What are some soft drinks in Asia?

Why are host/hostess bars, where someone goes and buys drinks and chats with someone of the opposite sex, popular in east Asia but not with Westerners?

• BBC radio program: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lv4np

• Answer:

  There have been women[1] engaged in the profession of listening to a man and pretending to be interested, entertaining him with her wit and charm and beauty and so on in the west too, but they did it mostly in private. They were called courtesans, or mistresses, of the demi-monde, etc. Many rich men thoughout the ages but especially from about the 17th century onwards had such women to go to besides their wives. Quite a few mistresses became famous in their own right, such as Madame de Pompadour[2] in France (Louis XV) or Nell Gwyn (Charles II) and Lillie Langtry (Edward VII) in England[3]. But making an open profession of this kind of thing would have been too scandalous to Christian sensibilities - because the assumption was always that the parties were in it for the sex only. In much of Asia men had concubines if they could afford them、and go be entertained by ladies, be they geiko or prostitutes or whatever level of entertainment they sought including but not limited to sex, and be pretty much open about it. In more modern times rich men may have mistresses (nowadays better to hide this from the wife), and less wealthy men go to hostess clubs or cabarets or whatever. In the west, or at least in the U.S. and the U.K., everything is geared towards monogamy and marriage. But is there much of a difference really between a pretty girl who hangs around footballers and  who manages to charm one enough to become his girlfriend, or better yet his wife? I am not judging these women by any means, because they are just using their assets and skills to their maximum advantage. It's just in countries like Japan or South Korea, the option is available as a cut-and-dried profession. Women going to host clubs is mainly a role-reversal thing of recent times I think, rather like the male strip-tease clubs for female audiences that exist in the West. [1] also men. See [2] Madame de Pompadour supposedly did not have intimate relations with Louis XV  after the first few years with him but remained as his mistress and close confidante. He did get other mistresses for his sexual needs though. [3] Both Charles II and Edward VII had a series of mistresses, sometimes concurrently. Edward VII's other famous mistress was Sarah Bernhardt.