"My Decadently Destructive Days and Nights as a Tokyo Nightclub Hostess"

[DrP]

I'm curious if the book includes a warabiki to the club, or at least for a few thou off on a delivery?

[gomichild]

Well I'm not going to bother to read it. I used to work as a hostess for a while, and I'm an educated woman. Big deal. Most of hostessing is listening to boring talk in half-arsed English or Japanese. And having to act like you give a shit. Seriously it would be like reading about someone teaching English with stronger drinks involved.

There's no mystique about it. So what if some hostesses fuck their customers? Even for money? Each girl to her own - you make your own choices.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I think JAPJap just fucked off because I might know who she is.

[kusai Jijii]

So you think Bar Flower is worthy of attention, but you're too evolved and knowledgeable about Japan and hostesses to give it more than a cursory glance. But you wish the author respectfully-but-slightly-patronizingly well. I get it!

has it been a while has it? You seem very 'uptight' my dear...

[Greji]

There's no mystique about it. So what if some hostesses fuck their customers? Even for money? Each girl to her own - you make your own choices.

But, you have to remember that the group who needs to make money off of this, depend on that mystique and the exotic war stories!

[gomichild]

But, you have to remember that the group who needs to make money off of this, depend on that mystique and the exotic war stories!

Heh.

It's about time some foreign women woke up and realized that they aren't rare exotic flowers here - especially in Ginza or Roppongi.

[kusai Jijii]

Heh.

It's about time some foreign women woke up and realized that they aren't rare exotic flowers here - especially in Ginza or Roppongi.

Amen to that GG. Same for many gaijin blokes too.

[Greji]

Amen to that GG. Same for many gaijin blokes too.

I'm not so sure of that! There was a Lily of the Valley in the pub last night, who finally scored some visiting truck driver or something...

At any rate, he was willing to trip the light fantastic and did not seem concerned that no one else could particularly appreciate this wonderful international experience that he was offering....

He'll probably wake up still thinking he's the Rose of Roppongi..

[kusai Jijii]

I'm not so sure of that! There was a Lily of the Valley in the pub last night, who finally scored some visiting truck driver or something...

At any rate, he was willing to trip the light fantastic and did not seem concerned that no one else could particularly appreciate this wonderful international experience that he was offering....

He'll probably wake up still thinking he's the Rose of Roppongi..

[Mulboyne]

I think JAPJap just fucked off because I might know who she is.

You haven't threatened to reveal anything, and I'm sure you wouldn't, but it is probably worth reiterating that everyone posting on this board is entitled to anonymity if they want it.

[Samurai_Jerk]

You haven't threatened to reveal anything, and I'm sure you wouldn't, but it is probably worth reiterating that everyone posting on this board is entitled to anonymity if they want it.

I was just kidding anyway. I doubt they're the same person.

[ttjereth]

You haven't threatened to reveal anything, and I'm sure you wouldn't, but it is probably worth reiterating that everyone posting on this board is entitled to anonymity if they want it.

Does that mean I'll get banned if I reveal Greji is actually Mino Monta and Iraira is one of the Morning Musume?

[Iraira]

Does that mean I'll get banned if I reveal Greji is actually Mino Monta and Iraira is one of the Morning Musume?

I wanna be the one that got busted for smoking!

[Greji]

Does that mean I'll get banned if I reveal Greji is actually Mino Monta and Iraira is one of the Morning Musume?

I actually interviewed him to do a job for us. This occurred when he had hit the top and was in demand everywhere.

His asking price totaled our PR budget for the next 25 years, so it didn't workout....

I'm a little disappointed; however, that you would keep such an important secret as Morning Musume member Ms Iraira, to yourself. If i had of known that before hand, I could have been doing her/him/it since last year....

[Charles]

You haven't threatened to reveal anything, and I'm sure you wouldn't, but it is probably worth reiterating that everyone posting on this board is entitled to anonymity if they want it.

Is this a new rule? Because it didn't seem to be in effect when some FG asshole did a little cyberstalking and posted all my personal info. I was attempting to remain relatively anonymous until that point.

[Greji]

Is this a new rule? Because it didn't seem to be in effect when some FG asshole did a little cyberstalking and posted all my personal info. I was attempting to remain relatively anonymous until that point.

I noticed that Charles and probably was a party to perpetuating some of it. Sorry about that. Unfortunately, I think it came from a well-meant post on your part to provide some assistance, that in-turn, provided access to your HP and data.

[Iraira]

[quote="Greji"]I'm a little disappointed]

Yeah, having this rudimentary vagina (that sounds like a good name for a band....wait a second, there was a "Rudimentary Peni" or something to that effect a few generations ago), it took awhile to perfect peeing while standing up, but I got it down so that only a few mililiters dribble down the pants legs. Everytime I go back to the states, I load up on Depends. The Narita customs officials don't seem to mind. Back on topic. I need more corruptiing.

[Greji]

Yeah, having this rudimentary vagina (that sounds like a good name for a band....wait a second, there was a "Rudimentary Peni" or something to that effect a few generations ago), it took awhile to perfect peeing while standing up

For those who just can't make up their mind:

[Charles]

I noticed that Charles and probably was a party to perpetuating some of it. Sorry about that. Unfortunately, I think it came from a well-meant post on your part to provide some assistance, that in-turn, provided access to your HP and data.

Well I'm not pointing fingers your way. The culprits know who they are and are unashamed, nay, proud of it. There is a big difference between being demented and being malicious (and I mean that as a compliment to you). I may have had an unstated but known identity, but that is not a free pass to deliberately cause trouble by posting my full name next to links to the most embarrassing material they could dredge up.

[Greji]

Well I'm not pointing fingers your way. The culprits know who they are and are unashamed, nay, proud of it. There is a big difference between being demented and being malicious (and I mean that as a compliment to you). I may have had an unstated but known identity, but that is not a free pass to deliberately cause trouble by posting my full name next to links to the most embarrassing material they could dredge up.

Thanks, but for any parts that may have caused trouble, I am sorry, but don't take that as an indication that the Illini are going to say anything good about the Hawkeyes!

[ttjereth]

I wanna be the one that got busted for smoking!

You mean the one shacking up with some 40 year old guy who used to run a brothel... er "soap land"?

[ttjereth]

[quote="Greji"]I actually interviewed him to do a job for us. This occurred when he had hit the top and was in demand everywhere.

His asking price totaled our PR budget for the next 25 years, so it didn't workout....

I'm a little disappointed]

Monta strikes me as a total and complete asshole, so I'd say no big loss really. Him and Tamori I just have no idea why they are popular.

[ttjereth]

Is this a new rule? Because it didn't seem to be in effect when some FG asshole did a little cyberstalking and posted all my personal info. I was attempting to remain relatively anonymous until that point.

You probably shouldn't constantly post links to your personal website at a domain that uses your real name if you want to remain annonymous.

[Iraira]

For those who just can't make up their mind:

Got her phone number? No, thanks.

[Iraira]

You mean the one shacking up with some 40 year old guy who used to run a brothel... er "soap land"?

He "used to run a brothel...er 'soap land'", meaning that he saw the errors in his ways, sold he stake in the "company", probably to Greji, and now lives a sinless life helping wayward J-pop teens who are about to walk down the path to oblivion that always starts with that gateway drug, tobacco. We must commend him on his valiant efforts to save this poor lass from what inevitably would be a future of sticking black tar heroin filled syringes into the veins and arteries in her eyeballs. Truly, a heroic man....did I mention that my myopia has gotten worse?

[Charles]

You probably shouldn't constantly post links to your personal website at a domain that uses your real name if you want to remain annonymous.

I've only done that after I was outed. Nothing to lose at that point.

[Taro Toporific]

Well I'm not going to bother to read it... Seriously it would be like reading about someone teaching English with stronger drinks involved.
There's no mystique about it.

"No mystique" is how I'm feeling about "Bar Flower" right now. I am on page 168 (of 340) and I have a few observations I can make it, before I am inclined to damn the entire work.
[INDENT]-- Early on without a hint of irony, Jacobsen repeats hackneyed, "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down" as a chapter heading (pg. 30), which for a Japanologist is like quoting the Reader's Digest Condensed Atlas entry for Japan.
-- Very oddly for a memoir talking about hostessing in Japan, the word "dohan" (arranged 'date') is not mentioned until page 121.
-- In the same vein, it takes nearly 1/3 of the book to get to the point that the author Jacobson starts to explain about hostessing as it is really performed (commissions based on dohan, over drinking, large gaps of consciousness-- not knowing what day of the week it is, confusion in intermingling of commercial hostessing and normal social at interaction, etc.).
-- And most importantly, I have the constant nagging feeling that I've read this book before. Many bits of the specific details of hostessing in the book I've read before---even main character names such as DohanMan---maybe in the Tokyo Notice Board magazine. Certainly most of the engrish teachers here on the FG (or any schoolteacher for that matter) will find her description of teaching extremely superficial and n00b-like.[/INDENT]

As I said, I'm only midway through the book and the hostessing tale is just beginning to get "hot" with a litany of her street-crossing phobias, cutter self-harm, anorexia, over drinking, girl-on-girl kissing matches, sleep deprivation, and recreational-blurred-with-work sex... I'm still waiting for something unusual to happen.

[Mulboyne]

There's another account of hostessing due out next spring:

Publishing News: Gaijin expose - Little, Brown wins hostesses' tale

DAVID SHELLEY AT Little,Brown has bought UK and Commonwealth rights to "Gaijin Girls", an account of the real lives of young women who move to Japan and make money from 'hostessing'. The potential perils of the job have come into focus in the last few years, with high-profile news stories about missing women who have been working as nightclub hostesses. Daily Mail and Marie Claire journalist Clare Campbell will write the book for 2009 publication. Shelley bought the book in a pre-emptive bid from Vivienne Schuster at Curtis Brown. "Women often start work there under false pretences and parts of the industry are believed to have Yakuza connections. It's a secret world and Clare has the ability and understanding of the subject to tell the real story of the women who work in it," said Shelley.

Campbell wrote an earlier book about her brother, Times journalist and war correspondent Bill Frost, called "Out of It: How Cocaine Killed My Brother". She also recently interview Lucie Blackman's father, Tim, for the Mail on Sunday. (The article is here but I'll also post it in the Blackman thread).

On a side note, the hostess blogger who liked her friend Lea Jacobson's book "Bar Flower", which begins this thread, has decided to give up hostessing herself for the time being and spend time in America.

[Takechanpoo]

These kind of articles written by white dude reporters about white or western women working in sex or semi-sex industries in non-white country always contain negative implications that "You better not become connected with non-white dudes, otherwise you wiil be soon killed or at least involved somehow in bizzare dangerous incidents. Dont get near non-white guys!!!", despite not a few ordinary J-female college students too, who are so sensitive to danger, working in this industry.

[Taro Toporific]

On a side note, the hostess blogger who liked her friend Lea Jacobson's book "Bar Flower", which begins this thread, has decided to give up hostessing herself ...

I finished "Bar Flower" last Thursday. It ended like the story of other hostess blogger who was friends with Lea Jacobson. That is, Lea Jacobson "quit" hostessing in her book several times only to return.

As I said before, the author Jacobson takes nearly 1/3 of the book before she mentions dohan, and the second half of the book repeats the same 10-page narrative of her alcoholic haze of hostessing over and over.
The tales told to me off-duty hostess here in Tokyo were far more interesting...They often recounted to me the weird individual stories of their customers and the wilder nights in the bar rather the just the one-sided view that author Jacobson presented of her own internal whingefest of woe and self abuse.

Bottom Line: Yawn.