So many of you guys write to me about host clubs. I don't really know much about them because I've never been. I have a friend whose boyfriend was a former host and a few of my students have been hosts. That's it. This is a great short documentary about host club culture in Osaka. It might be from a movie called "The Great Happiness Space" about host clubs in Osaka. If you've been to one of these places, leave a comment.This girl has a fantastic blog, and if you can ignore the unfortunate title, please check it out.
She is a foreign girl who has gone to a bunch of host clubs and rates them.
She can be really funny and though her blog is long with no pictures, it's really worth reading.
6 comments:
http://www.japanfortheuninvited.com
/articles/host-bars.html
Tons of interesting links.
Copy paste it into your browser.
@the anonymous person
I love that blog actually, and read it all the time. I said it has an unfortunate title because if you just look at the title without reading it, it looks like it's written by one of the MANY people with an old-Japan fetish. If you read the blog, though, you see that it's probably the most interesting blog about living in Japan out there. And yes, she is a far, far better writer than I am and she writes somewhat anonymously which enables her to post more interesting things. I know that people I know in real life are reading this, so I don't post anything out of the ordinary.
And the only complaint I have about the gourmet girl column in the free magazine is that it's a restaurant review column and she spends the first three paragraphs talking about the same two things (don't speak Japanese, have a Japanese husband) in every single column.
The Great Happiness Space is an amazing documentary!
I was once friends with a former host. He had a lot of really surprising, interesting things to say about it. A lot of things that first surprised me in Japan have lost their novelty by now, but I can never hear too much about the host scene.
The first time I came to Japan I was a homestay student in Kansai. I was 20. I will never forget my first night in Dotonbori and being so bewildered when my host mother explained who all those guys were crowded in the convenience store studying their reflections on the beverage section and obsessively teasing their hair. Hosts! Nuts! As intrigued as I am though I don't think I'll ever actually go to a club. The idea of all that club-flirting leaves me a little bored. I guess I could go and see if I'm proved wrong.
When I lived in Japan I knew many western guys who were or used to be hosts. Most of them were very normal people with very weird attitudes to relationships in general. Still, it must be a fascinating (and tiring!) job for those who are brave enough to do it...
I remember seeing host boys trying to attract customers outside of their clubs while I was in Osaka last summer, but I wasn't sure what it was all about at the time.
The clip you posted is from a documentary called "The Great Happiness Space". It's really well made and worth checking out if you can find a copy of it (that is, assuming that you haven't already seen it). I was honestly surprised by how extremely open and honest both the hosts and clientele were in their interviews and I ended up feeling really sympathetic towards all of them in the end. It looks fun on the surface, but I find the whole thing a bit depressing, yet very interesting.
I'd have to say, I envy your life, and I envy your boyfriend lol. cool blog. Do you plan on staying in Japan indefinitely?
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