1980, November, 36th Street and 7th Avenue, Manhattan, Coco. (24 year old nice simple Korean girl)
I had no idea what to do. I had not engaged in sex for quite a while, due to rather intensive studying, also living a monastic life, and just entering the professional work force.
She walked me through, helping me to remember the mechanics. It all came back, but I was woefully sloppy and uncoordinated. Misfired. Embarrassed. She was older than me. She laughed and made it all okay. She called me her younger brother. Revisited her a few days later and performed more proficiently. She praised my improvement. Felt vindicated.
There were many Japanese and Korean shops all around Penn Station at that time. Got The Village Voice and visited every single one. Got my confidence back.
Every place was an authentic spa, to some degree, mimicking rather poorly the three or four original Japanese spas left over from the 50’s and 60’s. Every place had at least a dry cedar sauna, steam room, table shower, or assisted standup shower.
Some had baths, like Kabuki Spa on 777 7th Avenue, The Taft Hotel. Some had a separate hot and cold pools.
Many spas had a full bar. Enjoyed a couple of scotches on the rocks in the sauna. Unlimited time offered in the dry sauna and steam prior to massage. You could alternate with dry saunas and cold showers for up to an hour free of charge before your massage. And, there was no cause for embarrassment. In fact, you were more highly regarded, because you were behaving in accord with the Korean style of profusely sweating and thoroughly loosening prior to massage, making it far easier for the masseuse, preserving her vital energy from the tedious task of breaking into hard tight muscle mass. You were applauded for making her life easier.
When you prepped sufficiently, your extremely obedient oriental (the preferred term, over “Asian,” at that time) masseuse, bowed before you, approaching you in the ancient foot-bound tip-toed gait and placed slippers on your feet, and cloaked you with a bleached white terry cloth robe, a ceremony fit for a monarch. (that little display of Asian subservience oftentimes sprung an instantaneous blue steel erection)
There was no shortage of bleached clean white freshly laundered towels. A towel for each limb, and two towels for your main body.
The massage was a whole production of superb shiatsu and back walking. The ballet along your spine produced myriad cracks on many levels. The massage was unrelenting.
After you were fully, deeply massaged, the therapist, as a professional courtesy, just greased up your Johnson, almost without asking (a nod and a wink) to relieve the last remaining stiffness that remained unaddressed. It was considered more of a humane act to relieve your suffering. The mamasan referred to it as “just helping him out.”
Full-service in one of the remaining Oriental spas from the 50’s-60’s was not always available. But, if it was, it was really a low-key event, usually disdained by the mamasan. Because, mamasans (owners) at that time, in order to run a reputable spa, had to have a New York State License. They oftentimes paid a license-holder extremely handsomely to display their license on the wall. They had an agreement with the license-holder of no sexual activity.
The hand jobs were never thought of as sex to the spa participants. It was still merely massage, and never warranted a big tip. Just included in the $20 tip for a good massage, or maybe up it to $30 to match the house fee.
But, if you did get some sex with a milfy hardworking Korean at that time, in one of these old-time spas, she was a woman of the highest caliber. Her juices were fishy, abundant and briny. Her orgasms were epic. Talking about a woman making it here on guts and nothing else, a hardcore, tough spirit, bellowing out her orgasm with true passion, and a unique Korean emotion coalescing a deep expression of pain and pleasure.
I really, really enjoyed that older, very appreciative breed of old-old-school Asian woman. (You could hear them whisper: “manhi-manhi salanhaeyo!!!” I love you very much) They did appreciate a young man. They would worship you and your young white manhood.
The young Korean girls were far more materialistic without traditional values. Very difficult to relate to, for me at least. Far too fast and cool for me.
I have seen the strict mamasans, upon finding out a girl was giving full service, give her an old-fashioned beating. Not a pretty sight, because the girl oftentimes needed the job, and didn’t fight back, but covered up and took the beating. The other girls just watched. The mamasan’s anger was not unfounded, because she paid a good buck for a well-established business dating back to the 60’s in a good building or a hotel and was running a truly authentic spa catering mostly to wealthy Japanese businessmen. She certainly didn’t want her establishment labeled as an Asian brothel, and screwing up her deal with the license-holder.
But, after the beating, they all sat down to dinner, rice, soup, fish, kimchi, and everybody joined in to counsel the crying wayward.
Started dating the Korean girls, and mamasans, and even watched over and closed the spas, was forced to restore order when thugs came in drunk, taking massage and refusing to pay.
Alcohol and cocaine fueled the 80’s. Some nights, partied with the entire staff of girls in K-Town nightclubs, or Studio 54, (girls dressed up really well, and myself with 4 or 5 hot Koreans in glamorous attire always got us in) eventually ending up at the more subdued clubs on Bell Boulevard, Bayside, (most girls lived in Queens) to end the night, before the final destination of a 24 hour Korean restaurant for some obscenely hot and spicy food to finish up by 4:00 AM, with plenty of time to grab 2 or 3 hours of sleep before going to work in the morning.
A Chinese worker was so rare, as to cause wonderment. My mamasan gal considered hiring one because of her looks but decided against it. Reason being, she could never fit into the sisterhood and hierarchy of the Korean spa. The cultures would clash. And, Chinese tuina massage was considered subpar, akin more to acupressure and not the more deep-tissue, heavy releasing quality of shiatsu. And, the fear that her good looks would change the reputation of the spa from that of an old time Oriental Shiatsu Parlor to a sex joint. This undoubtedly would create animosity with the Korean girls who were older but possessing powerful massage capabilities. The competition and culture clash would create havoc.
I frequented the remaining Japanese spas that were purchased by the Koreans from the 50’s and 60’s, and the only spas to get true and authentic shiatsu. And, I also frequented the small AMP sex spas further down town in the teens. God, young Korean girls back then were so gorgeous, but princesses.
56th Street had quicker non-authentic Korean spas, catering to the plethora of rich Japanese business men after a night of sushi and drinking. They offered a fair shiatsu (most guys were too drunk and didn’t care at that point) and a nice young girl who would give you full service on your third visit. However, most of the girls failed math.
The outskirts of Queens was the birth of the new style purely sex AMP’s. The service was deeply diminished, a mere remnant of the houses in Manhattan. Steam, sauna, quality massage disappeared, replaced by “the body rub,” and “tuina,” as the Chinese entered the game. And, as services further and further declined, you have what you have today, AMP fasthouses, an abomination at a premium price.
It was a great ride.