Hi guys! Today I'm here with Jon. Hey. He was once the number 3 host at a host club, here in Tokyo. So I originally, I first came to Japan as a Morman Missionary I realized that people are really good here, Japanese people are wonderful people in general And I was trying to tell them that they needed my message to be better people And I just didn't agree with myself after several months of this And what I came to realize was you know maybe, there's a different way to life then how I've been brought up Yeah, so I took a 3 year break between these 2 trips. So I worked for a year. Then I went to college for 2 years. Then I had a chance to come back to Japan I was in a party club at school And so some of these guys in it, they worked as hosts I said, "I want to work in Japan, I want to do something fun to practice the language but no one let's me." And they were like, Oh I know what you'd be good at Jon. and I was like "what?!?" "You should be a host." I was like, I've heard of this, but that's kind of crazy man. Right. They like really sold me on it. Yeah, Yeah! So that's why I did it. Ok. That's how I started it. And that was the sole reason why I first became a host. Would you mind explaining to our viewers who may not know exactly what a host club is? Yeah sure thing, um, so a host club is like a night club with cables everywhere and TV's hanging down to sing karaoke. I worked in a normal Japanese host club, so everything was in Japanese. You know it's just a place to drink and have a lot of fun. There's kind of a stigma behind them, because there are good and bad host clubs. But, from the good side, which is where I worked, usually young ladies (ages 18 - 25 was the most common), they come to the club to drink. And, it's pretty expensive. For the first time it is 5000 Yen. For two hours. $40/50 US And, then after that they have to pick someone to be their "host". So from then on, you're their dedicated entertainer when ever they come to the club. From then on they also pay normal prices. A bottle of beer is like $15. wow. Yeah, a bottle of champagne like Dom Pérignon in the store is about $100/$120. In the club it's about 60,000 yen. So we are attached to the drinks, and their price. You just drink a lot, play games and sing karaoke. So it's a very straight forward job. Your first day you're cleaning the toilet, you're literary wiping puke off the toilet seat. It's horrible, you have to clean it spic and span like. Under the seat too, that's the worst part. And so the whole time when you're doing this and you're setting up for the club. And when you do like a champagne tower with all the glasses you have to put that up. Being top host is called the kanbu. And when you're in the kanbu you don't have to do any of that. And you don't have to come to work so early, and you also get paid more as you work your way up, you get a higher percentage. You're getting to move from the very bottom the first month you're there to like the top ten, it feels really good. Yeah . Because everyone hates you for it. Haha, and you're just like Yeah! Was there any tension with you being a foreign host there? There was some tension, because I'm foreign and I tend to be the stereotypical American, being blond with blue eyes, tall. The number one host like they took me under their wings basically. They introduced clients in directly to me. Some people took that the wrong way and they would bad mouth me to potential clients. Or my client. Oooh, that's so catty! The worst thing you can call a host is basically a makura eigyou. Which means you sleep with your customer for money. Hosts are not jiggalos! So that's the worst thing possible. And when someone says that, that basically defaces your value. People don't want to pick you anymore. And being one of the very few foreigner that have done this, and there are a few others as well, the word will get out quickly, and I don't want to be associated with that of course. Right. How much do hosts typically make then? So when you're starting out, you don't make anything really. And so, the way you make money is--there are a few ways--is obviously get paying customers to come and pay for the hourly charge and also buy drinks which will give you a percentage. You can also go out on the streets and pick up girls. And for every one girl you bring into the club, you get 5000 yen. You also get paid it on the spot. So, being a student that was super awesome because I tried so hard being on the streets to pick up girls. There's this one comedian, he had this skit, he was really popular so I would just like do his skit on the streets. I would go up to girls and just do it in front of them. And then, I'd be like why don't you come drink with me in our club. I could bring in 8 girls a night and get paid like $400. Like for me an avarage night was anywhere between $425 - $850. Wow! Because I would juggle like 2 or 3 customers at the same time in the club and the average check size was about $250. Whenever a new customer comes in from off the streets, you'll basically have 2 hours to compete with all the other hosts. And it's pretty hard. Because I mean I'm not speaking my own language for one. And these guys are very aggressive, These guys are top sales folks. I mean, some of my friends went on to be really top selling pharmaceutical sale guys, or real estate agents, they opened their own businesses. You really have to play to your strengths otherwise you don't win. And so this 2 hour period time you have to kind of pick when is a great time to go in as a quick intro. And when you want to get in before they pick their hosts. So you kind of have to understand the human psyche enough to know what works for each customer to win them. So many times I would just completely ignore a table of about 4 girls and then one or two of them would pick me because I completely shunned them the whole time, right. Wow, that's seems like that would probably be really good experience in kind of a weird way, then, for getting better at being a sales person, like presenting yourself. Yeah I first learned it as a more of a missionary thing though. The only non-religious books that I was allowed to read were Dale Carnegie books, which are great books on sales, for example. And that's where I really learned that approach. It's a really good way to kind of develop those skills because you might be juggling three customers at one time in a club, for 6-7 hours. You have to always come up with topics, you have to always be reading the tabloids and have some sort of piece of kind of conversation ready. It takes a lot of really strong sale skills. Yeah... I can imagine that'd be very difficult. That's where your social work comes in. Yeah, you know in Japan I don't really hear a lot about psychologists or people going to them. So I almost kind of wonder if certain places like this act as that. Because I would hear some really messed up things. They would just come in and talk about their problems? Yeah... It was very interesting. It actually reminded me about being more missionary than any other job I've had. There's the selling part which is in there right? And then there's just making someone feel better. Do they get really attached to their hosts? Right, yeah. They do It becomes a relationship Not in the traditional sense but as a human relationship. Right. And the type of people that do come, they usually have a lot of disposable income. And so they work in an industry where they get that. You know they work as hostesses or cabaret girls or even many cases prostitutes. All these women would finish their jobs and then they would they would take the $2000 they made that day or whatever it was and they wanted to party. And they wanted to forget what they did. Well they wanted to objectify a man for a change. Okay, right. These are people that are not the normal Japanese society. And in many cases the reason they're not is because they didn't make it. They could be high school drop outs, or they could be kicked out of their homes, or they had an abusive dad, or something like that. And so talking with each of those people was probably my favorite experiences there. It's kind of hearing about their stories. And then you just learn completely new perspectives You definitely seem like you were really actually interested in these people
