Last night i watched The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief, a story documenting the life of male hosts in Japan, interesting to say the least.
I’d heard plenty of background about these guys prior to the movie and having been in the equivalent bars for blokes, i wasn’t surprised by most of it.
The story follows a guy, Issei-san, who is Osaka’s number 1 host and now owns his own club, Rakkyo Cafe which employees 20 or so guys.
Before watching the movie i thought it was bullshit that these guys were pulling in anywhere from novice $10k up to skilled dude $30k to an impressive $50K per month if they’re masters of their trade.
Pretty much the whole 75 mins is shot within the 4 walls of the host bar with many of the regular patrons being interviewed so it’s an easy watch.
Also, the people that make up the customer base is considerably different to what i was told and opposite to what you find in Hostess bars which makes for an interesting story within the doco.
Before coming to Japan i was never that keen a photographer, i hadn’t owned a digital camera when i was in Australia so the expense and effort in getting photos developed from traditional camera i had put me off.
Since moving here i’ve bought a few cameras with the current one being this Canon IXY Digital 2000 IS, and most recently i picked up a Sanyo Xacti HD 1010 video camera that shoots stills too. I try to take at least one of these with me everywhere i go, there’s usually one in the bag i take to work each day.
On the weekend however, especially at night, i usually rely on my iPhone to capture a few random photos, not the best quality but it does the job.
Any-hooo, with all these devices i manage to end up with quite a few pictures, some interesting some not so interesting, here’s a few i came across when freeing up some space.
I pass this cool fluffy black dog on my way to work most mornings.
Fireworks are readily available in supermarkets, this was at the last Hanabi Party i went too.
Love Hotels are plentiful in Japan and when i say plentiful i’m not joking. I can’t speak for areas outside of Tokyo but considering their popularity here i’m thinking other major cities would be just the same.
Within a few minutes of most major stations in Tokyo there’s a bevy of Love Hotels for the couples wanting to spend a bit of quality time together. Living arrangements in Japan are very different to that from back home, with many adults staying in the family home up until marriage and even after depending on your locale.
So what do couples do when they want to get a little jiggy? … They go to a Love Hotel.
“Apparently” the prices vary depending on where you are, i.e Kabukicho where there’s lots of nefarious activity, and night life in general, it will be much dearer than say Hon-Atsugi, where i work, where there’s less flow through traffic (girls) and more than likely less spare $$ floating around. As to be expected, the quality of the room is going to vary with the price tag.
It’s pretty easy to spot a Love Hotel and many have really classy names in English so just look for a tacky sign with rooms by the hour and you’ll be on the right track. If you’re Japanese is good enough and you’re prepared to do some planning then why not use the “LoveHoMap” site, catering to several of the bigger stations on the JR Yamanote Line.
