Osaka Hostess Clubs in the 90s

**MaxReilly** · 2012-05-29, 02:19 PM

delete delete

**Andun** · 2012-05-29, 02:37 PM

Planning on doing some time travel?

**trip_hop** · 2012-05-29, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by MaxReilly

Hello,

I'm curious if anyone remembers / is familiar w/ any of the following hostess clubs, all doing business from around '91 - '95:
-Tanya
-Ambiente
-Rhapsody
-Shinku

Anybody? More specifically, curious what "type" of bars they were, e.g. higher / lower end on the scale of hostess clubs...

Thanks,

Max

If they were in Kita-Shinchi, they were probably high-class, corporate account places. If down in Minami (Souemoncho), they were cheaper, personal type bars. If in Juso, Doyamacho or Tennoji, probably low-class, dirty, fun places!

**wernst** · 2012-05-29, 04:16 PM

Never understood what is fun about paying 10000 yen for 1 hour just to talk with a hostess. Surely you can do that for free at any bar here. :\

**Deathblob** · 2012-05-29, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by wernst

Never understood what is fun about paying 10000 yen for 1 hour just to talk with a hostess. Surely you can do that for free at any bar here. :\

That's pricey! It's about Y3000 here. My wife is fine with me chatting to hostesses, but not so crazy about random chick in bars. So, there is that.

**Andun** · 2012-06-01, 03:59 AM

Dude, you need to let it go. The 90s ended 12 years ago. Move on!

...and the early to mid 90s is 2 decades ago. If you are angry about something that happened that long ago ... and not even to you, then you have serious problems.

**Deathblob** · 2012-06-01, 07:27 AM

The girls are paid to sit around, chat, pour drinks, light cigarettes, and pretend to be interested/amused. There's no humiliation/degradation involved.

Other than the drinks and cigarettes, there's f*ck all difference with hostessing and sitting down to corporate morning meetings.

**wernst** · 2012-06-01, 08:39 AM

Originally Posted by Deathblob

That's pricey! It's about Y3000 here. My wife is fine with me chatting to hostesses, but not so crazy about random chick in bars. So, there is that.

3000 yen is still too expensive. Have you ever thought about NOT telling the missus. Saves you a lot of money. Money you could actually use for the hotel heh

**well_bicyclically** · 2012-06-01, 09:35 AM

Originally Posted by Deathblob

The girls are paid to sit around, chat, pour drinks, light cigarettes, and pretend to be interested/amused. There's no humiliation/degradation involved.

Other than the drinks and cigarettes, there's f*ck all difference with hostessing and sitting down to corporate morning meetings.

to the contrary, the women were paid to be themselves ... and everything the clients' wives were not... bold, intelligent, charming, conversant, opinionated, interesting, humorous,.... Every Japanese guy had half the population to humiliate or degrade. They went there to relax and speak to someone that matched their image of an ideal.

**trip_hop** · 2012-06-01, 10:12 AM

wernst:
Never understood what is fun about paying 10000 yen for 1 hour just to talk with a hostess. Surely you can do that for free at any bar here. :\

It is free, the company pays for it...

Max Reilly
For better or for worse, though, I am tormented by the idea and images of her sitting, nite after nite, week after week, 8-12, subordinating herself to these men. I wish I could get over it, I really, really, do... What helps me the most, I guess, is to learn about it, to talk about it, even though I hold the whole idea of these clubs in such contempt. And, in case you were wondering, I am no stranger to a host of vices, past and present, legal and illegal... So, you may add 'hypocrite' to whatever other labels you choose to apply to me... Bottom line, though, I am hurting, hoping I might gain some solace by posting here. Thanks...

You've probably never been to one of those clubs, and it is all in your imagination. The girls, and some boys, who work there are there by their own choice, they are not forced to be there, unlike some of the indentured labour you'll find in the Philippine snacks and countryside brothels. You can't change the past, get over it and move on with your life...and remember, if your loved one had never worked, there, she would not have ended up where she is now with you.

**wernst** · 2012-06-01, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by trip_hop

wernst:
Never understood what is fun about paying 10000 yen for 1 hour just to talk with a hostess. Surely you can do that for free at any bar here. :\

It is free, the company pays for it...

What company is that? I have to find me a company like that.

**trip_hop** · 2012-06-01, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by wernst

What company is that? I have to find me a company like that.

SOP for business - most managers have an expense account. At the better clubs you don't even pay, the invoice is sent to your company at the end of the month.
But you have to justify the expense...

**Andun** · 2012-06-01, 01:33 PM

Originally Posted by MaxReilly

The person I love is very sick, and, for whatever reason, this issue has arisen after being dormant for many years.

Are you saying she has an STD as a result of her previous work?

**apeman** · 2012-06-01, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by MaxReilly

All,

The reason for my post above is because someone I love dearly worked at these clubs during the mid-90s. Honestly, it torments me that she did...

Thoughts?

Get off this site and into therapy as quickly as possible ...

**Deathblob** · 2012-06-01, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by Andun

Are you saying she has an STD as a result of her previous work?

Maybe she has lung cancer from the 2nd-hand smoke.

Or, maybe, OP is a sad troll.

**Andun** · 2012-06-02, 01:03 AM

Originally Posted by MaxReilly

Andun, No, no STDs... Perhaps that was supposed to be funny? Thanks....

Apeman, Another funny guy? Actually, since you're so concerned, I am in therapy...

Deathblob, Yeah, there is cancer involved, though not of the lung...

Perhaps I was foolish thinking I might find some compassion / solace / understanding in this forum. In my position, though, being hopeful is a requisite coping factor, so I'll remain hopeful...

Nope. Wasn't trying to be funny, it was the only connection I could think of. If her illness has no relation to her past life in Japan I wonder why you are thinking about it at all. You should be more concerned with looking after her rather than being judgmental for actions which constitute no crime and happened so long ago they are not even your business.
I have no idea of all the things my wife was up to 20 years ago. That's her business. What is happening now is what is important.

**Andun** · 2012-06-02, 02:52 AM

Originally Posted by MaxReilly

Andun,
From the outside, I'm sure it does seem that easy... Maybe it should be, I wish it were. Simple solutions, however, are not always simple to execute, e.g. you've got a drinking problem? don't drink! So, yeah, there is wisdom is your words, but just as you caution me or, rather accuse me, of being judgmental, I would hope that you, too, grandmaster, could try to withhold your judgement of me...

What do expect to get from this site? It's for people living in Japan. It is not a therapy group (although some might disagree).

Originally Posted by MaxReilly

Speaking of judgmental, it is interesting to me, that nobody has really disputed my characterization of the clubs...

Probably because most of us did not visit those clubs 20 years ago.

At the end of the day if you really can't handle being with her because of this then you'd better leave her. I'm sure she has family that truly loves her to see her through the cancer. She'd be better off without a guy with his own problems weighing down on her.

**trip_hop** · 2012-06-02, 03:25 AM

Originally Posted by MaxReilly

Speaking of judgmental, it is interesting to me, that nobody has really disputed my characterization of the clubs...

You have your opinion of them, and whatever we who have actually been in those clubs in Osaka in the 90s write about them, it will probably will not change that.

As a company director, I had a good expense account at that time, bottle keep in an upmarket bar in Kita-Shinchi, invoice sent at the end of the month, and used them for business entertainment, often with junior salesmen and our clients or potential customers. They reciprocated the hospitality in their company bars. That was they way it worked. Half the girls were full-time bar hostesses, some working at 2 jobs through the evening and early morning, others were students paying for college, office staff wanting extra cash, and one of two just for the fun of it.

More than 20 years later, I still call in and chat with the same mama-san and her bar manager, and recount some of the fun evenings we had, all of us a little older and mellower nowadays. The girls may have all changed, but the atmosphere is the same, and the bar is still busy most nights. Husband, sister, cousin have all been there with me, nothing to be ashamed about. There are a few posters on this forum who have knowledge of such places, but most have not been to them; they could not afford them, or talk about them through secondhand knowledge and thirdhand innuendo.

Just be grateful that through her work at a bar, fate led her to you...and keep caring for her. She deserves that.

**taras** · 2012-06-02, 05:13 AM

Originally Posted by trip_hop

Just be grateful that through her work at a bar, fate led her to you...and keep caring for her. She deserves that.

maybe max is her son, and never knew his father, and now that his mother is dying, he wants to find him. that's how he knew about the sexcapades.

**Agitator** · 2012-06-02, 06:45 AM

I think the whole hostess club thing says more about the Japanese oyaji than it does about this woman.

But that's just me.

Cordially,
A.

GaijinPot

Find your job in Japan on GaijinPot.

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