Infections continue to rise in Tokyo as we enter the second wave of the coronavirus in Japan, though numbers remain very modest compared to other countries.
Much of the blame and media attention has focused on hostess and host clubs. We have followed this as part of our monitoring of how the COVID-19 is affecting the adult industry in Japan, where sex workers, gravure idols, strippers, and hostesses are facing a sudden and serious decline in income.
There has also been some name-calling between Ginza and Kabukicho, as the hostess clubs in each district try to claim that they are not the ...
As the city reopens following its soft lockdown, one establishment has made headlines for changing its operating style to fit the new normal that is post-COVID-19 Tokyo -- and also opening itself up to a broader demographic ahead of its closure.
The host club Ai Honten (literally, Love Head Office) will open only on Saturdays and Sundays as a cafe. For once, male customers will also be admitted. So this is also a kind of education project, helping people experience what a host club is like without having to pay the usual costs entailed.
First opened in 1971 and one of the most renowned ...
After they were blamed for helping to spread the coronavirus in Japan, hostess clubs are once again in the media limelight for causing a second wave of COVID-19 cases in Tokyo.
Nightlife spots are resulting in fresh clusters of cases following the lifting of the state of emergency in Tokyo.
Hostess clubs closed during the state of emergency, leading to economic uncertainty for many women and the emergence of "remote hostessing" services. Now that businesses in the city like restaurants are trying to return to some semblance of normality in the second phase of the post-lockdown reopening, ...
These news stories are coming thick and fast.
Just Monday we reported on the emergence of a service using Zoom to offer a virtual hostess club experience.
Now there is SmaCaba, another remote hostess club service.
With a typically Japanese mashup of "smartphone" and "kyabakura" (cabaret club, a euphemism for hostess club) for its name, SmaCaba links hostesses and customers through their handheld devices. The session that a customer enjoys with an available hostess is conducted via LINE, Zoom, or Skype. Sessions are available from 7pm every day except Sundays.
The customer/user pays with ...
We recently wrote about the various ways that the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the adult industry in Japan.
While certain prostitution services are attempting to exploit the crisis for its marketing potential, the plight of hostesses is gaining attention. Kabukicho, where many hostess clubs are located, has been identified as one of the probable causes of the spread of the virus in Tokyo due to the closely confined nature of the clubs. One-fourth of people in Shinjuku infected in March were working in role connected to nightlife services.
With nightlife in the capital essentially dead ...
One of two women arrested for stealing over ¥30 million in Kabukicho, Tokyo's major red-light district, had a secret porn past.
Nana Nishikawa (25) and Serina Nagano (22) formed the pair, nicknamed "Reiwa Cat's Eye" after the current era and 1980s manga by Tsukasa Hojo about female thieves. The gang was pursued by Shinjuku police, who had their images from security camera footage in the area.
That's Nishikawa on the left in the picture below.
They targeted the homes of male hosts, stealing millions of yen at a time while they were off at work in Kabukicho's clubs. Following their ...
After doing a "hair nude" full-frontal shoot last year, we wondered where the gravure idol and actress Bambi Watanabe would go next.
It seems she went to TV Tokyo and for a visually tame but nonetheless sensual sex scene in a late-night drama series.
In episode two of Kabukicho Bengonin Rinka (Kabukicho Attorney Rinka), which is about a female lawyer working among hostesses, Bambi is show stripping off in a love hotel room to reveal her largest chest, albeit hidden within a bra or under her arms. An old dude looks on with obvious interest. He then has sex with her, even though she is ...
We recently stumbled across this video of a black man who freestyle raps his way around the love hotel district of Kabukicho in Shinjuku, Tokyo. In the background we see couples scurrying into the entrances for an intimate session.
As the foreigner wanders the streets of Kabukicho's love hotels, he apparently bumps into a random Japanese lady. He serenades and picks up the woman, and then together they enter a love hotel for some good interracial times together.
In the next video, things get a bit more heated. Our gaijin adventurer continues his rapping while his female ...
There are more than a few bars and hostess clubs where you can have your drinks poured for you by AV actresses. There is also a new bar in Kabukicho by Weekly Playboy, where patrons are served by famous gravure idols.
But until now there hasn't been a bar directly operated by an AV production company. In March, that all changed when a well-known AV maker opened a small girls bar in Kabukicho.
For the uninitiated, a girls bar is a kind of cheap hostess club, where there is a modest cover charge and the drinks are a bit more expensive than usual.
Nikkan Spa recently paid a visit to Vivi, ...
Shocking. Fluorescent. Gaudy. Loud. Vular. Neon. Flashy. Tacky.
There's a lot of epithets that can be applied to this new cosplay style that is like body art on psychedelic drugs, though none of them quite capture it.
Inspired by strange characters from anime, cinema and video games, behold the new Japanese subculture of ishoku-hada.
Certain sections of the Interweb are currently abuzz with breathless talk of this bizarre body painting and cosplay niche, which literally means "unique skin" or "unusual skin".
Like an "alien" version of gyaru, ganguro or yamanba trends, women dress ...
