretch of “shops” is one block off a main road, convenient to two different subway stations and obviously operating in broad daylight. Not only that, but as you can see by the speed bump in the above pic, the road is maintained by the city, so they obviously know what’s going on here.
So does everybody else. At one end of the block is a convenience store (for thirsty/hungy ho’s and johns, I suspect), which was what I was looking for when I stumbled across the alley yesterday. I’d known this place was somewhere in the neighborhood I was in (between Yongsan and Shinyongsan stations), but not where it was. Honestly, I was not looking for hookers. The convenience store near Shinyongsan went away when the building it had been in was torn down, and I wanted to get something to drink before getting on the train back to Ansan. This discovery was a total fluke.
So, camera in hand, I took advantage of it. ^.^
Some of the pics have corners cut off, since I was hiding my camera (as best I could) in my hand. The angles on a few of the shots came out poorly, so I had to rotate and crop the images . I suppose I could’ve put them up untouched, but then you’d all be craning your necks to check out the hookers.
That’s something best left for real life.
I snapped this pic from across the street while I was still inside the Mini Stop. At first I thought she was only wearing the top, then I noticed the wrinkles in her skirt. I like the water cooler. Makes sense though. Ho-ing one’s self out is probably thirsty work.
This is pretty typical window-girl posture. They hang out on their stool or chair, hoping to catch some dude’s eye. If he likes what he sees, he’ll go up, negotiate a price, and they’ll disappear through a door into the back of the “shop” to do the deed.
I don’t know what the mural behind her is supposed to be, but damned if that thing over the heater doesn’t look like a giant cockhead.
This was probably the best looking chick of all of them. Consequently, she doesn’t have crazy murals or anything else to draw in customers. Hey, let the product sell itself, right? Also of note, you can clearly see the door to the back of the shop. But what’s with the two extra chairs? Are those for when the other hookers want to come over for a chat? Or maybe sometimes she offers two (or three) for one deals?
Now, you may be thinking that these chicks may not be too keen on some white dude strolling down their alley in the middle of the day, taking pictures.
You’d be right.
I’d palmed my camera so that everything but the lens was hidden behind my fingers. I was hitting the shutter with the base of my thumb as I walked, never quite sure what I was getting pics of. I got off ten shots in the 3 minutes it took to walk the length of the alley. I could’ve gotten more, but I was trying to aim the camera as best I could and get something worth posting.I’d made it almost to the other end when this chick busted me:
She spotted my camera and yelled out “camera (something something something)” to the other chicks, then closed the door to her shop. Now, I’m not sure what effect that was supposed to have, since she’d yelled back towards the shops I’d already passed. I was a bit concerned that she might be calling out for some “enforcer” type dude, so I pocketed the camera and headed out of the alley. I didn’t acknowledge that it was me she was yelling about, but I guess that was pretty obvious.
There were two older dudes hanging out at the end of the alley, whom I suspected may have been connected with the “business,” but I’m not sure. They didn’t move or say anything to me, so they either didn’t care or had nothing to do with anything going on there. Just as well.
I did get one other pic of interest:
This one struck me as curious, since there seems to be a smaller alley off the main alley. I’m not sure who’d be working down here. Maybe this is where the hookers go if they’re not pretty or young enough for the main shops. It could serve as some sort of transitional stage, between the hooker and barker career paths.
Let me explain about the barkers. I’m sure there’s some actual word for them in Korean, but I don’t know what it is. They’re these old women whose job is getting customers for the shops. They’re not really pimps, since I expect they only get a small cut for delivering a customer, but I do wonder if there’s something else behind it. Maybe they’re former hookers? Or maybe they’ve got some connection to the chick they deliver for? You know, helping out family or something like that.
Now, perhaps you were expecting me to wrap this up with some social commentary, or maybe something witty, but that’s not to be. This was really just an unexpected find, and a glimpse at a part of Korea that most people probably don’t see, or even hear about. So I thought I’d share. That’s all.