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Here's an interesting article that I found awhile back. Yes, Ryo was mentioned (`･ω･´)
My geisha is a guyRhiana Ehara , Weekend PostPublished: Saturday, November 19, 2005
OSAKA - Japanese host clubs are a strange entertainment hybrid, where willowy young things fawn over well-heeled customers, flattering them and encouraging them to buy drinks at outrageous prices. What makes them different -- outlandishly so from a Western perspective -- is that the customers are predominantly young single women and the hosts are male geishas, androgynous young fellows trained in the art of separating customers from their cash.
At Club Acqua -- as at scores of host clubs throughout Japan -- a fleet of perfectly coiffed, attentive young men spill compliments over well-heeled Japanese women, most in their 20s and 30s. They light their cigarettes, pour their drinks, engage in flirtatious chitchat. They will also act as shopping companions, party dates and even provide more intimate services, if the price is right.
The process is simple: Every woman who enters Club Acqua selects a host on her first visit, with the understanding that he will receive a percentage of what she spends on alcohol. The key for the hosts, of course, is to keep the women coming back.
The clubs open after midnight and close at 9:30 a.m., around the time most Japanese are sipping their morning tea at their desks.
Seiji Houzyou, the multimillionaire owner of Club Acqua, estimates that 60% of his clients are workers in Japan's sex industry, 20% are men looking to provide a new diversion for their female friends, and the remaining 20% are "parasite singles" -- women with good jobs who live with their parents and have difficulty meeting charming men.
The hosts glide from table to table, visiting each of their clients -- but never staying long enough to upset the other clients who are waiting for them. Keeping all your women happy is obviously the most challenging aspect of hosting. It takes just one slip-up to lose a client. Forget her name, let her discover you've slept with her friend, and there goes one customer. Because Club Acqua lets clients run a tab this can be financially ruinous. The host has to pay should his client skip out.
The biggest factor in the success of these young men is not their looks but their ability to make women feel special.
Ryo Sakuya, regarded as the second-best host at Club Acqua, explains it this way. "The most important element of hosting is the smile. Once you have mastered an engaging smile and can laugh enthusiastically and authentically at appropriate moments when your client is speaking, you will be very successful." A dewy 22 year old, Ryo earns more than $500,000 a year.
But as most women will attest, pleasing women is not innate in all men. Thus, Hiroshi Toguchi, the Host Teacher, provides instruction in womencraft each morning after the club closes. Though they are exhausted, the hosts listen attentively, even taking notes, to improve their performance.
As a special incentive, club owner Houzyou displays a plastic figurine of any host who makes more than $30,000 in one month. Of the 65 hosts who work in Club Acqua, 25 have achieved plastic recognition.
At the end of a long night, the hosts look forward to sleep. But before they do, they send numerous text messages to clients, encouraging them to return.
Finally, by mid-afternoon, the male geishas are sound asleep. dreaming of riches, preparing themselves for another night of flattery and flirting.
© National Post 2005
source:
canada.com
It was so distracting haha.