Insight of a Japanese hostess club

Suddenly a big fat guy came in, his fleshy nose was already red from alcohol and when he noticed me, he immediately requested me. Annushka, our Russian barmaid came to take me to his table. The guy was wearing a greyish office suit and was sweating, like he was running from work straight to our club. I gave him the towel and he cleaned the beads of sweat from his forehead, then idly threw it on the table.

“I love big boobs!”

What an impressive introduction!

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New book: The Stripper and the Yakuza

Keep updated! My new book is on the way!
Would you like to read it?

Bella's life is full of excitement, fun and travel as she's working as a free-lancer exotic dancer. Her big dream was always to travel to Japan and she said yes to her Russian friend's, Natalia's proposal, who offered help finding a place for her in a Japanese hostess club. Upon her arrival, Bella is full of hopes and excitements, but soon she discovers the world of the workaholic Japanese customers, their lack of speaking English and the games between clients and their obedient hostesses. By her nature she's always honest and straight forward, but in Japan this in not the required behaviour. Bella becomes more and more exhausted at work, bodily and mentally, she goes through a culture shock and feels rejected in the country of her dreams.

One day, Yoshihiro, a pleasant customer who speaks good English appears in the club. Bella immediately spots his yakuza tattoo and realises he's a gangster, but instead of being scared, she becomes curious.

Bella is independent, free, careless. A stripper. Yoshihiro is strong, dominant, loyal. A yakuza. Can their two different worlds meet and develop a life-long relation?

Photoblog - Sakura in Yokohama

The modelphotos were taken by Hugo Poveda.

How I met my yakuza friend

Someone asked me what was the most unexpected thing for me during my stay in Japan. Well, I never thought I became a friend of a yakuza. We all hear the stories about them but get close to them is a different story. Even Japan is more and more open, their world is still closed from Westerners.

But let's start at the beginning. I was in Japan a year ago, in Yokohama. (There are another post about the work there, here I don't want to repeat myself.) He arrived at the club as a normal-looking customer with a friend of his. He requested me and I didn't suspect anything besides he was a tough-looking guy. We were chatting, joking and I was impressed because he spoke quite good English and we could hold an interesting conversation about Japanese culture, not the usual “Kiss me!” or “What colour is your panties?” We were talking about samurais and the old days of Japan.

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Yakuzas in Japan

My favourite question about Japan: Have you ever seen any yakuza there? You won't believe how many people are asking me that if I mention I was working in Japan or by email when they read my articles here. Funny, but Japan is not all about yakuza.

But answering the question: yes, I met a few. If you've been in Japan probably you met them too as you can't see the difference between a well-dressed yakuza and an average businessman. They don't like to show off. You can easily pass him on the street without knowing. They even hide their tattoos in public places as they don't want you to know. Not like some western gangsters that put all the signals on themselves showing they are the tough guys. They came often in the club I worked. Not a big deal, they never spent on girls just talked about their own business. And you don't want to interrupt.. especially when the guy has some missing fingers! (Cutting the finger means punishment or apology amongst them.) I had this customer once. I didn't even want to know his name.

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My last days in Japan

I try to complain less in this post, but after lots of thinking, I decided to leave Japan earlier than I planned. I found the work here extremely hard and I was getting so tired. I didn't even have the energy to post anything here, my body and brain were totally drained. 
The difficulties started when I realised the Japanese guys are not so polite and respectful as I thought so. In their work life, business or when they need to represent their country, they do their best. There is no doubt that the Japanese are one of the most polite people. But at night I saw a different face of the Japanese guys. A different side of the coin. When they are drinking and reducing the stress they have at work their politeness and respect have vanished. No wonder that the first Japanese words I learned were “pervert” and “No way!” When they come to clubs, they are just like big kids that want to touch and take home everything they can. Oh well, East or West, a man is just a man...

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Minasan konnichiwa! Greetings from Japan!

Well, I was so happy and excited to come to this country and I'm not saying I'm disappointed but I've never thought that it would be the one of the hardest work I've ever done.  They have a totally different system and I think I need months to get used to it. Physically it's already a lot, I work minimum 8 hrs a day and I have only 2 days off a month. I say minimum 8 hrs a day because if I go out for dinner with one of my customers before work it already feels I'm working. And there is something I must do here if I want to keep the regulars.

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My Big Dream - Japan

Actually, it's not only Japan but Japan at the Sakura. When you can see cherry blossoms all over the place! And now I'm just a few days away to reach that dream.

Since I travel and I do this job, that was something I liked about Japanese people and culture. As I worked as a hostess in clubs and all the hostessing kind of jobs related to their geisha culture, I often said if I could go to Japan and work there for a while, it would be a next step on the carrier ladder for me. (If this carrier ladder exists in this kind of job) I even intend to learn their language. To all my French customers, I'm very sorry but I would rather learn Japanese than French! They say it's very easy to learn. Not to write, but to speak. So why not? I already can count to 10: ichi..ni..san..shi..go..roku..nana..hachi..ku..juu

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