Visit to a Host Club #2

Yes, it was my second foray into the glittering, mirrored world of host clubs.

Several months ago I read an article in some financial magazine (maybe Forbes?) in which Reiji, the "king of hosts" gave an exclusive interview after opening his club (Player's Club Dios) in Roppongi. The club sounded pretty good, so GEG and I went there to check things out.

This club is by far the cheapest one I've seen (for first timers). If you mention you saw the home page, you get two hours for only 3000 yen. (Update: It now seems to be 2000 yen) Quite a steal considering this includes a huge bottle of shochu or brandy and a parade of hosts. Most other host clubs cost a basic 5000 yen. The inside was MUCH higher class than Acqua, with lovely seating, tasteful decorations, very high tech video screens, and a disco ball that comes down from the ceiling! Even the "man menu" was much more exciting. They were all portable touch TV screens with internet access. Acqua only has beat up paper menus.

The place where Dios met its downfall was the hosts we were given. I am sure they have many wonderful hosts, but we didn't spend most of our night with them. The guys who came to our table for the majority of our time there didn't seem to know how to talk. There was no scintillating conversation. No sex talk. No compliments. What there was a lot of was awkward pauses, blank stares, and slack jaws. This was not due to the language barrier, as almost all conversation was done in Japanese.

More after the break...

Hot boys, alcohol and rats

A few years ago, my friends and I decided to find out what this whole host club business was about. For those of you outside Japan who've never heard of them, host clubs are where (supposedly) handsome young men pour your drinks, wipe the condensation from the glass for you, light your cigarettes, flatter you, and basically make you feel like a princess.

The clubs are quite popular with lonely women who have no boyfriends (or neglected housewives), and can be somewhat dangerous if you get in too deep with a host. If you go to these clubs, try to remember that the guys are in it for the paycheck. Never forget they aren't sincere, and they're just trying to part you from your money. If you can keep that in mind, you can have a fun time.

I'm of two minds about host clubs now, because one of my ex-boyfriends was a host in college. The routine, according to him, is to meet a girl the first time and get her number and email. He will then get in contact with her and say that he wants to see her outside work. It'll be all, "I don't want you to be a client! I want to date you as a man, not a host!" They will start dating, and all dates are actually paid for by the club. After a few weeks or more, the guy will ask the girl to start visiting the club to "keep him company." You have to pay to have a host sit with you, so this costs the girl a lot of money. She must also buy her own bottle of alcohol to keep in reserve, so for one night you could be looking at $400+. The hosts also drink alcohol from your bottle, so you need to buy new ones quite often, and they aren't cheap. This is another way to get a lot of money out of the patrons. After the girl has been visiting the club for a while, the boy will come up with a story like, "I'm so close to being number 1 this month and getting a big bonus, but I'm short by $500 bucks. If only one of my customers could buy that special bottle of brandy/champagne/whatever...." and the girl, so in love by this point, does it. Sounds horrible, right?

I can't really throw stones, though, because hostess bars do the same thing in reverse. Can I slam the men for scamming women when there are women out there doing the same thing? The only argument I have is that the clients of hostess bars are usually successful business men, not lonely housewives or part time workers. They usually have more money to spend than the women in host clubs do. 

My friend H had researched some clubs, and she picked one she thought another friend and I would like. We wanted the full on host experience. I wanted a club lit up like a UFO, the host haircuts on proud, mullet-like display, crazy suits, and expensive bottles of champagne set out in glass cabinets like expensive jewelry. On our way to the chosen club (Acqua, if you're interested), we had to walk up the main drag of Kabukicho that is riddled with about 50 host clubs. The club next to the one we had chosen had very aggressive hosts who tried to pull us in, but we had already made the choice to visit one specific club so we kept going. The front of the building is really amazing with a huge, lit up sign, and pictures of the most popular hosts. The downstairs entrance also seemed quite impressive with a sliding door and lots of lit up cases of expensive alcohol.