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?

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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