The Great Happiness Space
When my rock band Valley Lodge toured Japan this past March, we kept seeing these strange bars in various cities, especially Tokyo. Outside of them were headshots of pretty boys, skinny dudes in shiny black suits with their hair all highlighted and perfectly coiffed. We asked our tour manager what the deal was and he explained that they were “boys clubs.” We figured that meant that they were gay bars but they weren’t. Instead they were host bars, i.e. clubs where women go to pay the men in the photographs to hang out and talk and drink with them all night. It seemed unfathomable to us, but it turns out this sort of thing is big business in Japan. We couldn’t believe it. And if any of us could speak fluent Japanese, I think we would have wanted in. Big time.
As part of my ongoing fascination with the host bar phenomenon and Japan in general, I watched a great documentary on the subject called “The Great Happiness Space.” The film came out in 2006 apparently and chronicles the goings-on at the most popular host bar in Osaka. It was pretty mindblowing, like some weird mix of “Jersey Shore,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” and “Scared Straight” all rolled into one. I highly recommend it if you’re into weird Japanese stuff like me (and a lot of other people, including most of the people in Japan as best I can tell). Speaking of which, that’s me above posing in front of one of the billboards they had everywhere for host bars in Tokyo. If I can get the language down, I’m pretty sure I could be a contender. I’ve already got the hair and the outfits.
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