Last night, I spent 2 hours in a Korean Noraebang for the first time. A noraebang (노래방), literally translating to “song room,” is the Korean style of karaoke where your singing experience takes place in a private room rather than on a imaginary stage in front of your family or friends. On this occasion, my friends and I ended up at a noraebang after celebrating a friend’s 20th birthday.
We went up the stairs to look for the rooms that we saw advertised on the streets of Hongdae and were met with a giant room lit up with florescent lights reflecting off the white tiles that layered the floors and the wall. We paid 24,000 won for an hour of singing time and were given a giant remote, a laminated piece of paper that had the English translations for the remote, and a few microphone covers for the 3 of us to use in exchange. We walked over to our assigned room in excitement – singing in a noraebang had been on our Korea travel bucket list for a while now. The room was small and cramped, as most noraebang rooms are, and had 2 tables for people who would potentially like to order some snacks or drinks. A white couch lined the back wall facing a giant TV mounted to the opposite wall. The lights were dimmed, nearly completely off, and Disco ball light colors danced around the room.
We started the night with a current classic: Hype Boy by New Jeans and jumped around different styles and genres of music, from IU’s Love Poem to IVE’s I AM and even BTS’s Ugh! While we only paid for one hour, we ended up staying for 2 hours because time kept getting added onto our timer. We later found out that this was a free “service fee” where they will give you additional time because no one is waiting for your room. My friends and I had an amazing time singing some of our favorite songs – this is something that I definitely recommend to anyone who is visiting Korea. However, keep in mind that they did check our IDs before we were allowed to pay for our room and time span, I assume it is due to the possibility of alcohol purchases but I’m not 100% sure. Not only was this experience a great way to bond and make new friends, singing (borderline yelling and shouting) the lyrics to our favorite songs as the night got later and the streets got emptier was somehow a great way to relieve any stress or discomfort I had been feeling that week.
