How To Tell A Host Bar From A Blowjob Bar From The Outside.

[riverflowsinyou]

K so, I don't speak enough Japanese. In kowagoe, there are 4 questionable places. 1 is called a girls bar, and says 3000¥ in the front. The other three also say 3000円 and have a Filipino flag on it. OK so, I don't Really know What a host bars function is, but I think It's just girls that flirt with you? Anyways, if It's a Bj bar, I'd like to see if they are Gaijin friendly.

 

[psd]

A hostess bar is a formal lounge and the girls sit with you, pour your drinks and extract money from. A Gals (girls) bar is similar but more casual and the girls are far more flirty. The Filipino flagged ones are likely to be hostess bars too. 3000 yen an hour (or 50min) is about right for suburban ones. This includes shochu/wiskey and water; excludes beer, other drinks, karaoke and drinks for the girls.

 

[User#3673]

Once you are inside, if a bunch of guys are getting a blowjob, then that is a BLOWJOB Bar! Either that or an orgy has broken out and we weren`t invited, darn!!!! LOL! Seriously, the host bars have pictures of the men out front usually. Also they often have a couple of well dressed young men
standing out front of them - hoping to attract the women to come in. Someplace called "Girl`s Bar" is probably just that, a bar for women. There is one in the Ueno area, it actually has a sign saying "Girl`s Bar." Any place with a Philippino flag on it is usually
a hostess club with Phillipinnas. Do you mean hostess bars? The title of your post was "host bars."

I found that one benefit of learning Japanese was being able to ask what these places are. They will tell you if you ask. But you will need to speak Japanese. Gives one motivation to study! LOL

I gather you mean Kawagoe?
Also the more you check out the red light districts, the better you get a recognizing what is what. I have spent a lot of time in them, and you get good at knowing what you are looking at. It will come with time.

 

[Keiji]

K so, I don't speak enough Japanese. In kowagoe, there are 4 questionable places. 1 is called a girls bar, and says 3000¥ in the front. The other three also say 3000円 and have a Filipino flag on it. OK so, I don't Really know What a host bars function is, but I think It's just girls that flirt with you? Anyways, if It's a Bj bar, I'd like to see if they are Gaijin friendly.

Host Bar in Japanese common terms are either Snack Bars or Pubs. The easiest way to recognise from outside is by hearing guys (sometimes girls together as well) singing Karaoke. Usually nothing happens there as for P4P. The stories of customers going for more are those of regulars or customers who know the owner, and that would take you a very long time. You dont want to enter such places.

Blowjob bar... ask the tout if its a Pink Salon. If there is no tout, once you enter the front guy will tell you a course fee and to pick a girl. Simple.

Snacks and Pubs will line-up their hostesses immediatly after you enter, Pink Salons dont do that.

 

[Wwanderer]

Host Bars almost always have signs/advertising showing Japanese men with seriously big hair out front; BJ Bars and many other sorts of places do not.

-Ww

 

[GoldenDalton]

Host Bars almost always have signs/advertising showing Japanese men with seriously big hair out front; BJ Bars and many other sorts of places do not.

-Ww

I hate that I'm bombarding you with questions, but I really really want to know. What is the point of hostess bars? I'm having a hard time understanding why men pay so much just for a little flirting and visual stimulation. Seems like it wouldn't be so hard to find a woman to flirt with without paying and for visual stimulation one could go to a strip club. I don't know the details about hostess bars though. I'm not judging though. To each his own. I'm wondering if there's something I'm missing.

 

[psd]

Someplace called "Girl`s Bar" is probably just that, a bar for women.

A girls bar is exactly what I described above.

 

[Wwanderer]

I hate that I'm bombarding you with questions, but I really really want to know. What is the point of hostess bars? I'm having a hard time understanding why men pay so much just for a little flirting and visual stimulation. Seems like it wouldn't be so hard to find a woman to flirt with without paying and for visual stimulation one could go to a strip club. I don't know the details about hostess bars though. I'm not judging though. To each his own. I'm wondering if there's something I'm missing.

No problem with the questions. Speaking with confidence on matters about which I am only partially informed is an important part of what I do for a living!

But fwiiw, I also find the hostess club phenomenon puzzling and surprisingly popular. I.e., I wonder about it in much the same way you do. That said, my best understanding is that hostess bars are not selling sexual stimulation primarily, rather they are selling the pleasures of female social companionship. Basically hostesses act the way drunk men wish beautiful women would act. They focus their attention on you, laugh at your jokes, listen sympathetically to your problems, try to make you laugh, smooth over any rough spots in your interactions with other guys in the group (going to hostess bars is largely a group activity as far as I can tell), praise you for any possible reason they can discover, keep you at that "happy drunk" level of inebriation, sing karaoke with you or for you or applaud your singing etc. In short a hostess bar aims to send you home feeling good about yourself socially...feeling that you are charming, popular and attractive.

Hooking up with a hostess outside of the bar is definitely not the norm, but some hostesses do it with one or a few favored customer(s), and perhaps that is a largely illusory "carrot" that motivates many customers. I'm not at all sure though.

If others can explain it better or differently, I'd love to hear other takes on GD's questions...which are also mine.

-Ww

 

[GoldenDalton]

No problem with the questions. Speaking with confidence on matters about which I am only partially informed is an important part of what I do for a living!

But fwiiw, I also find the hostess club phenomenon puzzling and surprisingly popular. I.e., I wonder about it in much the same way you do. That said, my best understanding is that hostess bars are not selling sexual stimulation primarily, rather they are selling the pleasures of female social companionship. Basically hostesses act the way drunk men wish beautiful women would act. They focus their attention on you, laugh at your jokes, listen sympathetically to your problems, try to make you laugh, smooth over any rough spots in your interactions with other guys in the group (going to hostess bars is largely a group activity as far as I can tell), praise you for any possible reason they can discover, keep you at that "happy drunk" level of inebriation, sing karaoke with you or for you or applaud your singing etc. In short a hostess bar aims to send you home feeling good about yourself socially...feeling that you are charming, popular and attractive.

Hooking up with a hostess outside of the bar is definitely not the norm, but some hostesses do it with one or a few favored customer(s), and perhaps that is a largely illusory "carrot" that motivates many customers. I'm not at all sure though.

If others can explain it better or differently, I'd love to hear other takes on GD's questions...which are also mine.

-Ww

I appreciate your answers.

I can see how a man would want a beautiful woman to be kind to him now that you mention it. As for myself I can be fairly on the mark around " pretty" girls, but with truly beautiful girls I do tend to get clammy and clumsy. Thus my interest in p4p. Maybe those guys only want the social aspects?

 

[meiji]

This isn't a review. I've moved it to the Questions section.

 

[Wwanderer]

I appreciate your answers.

You're welcome. And thank you for the interesting topic.

I rephrased your question (by email) to a Japanese friend and colleague of mine who is a minor authority on Japanese-US comparative culture/sociology (i.e., he has published on the topic) and got an illuminating, imo, reply which I paraphrase here:

He emphasized mostly one item on the list of hostess functions from my post above, namely, "smooth over any rough spots in your interactions with other guys in the group". As is fairly well known/understood going out socializing and especially drinking with your associates is consider a major/key part of the business world in Japan, and among other things this almost ritualized drinking allows the tensions, irritations, antagonisms, stress and so forth that are so deeply suppressed in Japanese culture to be released and vented...making everyone happier and more harmonious. My friend's take is that making sure these drink-fests stay sweet tempered and productive of good feelings is the important social function of hostesses and their clubs. They act as a sort of critical social lubricant in the Japanese business/professional/salaryman world. He also says that this was one of the most important functions of classic/traditional geisha in historical Japan, rather than acting as prostitutes...which was not their primary function/role.

I can definitely see his angle based on my own limited experience with hostess bars (which mostly bore me to tears...very expensive tears), but I don't have any basis to really evaluate what he says beyond it sounding plausible...anyway, there it is fwiiw.

I can see how a man would want a beautiful woman to be kind to him now that you mention it. As for myself I can be fairly on the mark around " pretty" girls, but with truly beautiful girls I do tend to get clammy and clumsy. Thus my interest in p4p. Maybe those guys only want the social aspects?

Some may only want the socializing, but many, maybe most, "want it all". They just don't expect or try to get it all in one place/shop. My impression, based again on some but rather limited experience, is that a typical group of J salarymen "out on the town" usually go to a progression of places...perhaps starting with a dinner, followed by getting plastered at a hostess bar, then moving on to something a bit more racey (maybe a strip club or peep show or "kissing club"...called something else now but I forget) and then upping the ante yet again by going to a shop that delivers actual sex in some form. As the evening proceeds, they get drunker and more uninhibited around their pals. Some peel off from the crew as the evening progresses when their wallets, tastes, libidos, inclinations or whatever require, leaving the hardcore guys to disgust the other passengers as they head home on the last trains of the night.

-Ww

 

[GoldenDalton]

You're welcome. And thank you for the interesting topic.

I rephrased your question (by email) to a Japanese friend and colleague of mine who is a minor authority on Japanese-US comparative culture/sociology (i.e., he has published on the topic) and got an illuminating, imo, reply which I paraphrase here:

He emphasized mostly one item on the list of hostess functions from my post above, namely, "smooth over any rough spots in your interactions with other guys in the group". As is fairly well known/understood going out socializing and especially drinking with your associates is consider a major/key part of the business world in Japan, and among other things this almost ritualized drinking allows the tensions, irritations, antagonisms, stress and so forth that are so deeply suppressed in Japanese culture to be released and vented...making everyone happier and more harmonious. My friend's take is that making sure these drink-fests stay sweet tempered and productive of good feelings is the important social function of hostesses and their clubs. They act as a sort of critical social lubricant in the Japanese business/professional/salaryman world. He also says that this was one of the most important functions of classic/traditional geisha in historical Japan, rather than acting as prostitutes...which was not their primary function/role.

I can definitely see his angle based on my own limited experience with hostess bars (which mostly bore me to tears...very expensive tears), but I don't have any basis to really evaluate what he says beyond it sounding plausible...anyway, there it is fwiiw.



Some may only want the socializing, but many, maybe most, "want it all". They just don't expect or try to get it all in one place/shop. My impression, based again on some but rather limited experience, is that a typical group of J salarymen "out on the town" usually go to a progression of places...perhaps starting with a dinner, followed by getting plastered at a hostess bar, then moving on to something a bit more racey (maybe a strip club or peep show or "kissing club"...called something else now but I forget) and then upping the ante yet again by going to a shop that delivers actual sex in some form. As the evening proceeds, they get drunker and more uninhibited around their pals. Some peel off from the crew as the evening progresses when their wallets, tastes, libidos, inclinations or whatever require, leaving the hardcore guys to disgust the other passengers as they head home on the last trains of the night.

-Ww

So the hostesses act as mediators? They put everyone in a good mood so they can reestablish positive social ties with one another. Interesting.

 

[Wwanderer]

So the hostesses act as mediators? They put everyone in a good mood so they can reestablish positive social ties with one another. Interesting.

As best I understand, it is pretty much along the lines you express in the second of your sentences quoted above, but they (probably) do not act as mediators in the literal sense of directly engaging disputes or areas of disagreement/irritation or whatever and finding a way to resolve them.

-Ww

 

[psd]

Have you guys noticed how sex segregated so much of Japan is? You often see large groups of young, black suited men walking around the streets - and no women. Back home that's a bucks party, it's pretty well impossible to get four guys together without one woman, a girlfriend or just one-of-the-guys type girl. Even bucks parties had girls coming along to see the strippers.

 

[Wwanderer]

I think and certainly hope that things are changing, but at least in traditional post-war (and probably earlier) Japanese business culture wives and GFs are invariably left at home while the guys go out and bond. If they want to hang out or hook up with women, they essentially always hire them for the purpose. It seems daft to me, has since I first set foot in the country more than 25 years ago, but that is definitely how it has been done conventionally for a long time.

-Ww

 

[Keiji]

I rephrased your question (by email) to a Japanese friend and colleague of mine who is a minor authority on Japanese-US comparative culture/sociology (i.e., he has published on the topic) and got an illuminating, imo, reply which I paraphrase here:

He emphasized mostly one item on the list of hostess functions from my post above, namely, "smooth over any rough spots in your interactions with other guys in the group". As is fairly well known/understood going out socializing and especially drinking with your associates is consider a major/key part of the business world in Japan, and among other things this almost ritualized drinking allows the tensions, irritations, antagonisms, stress and so forth that are so deeply suppressed in Japanese culture to be released and vented...making everyone happier and more harmonious. My friend's take is that making sure these drink-fests stay sweet tempered and productive of good feelings is the important social function of hostesses and their clubs. They act as a sort of critical social lubricant in the Japanese business/professional/salaryman world. He also says that this was one of the most important functions of classic/traditional geisha in historical Japan, rather than acting as prostitutes...which was not their primary function/role.

I can definitely see his angle based on my own limited experience with hostess bars (which mostly bore me to tears...very expensive tears), but I don't have any basis to really evaluate what he says beyond it sounding plausible...anyway, there it is fwiiw.



Some may only want the socializing, but many, maybe most, "want it all". They just don't expect or try to get it all in one place/shop. My impression, based again on some but rather limited experience, is that a typical group of J salarymen "out on the town" usually go to a progression of places...perhaps starting with a dinner, followed by getting plastered at a hostess bar, then moving on to something a bit more racey (maybe a strip club or peep show or "kissing club"...called something else now but I forget) and then upping the ante yet again by going to a shop that delivers actual sex in some form. As the evening proceeds, they get drunker and more uninhibited around their pals. Some peel off from the crew as the evening progresses when their wallets, tastes, libidos, inclinations or whatever require, leaving the hardcore guys to disgust the other passengers as they head home on the last trains of the night.

-Ww

Can you provide access to such articles? I can complete them. There is a week between this thread and my reply... Host Bars topic can be expanded large but to give short reply. They are not sexual establishments. Host Bars are NOT exclusive for males. There are Host Bars where the Hosts are males and service female customers. And those bars that service males actualy receive females as well, specially by following Wanderer's writtings. When business or corporations go together, the entire staff will enter and the Host ladies are mostly ignored the whole time and just play as waitresses.

There are two main reasons why Philipine Host Bars are common in Japan:

1. The Japanese Self-Defense Militar soldiers usually marry Philipine woman at the end of their time.
2. The Retirement Payment: 国民年金 These days retired people are well paid, it wont happen for the people of my generation (whoever I still pay it) but many find it low. In the Japanese knowledge, we know that Philipine is a cheap country and the comparison is made like this for example:

When you buy a can from a vending machine for Y100-, that same can you can buy for just Y10- in Philipine, only a tenth with Japanese currency so a lot of elders go to live their last days in Philipine while been paid with Japanese currency...so what retired people get at Philipine is worth ten times there. Those elders will be marrying Philipine woman with the condition of exchaning their marriage visa for some money so that the Japanese retired elders can even have "more" money. This is of course causing a lot of trouble in Inmigrations and as I last heard, the Goverment is trying to stop this, mostly because of the free-visa-give-away phenomenon. So where you see a Philipine flag...it will certainly NOT BE a Pink Salon.

 

[Wwanderer]

Can you provide access to such articles? I can complete them.

I am not sure what you mean by "complete", but in any case, I do not wish to provide them because I do not want to make such a direct connection of my Ww screen name, posts, activities to my "real life" identity and work.

To be clear, his publications have nothing to do with bars of any sort but are about entirely unrelated aspects of US and Japanese culture.

-Ww

 

[Keiji]

I can definitely see his angle based on my own limited experience with hostess bars (which mostly bore me to tears...very expensive tears), but I don't have any basis to really evaluate what he says beyond it sounding plausible...anyway, there it is fwiiw.

I dont know where the articles are or anything and didnt knew there was a visible connection between your friend and you. I thought you could link or copy/paste an article. But dont worry I understand perfectly that we should not be too exposed.

I thought about reading said article and then read your posts and finally fill in my own knowledge as Im a local and can tell better than foreigners (however Host Bars are not my thing).

 

[meiji]

A hostess bar is a formal lounge and the girls sit with you, pour your drinks and extract money from. A Gals (girls) bar is similar but more casual and the girls are far more flirty. The Filipino flagged ones are likely to be hostess bars too. 3000 yen an hour (or 50min) is about right for suburban ones. This includes shochu/wiskey and water; excludes beer, other drinks, karaoke and drinks for the girls.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure there's actually a LEGAL distinction between a hostess bar and a Girls Bar/Snack Bar, and that's that hostess bars are required to register under fuzoku law -- facilities that are classified as adult entertainment under Japanese law, which includes things like sex establishments -- soaplands, pink salons, etc, but also other types of clubs that aren't explicitly sexual in nature, such as dance clubs and hostess bars.

They found a loophole a while back where if there is a barrier between you and the girl, such as a bar, that doesn't classify under fuzoku law so they don't have to register and generally are able to get away with a lot more. This is why Girls Bars and Snack Bars have a bar between the girl and the patron. Generally Girls Bars that I've seen are staffed by younger or foreign women (several bars have been shut down for having high schoolers work there....yeesh), and Snack Bars are staffed by slightly older women (30s and 40s).

 

[Wwanderer]

With a bar between the ladies and the men, what is that they get away with?

-Ww

 

[psd]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure there's actually a LEGAL distinction between a hostess bar and a Girls Bar/Snack Bar,

I know several girls that work at girls bars and hostess bars. I'll ask them but I'm pretty sure they'll have no idea.

 

[Kitty Carr]

With a bar between the ladies and the men, what is that they get away with?

-Ww

Having women be paid to chat to men and pour them drinks, when their legal operating status does not strictly permit it. They are hostess bars in all but name operating in a legal grey area.

I used to work at a girls' bar, and before applying researched the legal difference between it and a hostess bar. Essentially it's as meiji said: they have different operating licenses that allow or forbid them to provide certain services. If a girl sits next to a customer with no barrier between them, that's forbidden under the normal bar/eatery operating license that most girls' bars have.

 

[Zaphod222]

Just out of curiosity: A "kyabakura" is a girls bar, or a hostess bar?

 

[Kitty Carr]

A kyabakura is a hostess club. ホステス and キャバ嬢 mean the same thing. I don't actually hear the phrase ホステス used that often in this context.

YMMV, but I think the ranking goes like this (in terms of hourly pay and 'quality of establishment', if you will):

1. Hostess clubs/kyabakura hiring only Japanese women (of course there's a world of difference between an exclusive Roppongi club that pays 10,000 an hour and a sleazy Kabukicho one that pays 3000 within that category)
2. Hostess bars hiring Japanese and foreign women (lots of these in Roppongi - pay can vary from around 2000 to 6000)
3. Snacks hiring Japanese women
4. Snacks hiring Western women
5. Girls' bars (pay is about 2500-3000 with 'drink back' per drink the customer buys you)
6. Filipina/Thai snack bars (I've seen pay advertised as low as 1200 an hour... which is what you make at a standard izakaya for the dinner shift).

 

[Sudsy]

If a girl sits next to a customer with no barrier between them, that's forbidden under the normal bar/eatery operating license that most girls' bars have.

This regulation is also why the waitresses at Hooters in Japan don't sit at your booth while taking your order, as is done in other countries.