The pink girl

I seized the sun on my face while Anna and I were riding the train to the bottom of Mt. Fuji. It was a warm day and perfect for exploring the nature. Suddenly Anna started to laugh really hard. At first I thought something was wrong with me because first she starred at me, then at her mobile phone and laughed again. “Is something wrong? What’s so funny“, I wanted to join the laughter.

„Nothing“, she answered and smiled cheeky. We changed the trains and my curiosity level reached already the top of Mt. Fuji. “Tell me! It has to do something with me, right? So please tell me”, I begged her.

“Okay. See, I wrote Ryu that we’re heading for Mt. Fuji and he asked if this “we” contains the pink girl too”, her smile was now as big as the one from the Cheshire cat. “The pink girl” was obviously referring to my outfit from the we-met-two-hosts day. “So I told him that you are here too and that you don’t have a boyfriend. After that he wrote me that you’re definitely his type.”

"This pink girl was really my type"

Now I felt like Mt. Fuji was already on me. My brain kept sending error-messages to my nerves. Okay. Let’s sum it up: There’s a host. And he is attracted to me. To me! Okay. Wow. Cool. I think. After some seconds, which felt like minutes, I started to think normal again: „Wait?! You’ve told him that I don’t have a boyfriend?! Now he thinks he can flirt with me! “Anna just smiled.

The day passed really fast. We had a lot of fun but most of the time I thought about Ryu. I actually couldn’t believe that this handsome guy liked me. Besides, one part of me was still angry because he put his arm on my shoulder without asking. Another part was laughing because he was smaller than me.

Back home, I took my courage in both hands and messaged him: “Hey, here is the pink girl. How are you doing?” Seconds after sending it, I already got a reply (I guess this is one special skill of hosts. They type really fast! Asian level fast!). „Really?! Are you really the pink girl?“, he answered.

So we started messaging a lot at this night. Of course he wrote something like “It was love at first time.” Yes. OF COURSE it was! How about getting married in the next six seconds then? Although this was kind of obvious, we mailed for hours and wrote about different topics: games, games and food! Somehow it was really fun. I annoyed Anna with my favorite sentence “Could you translate this for me, please?” and she recognized that Ryu seemed really different. “I guess, he really likes you.”, she stated.

Also Ryu began to change the subject. “I want to meet you.”, “We really have to meet each other again!”, “How about coming to my apartment”.

So nice it might sound, I was not stupid. I knew what he wanted to do. So the question left was: Do I want this too?

source: Hazuki Kanae's "Ai no koe"text customized of course

Mirror, mirror, on the wall? I know you want to tell me that I'm the fairest of them all...

“2 new messages”, the mobile screen said and two heads were trying to look on the small screen at the same time. I guess this expresses how excited we were. In this message, every host thanked us for the conversation at this night. Ryu told us his host-name and also offered us to come to our guesthouse.

Right.

What… wait.. excuse me?

A host, who just wants to earn money and wants to get clients to his club, requested to come to our home? Something wasn’t quite right here. Anna liked Ryu, so she answered him that he can pay us a visit. I replied Tatsuya some random stuff and he replied something really host-like. “Bla bla bla you are beautiful bla bla when do we meet again bla bla will you really come again bla bla my palm is so gorgeous, you never saw such a beautiful host-palm.” Okay, maybe he didn’t mention the last part. Nevertheless, we laughed our asses of because it was like in those host documentaries. Furthermore we were only being able to see their written words and not their whole charming appearances. That’s why it was easier to make fun of them without getting into the no-brain-mode because of these dangerous charming-waves.

The interesting thing was still Ryu who wanted to come to our guesthouse. So we waited for his reply, we waited long. I remember that I wanted to take a shower but couldn’t because we expected his message.

Then we annoyed our guesthouse mate and let him chat with Anna’s sister on ICQ. Her sister didn’t even recognize that another person wrote to her although he didn’t speak our language and wrote the words which we told him just by listen to them closely. I also wrote an article to my Japanese blog in which I told my friends that we met some hosts who are so stupid to believe that we’re going to their club (Well, writing this in my blog was a mistake. But this will be another story). Unfortunately Ryu didn’t reply. Well, the next day we saw the reason why. Anna didn’t send her reply to Ryu, she sent it to Tatsuya. Typically us.

On that day we enjoyed our time with learning (Anna) and shopping (me, guess who had the better day?) and messaged our host-boys from time to time. I asked Tatsuya if the club was full and if he had a beautiful customer.

Host-Mode-On: “Here are some girls. But… *dramatic music* no one is as beautiful as you.” /Host-Mode-off. It always felt like this “Mirror, mirror on the wall”-thing.

That's it! The "Oh, no one here is as beautiful as you"-message.

This reply amused me a lot. “Who is so stupid and believes such stuff”, I thought while trying to image a normal host club situation. Nevertheless, I got more and more curious about those clubs and wanted to go to one with my friend. But another guesthouse mate warned us.

“They are the worst”, he said, “They don’t have a soul. They just want to make money. I know that because I also did this job a few years ago. I saw a girl who ordered just 3 drinks but they let her pay 50.000 Yen.”

While I was still shocked that he was a host but slowly recognized that I can imagine him very well in this job, I decided not to go. It was simply too dangerous.

Meanwhile, Anna kept on mailing with Ryu. Actually I forgot about what kind of stuff.

The next day I grew tired of Tatsuya. Moreover, I felt sorry for him because with me was actually a waste of time. I wouldn’t come to his club. So I decided to end the whole story and said “Sayonara” to him. I drafted a long message in which I told him that his job is dangerous for his health. Sometimes, I’m such a mother-type. Then I mentioned that I don’t like hosts because they are lying and I would never go to a host club. Gosh, some days later I would regret this part of the message. Somehow I felt a little bit sad afterwards because I knew that I wouldn’t receive any ego-boosting mails anymore.

Days passed. Anna and me visited Yokohama, stood in front of a camera, went to Osaka and I went to a theatre play of my favorite musician.

Like I thought, there were no more messages from Tatsuya.

I guess, during that time Anna wrote Ryu what we were doing and he kept begging her to come to the club. But his messages changed on the 24th of September, 8 days after we met the first time.

Don't touch me! Seriously!

So there were two Gaijin-girls, standing in front of a smaller host who introduced himself as “Tatsuya”. He wore a black suit, a white shirt with a black necktie and his brown hair was palm-like with blond highlights but somehow it matched him. He asked us, where we came from and while we just answered “[insert country here]”, another small (1,65 m “tall”) host joined us. “From [insert country here]? Maji de? (really)”, he said with a deep voice. He wore the same clothes like Tatsuya, but a silver brooch stuck on the collar of his suit. His hair was totally black, short and his waxed bangs pointed to the sky. He smiled cheeky. Later we got to know that he called himself Ryu. Well, hosts don’t use their real names, so we could have also called him Primus Magicus or Sailor Moon.

Anyway, we talked about chocolate, beer and other things. Also Ryu told us proudly that he is Number 11 in the ranking of the club and that his picture is also on the wall.

“Here it is”, he said while pointing on his photoshopped photo where you could hardly see his nose.

“Oh… this? You look better now, I guess this is an old photo of you”, I replied in a charming and politely way. Well, at least I thought I said this but actually those words left my lips: “Oh this? You look pretty old now!” Anna started to laugh and corrected my sentence. We all laughed and Ryu said that I’m funny. Then he did something unexpected…. He …. put his arm… on … my… shoulder…

My shoulder: “There’s something on me.”
My head: “WTF? Are we buddies now? What is this? Why so familiar?!”
My heart: “But.. I don’t know him…. Feels strange. Take it away!!! Buhuhu”
My face: *smiling politely while thinking of ways to get his arm off my shoulder*

(source: Hazuki Kanae's "Ai no koe", text customized of course, but Ryu looked like this)

While I was thinking this, he asked me: “You like to wear pink, right? That’s really cute.” The other hand pointed on my clothes. Well, in fact I wore a lot of pink at that night: a pink T-shirt, pink shoes, pink flower in the hair, pink bracelet BUT a jeans-colored-mini-skirt! Oh god, remembering this outfit, I must have looked like a care bear. しょうがない！ (Can’t be helped! -> Really useful Japanese phrase).

I wonder if I had magic powers back then too?

Of course at some point they wanted to persuade us to go into their club (3.000 Yen/hour). Although we were charmed like hell, we recognized that trick and replied “Maybe on the weekend.” Unfortunately they asked for our phone number as well. We thought over it, maybe one second, and said immediately: “Yes, of course!” Anna gave her number “put-the-arm-on-me”-Ryu. At this time we shared one mobile phone which we got from a friend of Anna. That’s why I replied, when Tatsuya asked me for my number, that it’s the same. I guess for Japanese people it was quite unusual to share a mobile phone with another friend. So they gave us this “muri” (impossible)-look.
“We’ll send you a message then”, they promised us and waved when we said goodbye.

On our way home, we giggled like 14-year old girls, felt young, adorable and great. So if you got a problem with your self-confidence, then just boost your ego in Kabuki-chou! You don’t even have to enter a Host Club. What a great evening!

“Will they really write us?”, we wondered and imagined how this story could go on. Anna told me that she likes the short-hair Ryu. I was enchanted by the palmy-Tatsuya. If someone has seen us this evening, then we’re truly sorry. It was probably extremely annoying to see those squealing girls.
However when we finally got home, we didn’t expect some mails from them. But when we looked at the mobile phone it showed us the text “2 new messages”.

The problem with the ‘yes’

On the 16th of September 2009 I’ve learned something very important: Be aware of hosts. Some of them are as charming as toilet paper, some are really sparkling charming but some of them (the most dangerous ones) are adorable dorks (Yes, I admit, I love dorks!). But let’s start from the beginning.

In 2009, I decided to fly with my friend Anna to Japan in order to spend our summer vacations there. One month in Tokyo, one month pure Japanese culture, one month with the gorgeous Anna. You have to know that she can really kick some ass. Really. Just ask the Yakuza. One day she punched the body guard of a higher ranked Yakuza because he dared to touch her. Also I had the best All-Night-Karaoke sessions with her. Aww, I miss these times.

During our stay, I wrote diary. That’s why I can say that it was a Wednesday evening, when I asked Anna to go to Ebisu garden with me. I just wanted to relax there. While sitting on a bench, watching the smoggy sky (how romantic…. not…) and drinking some coffee, I had the idea to explore Kabuki-chou after finishing the drinks.

Host Club advertising in Kabuki-chou

Yes, Kabuki-chou! Homeland for Hosts and Hostesses!
Anna agreed with this idea and taddaa some minutes later we were surrounded by men with hair which looked like palms. Seriously, who told them that it looks good on them? Some are okay but if your head is at the risk to kiss the ground, maybe you should think of not using too much hairspray, Mr. Host. I’m just saying~

Okay, this one is average. But a little bit more and you would think he's a tree!
I'm not trolling on you, unknown-Host-san. I really respect you for your work O,o

Some hosts even dared to talk with us gaijins. Anna is really fluent in Japanese but I had some problems to understand them (but I improved now!). Well, the biggest problem is my habit to say “yes” even though I didn’t understand a single word. This problem was going to push me right into “hell”. But this is another story. Later, later~

So my problem led to several funny conversations.

Host: “Hey, would you like to come into my club?”
I: *was proud to understand it* “No, thank you.”
Host: “Will you come tomorrow?”
I: *brain: ehh??, the only possible brain-reaction* Yes!
Host: “Are you lying to me?”
I: *brain already in off-mode*: Yes! *with a proud voice*

We also met a Host who laughed when I made fun of him in my mother tongue which he 100% didn’t understand. So we discovered that in Kabuki-chou there weren’t only sparkling men…
There were straw-men (brain filled with straw) too.

After these “great” experiences we walked to the end of Kabuki-chou. The noises of the city got quieter, the host clubs turned into transvestite bars and we decided to return after the next street.
Well, I never thought that this decision would change at least a couple years of my life. In this street there was a small host-club.

“Let’s play a game”, I suggested Anna while looking at the commercial for the hosts in this club. “We count until three and then we point on the host, we would date! Ok?”, until now, I still love these kind of stupid games. She agreed and we counted to three. Of course we pointed at two different guys and started to laugh. When suddenly, I still don’t know how, a small host appeared in front of us, greeting us...

This is a typical Host advertising. There are similar ones in front of each club. So you can play this game at the screen too.

Love is easy? Really?

Did you ever thought during a movie: „Is this girl insanse?! Why is she too stupid to go for her true love?” Well honestly spoken, I said that several times before and I was always sure that if I were her, I would choose the right one. When I was watching the J-Dorama “Proposal Daisakusen” (starring Yamashita Tomohisa), I really started to dislike the main actress. Come on! If you’re in the same room with Yamapi, why would you choose another guy? Seriously! This is out of question.

Really... I would date him immediately!

Well, life told me that love isn’t so easy. Especially when it involves Japanese, it can be really confusing. And now I’m sitting here, confused and unsure, writing a blog in order to get things straight.

So who is this confused girl? I’m not Japanese and I’m not Asian. It doesn’t matter where I come from, maybe I am the girl from across the street. I’m in my middle twenties, my English is so-so and I’m interested in Japan. However I would consider myself as not that much otaku-like. Some years ago I was really, really, really into everything from Japan but nowadays life is eating me up and I’m not really in the mood for buying and watching everything.

In this blog, I want to write my personal dorama which involves love, hosts, a love hotel, two boys and give some facts about Japanese men. May the story begin…

( P.s. I really like Hazuki Kanae and her drawings, so I guess, I will use some to illustrate my story. If you find her manga, you can buy them :-) They are for mature women, if you know what I mean ^.~)