Gaijin working as hosts

[ssslithe]

Does anyone here work as a host? Or know of a host club staffed partly or entirely by foreigners? I'm researching a story, so any info would be great.

[Iraira]

Does anyone here work as a host? Or know of a host club staffed partly or entirely by foreigners? I'm researching a story, so any info would be great.

Sure...so you're researching a story.....wink wink....want to know about the salary, gifts, and sex...just for the story..wink wink.

[Takechanpoo]

English teacher is almost the same as host.
Be a one.

[Behan]

Yes, a host without alcohol. At least alcohol painlessly numbs you but with eikaiwa the numbing process is excruciating.
I know from experience.


My avatar is what I looked like many nights after work in order to switch over to the preferable numbness.

[Mulboyne]

Some members of this board have mentioned they have worked as hosts before. Whether there are clubs staffed only by white foreigners seems unlikely but there are a lot of Phillipino hosts working the early morning clubs in Shinjuku. For westerners, there are butlers cafes and esort services. Related threads here and here. This blogger claims to have worked as a gaijin host.

[ttjereth]

Some members of this board have mentioned they have worked as hosts before. Whether there are clubs staffed only by white foreigners seems unlikely but there are a lot of Phillipino hosts working the early morning clubs in Shinjuku. For westerners, there are butlers cafes and esort services. Related threads here and here. This blogger claims to have worked as a gaijin host.

I had a friend who worked as a host in kabuki-cho. I actually spent most of a night at his work (because I lived in the boondocks and didn't have any place to stay in Tokyo, so waited for him to get done work so I could crash at his place).

He eventually quit, he didn't make any decent money, and so the whole thing was kind of pointless.

[Iraira]

English teacher is almost the same as host.
Be a one.

Takechan is encouraging him to become a host...that's what Takechan likes, doesn't he...he likes to be surrounded by lots of young gaijin hosts. Takechan, answer this one question: Where do you get your nails done?

[IkemenTommy]

I had a friend who worked as a host in kabuki-cho. I actually spent most of a night at his work (because I lived in the boondocks and didn't have any place to stay in Tokyo, so waited for him to get done work so I could crash at his place).

He eventually quit, he didn't make any decent money, and so the whole thing was kind of pointless.

I thought about doing this a while back as a side job hoping to work my charms and hone my Japanese language skills working the girls. I was quickly discouraged by a friend telling me that it isn't all glamorous and plush once you step into this business. The clients are mostly fuckin obasans or young fucked up girls with some kind of issues and you will often times have to dine and wine them if you want returning customers. That may include sleeping with them as well. You have to be able to drink every night and still keep your composure. So, being a host isn't all about your looks and nice sweet-talking. But still, I KNOW I am much better looking than those skinny kabukicho host brats.

[hundefar]

If you guys haven't seen it yet, I can only recommend "The Great Happiness Space: Tales of a Osaka Love Thief". It's a documentary about a host club in Osaka. If I remember correctly it has been mentioned in here before. It is a great insight into a world that we rarely get a chance to peek into. It used to be availabe on Google Video, but when I tried to find the link just now, I got a error message.

[Jack]

I thought about doing this a while back as a side job hoping to work my charms and hone my Japanese language skills working the girls. I was quickly discouraged by a friend telling me that it isn't all glamorous and plush once you step into this business. The clients are mostly fuckin obasans or young fucked up girls with some kind of issues and you will often times have to dine and wine them if you want returning customers. That may include sleeping with them as well. You have to be able to drink every night and still keep your composure. So, being a host isn't all about your looks and nice sweet-talking. But still, I KNOW I am much better looking than those skinny kabukicho host brats.

I don't see anything that's fucked up in your job description. Sounds good to me. I especially like the part "that may include sleeping with them as well". Okay, you would chat up girls (I'm told most of them are young, by the way), drinking and screwing. Let me think...

[hundefar]

I don't see anything that's fucked up in your job description. Sounds good to me. I especially like the part "that may include sleeping with them as well". Okay, you would chat up girls (I'm told most of them are young, by the way), drinking and screwing. Let me think...

Jack, snap out your wet teenage-dream

[ttjereth]

I thought about doing this a while back as a side job hoping to work my charms and hone my Japanese language skills working the girls. I was quickly discouraged by a friend telling me that it isn't all glamorous and plush once you step into this business. The clients are mostly fuckin obasans or young fucked up girls with some kind of issues and you will often times have to dine and wine them if you want returning customers. That may include sleeping with them as well. You have to be able to drink every night and still keep your composure. So, being a host isn't all about your looks and nice sweet-talking. But still, I KNOW I am much better looking than those skinny kabukicho host brats.

I can't speak to much more than my one experience there and tales related to me by the friend, but there were no obaasans there, maybe a few obasan though. The majority of clients were women in their 30's-40's with money like higher level execs, women with their own companies or just fairly succesfull office women, younger clients were mostly hostesses from other clubs looking to inflict/enjoy a little of what they put up with day in and day out and "new-halfs".

The women were not great looking most of the time, but there were some lookers there. The main clientele seemed to be women who wanted to/were in a position to treat the Japanese boytoys (my friend was the only gaijin in the club) as boytoys. They apparently simply liked the being treated like a queen, rather than what the normal Japan dating scene seemed to provide them with.

According to my friend there were people who engaged in relationships with clients, that was the only way to make real money (it still doesn't compare to what female hostesess make though), in order to have return customers and customers who bought you gifts outside of work (most of which ended up hocked for money). My friend didn't (he was/is married with kids) and the standard wages, shit that bottom rung guys have to put up with (typical low man on the totem pole gets all the shit work like cleaning up, dealing with the nasty customers, etc.), heavy drinking and constant smoking just weren't worthwhile.

It didn't look like, and he said it wasn't, a fun job, he ended up making a lot more money teaching eikaiwa privately after he quit the host club.

[Iraira]

A lot of the customers are actually hostesses, who after spending the night lighting some else's cigarettes and getting theri tits squeezed by random 55year old salarymen, want someone else to light their cigs.
Friend's boyfriend is a barback at a host club in Roppongi, and upon supplying enough alky to him, his statements were enlightening regarding how the hosts reel in the chicks. Basically this process requires the host of make the girl think that he is actually interested in seeing the girl outside of work, because he has "feelings" towards her. As the relationship progresses she may ask, "What do you feel about me?" or even "Do you love me?", to which he will reply, "You know the answer to that question." The girl, usually screwed up by being a hostess or by being in a non-satisfactory relationship takes that to mean "Yes."
When asked whether he dates other female customers, he will reply to her, "With them it is business, but not with you, but I do like that Bvlgari necklace at Takashimaya." Furture politicians, ne.

[Catoneinutica]

English teacher is almost the same as host.
Be a one.

Takechanpoo speaketh the truth.

[yanpa]

If you have the chance, check out The Great Happiness Space about a host club in Osaka. (It used to be available on Google video but seems to have vanished). No gaijins working there, but a fascinating insight into the sheer fucked-uppedness of the business.

[TennoChinko]

Does anyone here work as a host? Or know of a host club staffed partly or entirely by foreigners? I'm researching a story, so any info would be great.

Here's an old online story:

http://www.hiraganatimes.com/hp/scenes/kiji/kiji227-6e.html

[color="Indigo"]Japan-Behind the Scenes - Subculture[/color]

Entertaining Women is My Job

Host - Thor WILLIAMSON

At age 26, Thor Williamson seems to enjoy the kind of job most men could only dream of. His office, if you can call it that, looks like a bachelor's paradise, filled with gold-colored chandeliers, red carpet, mirrored ceilings and walls, and a well-stocked liquor cabinet. His work brings him into contact with thousands of female clients, some very beautiful and wealthy, for whom he is paid a handsome commission to entertain. His salary averages between four to eight million yen a month - enough to make the average Japanese salary man green with envy.

But unlike the salaryman, at the end of a long, hard day Williamson can't take off his suit and tie. In his business, there's simply no time for breaks. Williamson is a "host," one of thousands of young Japanese men making a living entertaining Japan's increasingly restless and well-heeled women.

Walk anywhere at night in Tokyo's famous Kabuki-cho sex district, the largest in Japan, and you can't miss them. Hosuto, as they are called in Japanese, prowl the streets, making every effort to draw the attention of females. With their fashionable dark suits, tanned skin, and perfectly set medium-long hair, they show off their assets like peacocks preening for the attention of potential mates.

Success depends on making a strong impression, and in that respect, Williamson, who is Canadian-Japanese, stands out in the crowd. With the help of his prominent western features and memorable first name, he has vaulted himself into the top ranking at Club Ai, one of the oldest host clubs in Kabuki-cho and perhaps the best known in Japan.

Hosting is strenuous duty
Williamson's choice of occupation could hardly have been predicted from his upbringing. Born and raised in Hiroshima, his father is a former protestant missionary from Canada who sent his son to international schools in Japan. After graduating from high school in Kobe, Williamson went on to study at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

But after one year he dropped out, he says, because he felt he wasn't learning anything. He stayed in Canada for a couple of years toiling in low-paying, service-sector jobs, and eventually came back to Japan in 1999. A few months later he was living in Tokyo, and at the urging of some friends, entered the hazy underworld of the hosting industry.

"Everything in this business is liquid," Williamson says, referring to the Japanese term mizu shobai. "There is nothing solid in the hosting business." On the surface, hosting is fairly concrete. Customers-mostly young women-come to the host club during evening business hours for "professional companionship," much like men do when they go to hostess clubs.

They order food and drinks, have conversation, and pay the bill when they leave. Designated hosts and their helpers get roughly 40 percent, the club gets the rest. Both sides get rich. Hosting is easy, right? "Only in dramas, not in the real world," says Williamson.

For most, hosting is strenuous duty. In Williamson's case, he works seven days a week and sleeps an average of two to three hours a day. Last year, he took six days off for the whole year. Those weren't vacation days: "I was too tired, too hung over, too sick to come to work," he says with a laugh. Because he is the only bilingual host at the club, he sometimes has to come in for foreign guests at a moment's notice. "The hours are crazy," he says.

One time last year, Williamson went on a 60-hour drinking binge with a group of customers who spent nearly 3 million yen on him. He threw up five times, and completely lost track of time, he says. The lack of sleep and alcohol abuse, in addition to his cigarette habit, is taking a toll on his health.

What happens in this business is just fantasy
But like many hosts, he is trapped between the demands of the club, which penalizes hosts who don't meet sales targets, and his dreams of financial freedom. "Either way, if you make a lot of money, you can't take days off, and if you don't make much, you can't take days off, either."

Despite the stress, Williamson insists he's having "too much fun doing this job to get burned out." For one, he enjoys showing customers a good time. "I look at it [hosting] as a hospitality business. We are there to make sure that the customer has fun."

He likes the performance-based pay system. "You can be 20 years old and have 10 people working under you. You can't do that in regular Japanese business." But it's the casino-like nature of the job that fascinates him most. Williamson is a gambler, and says that luck plays a big part in the hosting game. "There's a lot of cases where in one night you can get really rich or really broke."

Williamson says one time a customer walked into the club and turned a bottom-ranking host into the "number one" host, spending over 100,000,000 yen. Three months later, the host quit because the woman had bought him everything he wanted. Such customers, called futoi kyaku, are relatively rare.

On the other side are the lonely, needy types who either want to sleep with hosts or order expensive bottles of Dom Perignon but don't have the money to pay. Williamson has been stalked by such customers, and ripped off by others. "Anywhere there's a bright light, there has to be a dark shadow," he says.

"A lot of what happens in our business is just fantasy," Williamson says. "This job takes everything out of perspective, so I try to keep perspective on life. As a career, I don't think I'll be doing this at 60."
Club Ai: 03-3208-6435/3436
http://www.aidakanko.com/ai-honten/

[princepwnage]

hey guys. i have to say. i have no problem getting drunk and sleeping with women.

can someone give me a link to apply

srsly...

[Papa-Lazarou]

Does anyone here work as a host? Or know of a host club staffed partly or entirely by foreigners? I'm researching a story, so any info would be great.

well as Zombie Dave might say


yyrrrrrrrrrr aaaaaaaaaaa dddddddddddrrrrrrrrtytyyyyyy byyyyyyy



x

[maraboutslim]

Takechanpoo speaketh the truth.

Being a private English teacher to 30s-40s housewives is indeed like being a host. You are also a therapist and serve as some sort of status symbol, like a Mercedes in the driveway I suppose. ("wow, she has a real life gaijin coming to her house regularly...").

[Visitor K]

English teacher is almost the same as host.

haha. i always thought that it would be funny to open up an 'english club' where people can drink and learn english at the same time from their preferred host/hostess. probably be a big hit.

about the host thing, when i was unemployed for a while i looked into it, i had a friend who was a server at a casino in roppongi and she could have hooked me up with a job, but she said the money is shit compared to the hostesses and the other hosts that you work with are usually small-minded, jealous pricks who wouldnt mind beating the shit out of a new guy if they started making some money at the club (happens frequently, according to her).

[Takechanpoo]

like a Mercedes in the driveway I suppose.

Dont overestimate yourself, idiot.

[Not Invented Here]

Dont overestimate yourself, idiot.

Take's mom must have gotten herself a Mercedes recently.

[TennoChinko]

http://www.butlerscafe.com

http://www.butlerscafe.com/staff_wanted.html

Staff wanted!

We are currently looking for staff to join us in full time and part time positions.
We offer a great working atmosphere with clean working conditions and pleasant people to work with.
Currently we are looking for people to fill the following positions,

Butlers- Full time and part time .

Chef- Part time .

If you are interested please email us immediatly and we will contact you straight away!

butlerscafe@gmail.com

[Jack]

Being a private English teacher to 30s-40s housewives is indeed like being a host. You are also a therapist and serve as some sort of status symbol, like a Mercedes in the driveway I suppose. ("wow, she has a real life gaijin coming to her house regularly...").

And?? That's it?

[fuckedupjapan]

Does anyone here work as a host? Or know of a host club staffed partly or entirely by foreigners? I'm researching a story, so any info would be great.

I'll be doing a video interview with a friend of mine who works as a host in Kyoto, I expect it'll up on my blog in a few weeks, as soon as I figure out how to censor his voice and face in final cut... so feel free to subscribe to my RSS or bookmark the site~

fuckedupjapan.com

[fuckedupjapan]

just to let you all know, the interview is now up on my site. feel free to post a comment with any more questions you want the host to answer.

[Taro Toporific]

just to let you all know, the interview is now up on my site..

And the URL is???

(It's not here at the documentary-on-host-clubs.)

[Takechanpoo]

[YT]P11gcMeyNx0[/YT]