Post by Bozur on Apr 9, 2005 20:15:09 GMT -5
NYTimes.com > International > Asia Pacific
TOKYO JOURNAL
It's 3:30 A.M. The Off-Duty Hostesses Relax. With Hosts.
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Published: April 5, 2005
Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
At Club Impact, a host club in Tokyo, the owner, Dan Hibiki, left, Haruka Misaki.
TOKYO, April 4 - "I think they come here because they feel lonely," said Eiji Mukai, 26, the owner of the House of Laputa, a basement club in Kabukicho, this city's biggest red-light district. "Me, too, I get so lonely. I can't stand eating by myself. It's good to work at night, because then I won't feel lonely. I feel so lonely that I own two dogs."
Unlike many customers in this neighborhood, Mr. Mukai's are women, most of them working as hostesses themselves. Mr. Mukai and the half-dozen hosts at Laputa, named after the owner's favorite animation movie, were preparing recently for the night ahead. Their clients would arrive after their male customers had caught the last train home.
Between the night's last train and the following morning's first train, Laputa would come alight. Its hosts would flirt, joke, drink, talk with hostesses who had flirted, joked, drunk, talked with their customers an hour or two earlier.
Hostess clubs, where male customers engage in the safety of paid conversations, are a time-honored business in Japan. But host clubs catering to women have mushroomed in recent years, now employing, according to industry experts, 20,000 men nationwide. About 150 such clubs operate in Kabukicho alone.
The new clubs driving the boom tend to be casual, a departure from the old-fashioned clubs that offered live bands and cheek-to-cheek dancing and treated their generally older clientele like princesses. The new clubs cater to younger women - office employees or those in the sex business. Instead of offering the "princess treatment," they offer what is known by the faddish term "iyashi," which means "relaxation" or "healing." The term's popularity in Japan sometimes suggests that this is one big convalescent nation.
"I come here to look for healing," said Yuika Amami, 20, who lives and works as a hostess in the distant suburb of Hachioji. "I enjoy my work, though it's tiring."
Ms. Amami comes to Laputa once a week to meet her favorite host, Hiro Sakurai, 20, a university student who started this job last year. Now he has some regular customers, with whom he chats on the phone every day or exchanges text messages.
"In general, I think they want to be healed," Mr. Sakurai said. "There are people who buy pleasure with money. With a host, some enjoy pseudo-love by paying money." He added: "I'm majoring in management and, if I enter a company, I'll probably be in sales - in which case, I'll have to talk with important people. You can practice that in this job."
Mr. Mukai said he had worked as a host since the age of 19, earning in his prime more than $30,000 a month. (The top hosts in Kabukicho are said to earn three times as much.) His dream, though, had long been to own his own club.
Most hosts tend to be in their early 20's, said Kazue Kamioka, the editor of Life, a magazine about host clubs. In general, customers are required to pick their favorite host on a second visit and stick to that choice, for fear that a change would create undue rivalries inside the club.
"The customer feels good watching her favorite climb up the ladder," Ms. Kamioka said. "It may be rather similar to love."
Not too far from Laputa, at Club Impact, Dan Hibiki, the owner, explained how he came to be a host and then a club owner.
"I was betrayed by my girlfriend, who had an affair with another man," said Mr. Hibiki, who is also 26 and, like most in the business, uses a stage name. "It was shocking," he added. "Even though I had a very serious relationship with her, she couldn't be trusted. So I decided to take revenge and prey on women."
Nevertheless, he said, he has come to see himself as a devoted professional, and his club offers women "a temporary, dreamlike place."
"Let the customer enjoy being in this space," he said. "Nowadays, hosts have sex with their customers so easily. I personally think we shouldn't have sex with them because, if we do, the experience would no longer be a dream."
One regular customer, Haruka Misaki, 32, had been favoring Mr. Hibiki for four years and followed him to Impact. A hostess, she did not like her job. "I won't change jobs because the money is good," said Ms. Misaki, who comes to Impact a few times a week. "I've got to hang on to it in order to come here."
Around 3:30 a.m., the dozen or so booths at Impact filled up quickly, and the club's black-suited hosts rose to work.
"Are you treating me, Dan?" asked Saori Miki, 21, a hostess who comes to Impact a few times a week, each time spending up to $300.
"Why? Why? What's happened?" Mr. Hibiki said. "Are you drunk?"
"Are you treating me? Or shall I treat you?" she said.
"Yes," he said, "that's the way it should be." She let out a plaintive cry.
Customers and their favorite hosts sat next to each other, while another host or two faced them, helping out by pouring drinks, wiping the table or laughing at jokes; in the industry's cruel hierarchy, the least popular hosts are relegated to being "help."
Two such "help" hosts sat opposite Dan Hibiki and Saori Miki. "You talk!" Mr. Hibiki ordered one of them. "Well, " the help said, "I thought it would be bad if I stuck my nose into your conversation."
Mr. Hibiki said, "You wear something like Burberry."
"Something like Burberry," the help said.
"And Mizuki doesn't talk either," Mr. Hibiki said of another "help."
"In Mizuki's case," Ms. Miki said, "just being here is fine."
"Why?" Mr. Hibiki said. "Because he's handsome?"
The help called Mizuki said modestly, "No, that's not true."
"All you have to do is to be here," Ms. Miki said.
So the talk went on, at Impact, Laputa and other host clubs across Tokyo's Kabukicho - went on for a few more hours, until the early-morning trains took Dan Hibiki and Saori Miki and the "help" to their homes.
TOKYO JOURNAL
It's 3:30 A.M. The Off-Duty Hostesses Relax. With Hosts.
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Published: April 5, 2005
Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
At Club Impact, a host club in Tokyo, the owner, Dan Hibiki, left, Haruka Misaki.
TOKYO, April 4 - "I think they come here because they feel lonely," said Eiji Mukai, 26, the owner of the House of Laputa, a basement club in Kabukicho, this city's biggest red-light district. "Me, too, I get so lonely. I can't stand eating by myself. It's good to work at night, because then I won't feel lonely. I feel so lonely that I own two dogs."
Unlike many customers in this neighborhood, Mr. Mukai's are women, most of them working as hostesses themselves. Mr. Mukai and the half-dozen hosts at Laputa, named after the owner's favorite animation movie, were preparing recently for the night ahead. Their clients would arrive after their male customers had caught the last train home.
Between the night's last train and the following morning's first train, Laputa would come alight. Its hosts would flirt, joke, drink, talk with hostesses who had flirted, joked, drunk, talked with their customers an hour or two earlier.
Hostess clubs, where male customers engage in the safety of paid conversations, are a time-honored business in Japan. But host clubs catering to women have mushroomed in recent years, now employing, according to industry experts, 20,000 men nationwide. About 150 such clubs operate in Kabukicho alone.
The new clubs driving the boom tend to be casual, a departure from the old-fashioned clubs that offered live bands and cheek-to-cheek dancing and treated their generally older clientele like princesses. The new clubs cater to younger women - office employees or those in the sex business. Instead of offering the "princess treatment," they offer what is known by the faddish term "iyashi," which means "relaxation" or "healing." The term's popularity in Japan sometimes suggests that this is one big convalescent nation.
"I come here to look for healing," said Yuika Amami, 20, who lives and works as a hostess in the distant suburb of Hachioji. "I enjoy my work, though it's tiring."
Ms. Amami comes to Laputa once a week to meet her favorite host, Hiro Sakurai, 20, a university student who started this job last year. Now he has some regular customers, with whom he chats on the phone every day or exchanges text messages.
"In general, I think they want to be healed," Mr. Sakurai said. "There are people who buy pleasure with money. With a host, some enjoy pseudo-love by paying money." He added: "I'm majoring in management and, if I enter a company, I'll probably be in sales - in which case, I'll have to talk with important people. You can practice that in this job."
Mr. Mukai said he had worked as a host since the age of 19, earning in his prime more than $30,000 a month. (The top hosts in Kabukicho are said to earn three times as much.) His dream, though, had long been to own his own club.
Most hosts tend to be in their early 20's, said Kazue Kamioka, the editor of Life, a magazine about host clubs. In general, customers are required to pick their favorite host on a second visit and stick to that choice, for fear that a change would create undue rivalries inside the club.
"The customer feels good watching her favorite climb up the ladder," Ms. Kamioka said. "It may be rather similar to love."
Not too far from Laputa, at Club Impact, Dan Hibiki, the owner, explained how he came to be a host and then a club owner.
"I was betrayed by my girlfriend, who had an affair with another man," said Mr. Hibiki, who is also 26 and, like most in the business, uses a stage name. "It was shocking," he added. "Even though I had a very serious relationship with her, she couldn't be trusted. So I decided to take revenge and prey on women."
Nevertheless, he said, he has come to see himself as a devoted professional, and his club offers women "a temporary, dreamlike place."
"Let the customer enjoy being in this space," he said. "Nowadays, hosts have sex with their customers so easily. I personally think we shouldn't have sex with them because, if we do, the experience would no longer be a dream."
One regular customer, Haruka Misaki, 32, had been favoring Mr. Hibiki for four years and followed him to Impact. A hostess, she did not like her job. "I won't change jobs because the money is good," said Ms. Misaki, who comes to Impact a few times a week. "I've got to hang on to it in order to come here."
Around 3:30 a.m., the dozen or so booths at Impact filled up quickly, and the club's black-suited hosts rose to work.
"Are you treating me, Dan?" asked Saori Miki, 21, a hostess who comes to Impact a few times a week, each time spending up to $300.
"Why? Why? What's happened?" Mr. Hibiki said. "Are you drunk?"
"Are you treating me? Or shall I treat you?" she said.
"Yes," he said, "that's the way it should be." She let out a plaintive cry.
Customers and their favorite hosts sat next to each other, while another host or two faced them, helping out by pouring drinks, wiping the table or laughing at jokes; in the industry's cruel hierarchy, the least popular hosts are relegated to being "help."
Two such "help" hosts sat opposite Dan Hibiki and Saori Miki. "You talk!" Mr. Hibiki ordered one of them. "Well, " the help said, "I thought it would be bad if I stuck my nose into your conversation."
Mr. Hibiki said, "You wear something like Burberry."
"Something like Burberry," the help said.
"And Mizuki doesn't talk either," Mr. Hibiki said of another "help."
"In Mizuki's case," Ms. Miki said, "just being here is fine."
"Why?" Mr. Hibiki said. "Because he's handsome?"
The help called Mizuki said modestly, "No, that's not true."
"All you have to do is to be here," Ms. Miki said.
So the talk went on, at Impact, Laputa and other host clubs across Tokyo's Kabukicho - went on for a few more hours, until the early-morning trains took Dan Hibiki and Saori Miki and the "help" to their homes.