I've elaborated on the Korean norebang a bit in this post previously. I love to sing, and so do Koreans even though most of them can just barely cut it. They get plenty of practice, so everyone is expected to sing at least once if you go to the norebang. You're among friends, so usually it's no big deal if you sound terrible. It's only been on rare occasions that I've been able to witness someone sing with real talent, so this was a treat. Young Sun used to be a professional singer touring throughout Korea and Japan. Her expertise is a hybrid of Korean "Bong Tchak" music and Japanese "Anka" music - these songs have a traditional eastern pop arrangement and a folk style of singing that lends well to minor key ballads. We had to select most of the songs for her since she was modest about showing off, but her voice was fantastic.
Young Sun owns a bar now that she's retired from singing professionally. Word is that her late husband used to be quite a gangster. This is probably true - an older guy stopped by while we were there who couldn't stop playing with a couple of walnuts in his hand. It was awkward talking to him (he spoke English quite well) as the noise from the nuts was distracting. He really seemed like a character out of a bad gangster movie. He even told me he used to be in the "Import/Export" business. I'm not sure that "clothing" really was his top margin product.
Hongdae is filled with cute little shops and restaurants. It's mostly a university village type place, so it's also pretty well priced for what you get. We didn't check out the star beer. Sadly, most Korean beer joints don't really offer much in the way of beer. There are 3 main Korean beers that are a cut above the big 3 American beers. They've traded ownership among the international beverage corporations several times in the past few years. I don't think craft brewing has really caught on here, though you never know what the next big fad will bring.
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