Here is the 3rd and final part of my interview with Jules, an American working as a Host in Japan. Enjoy!

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Take it to the Club

I think it’s because everybody has an emptiness in their heart. But (the club is) so exciting… you’re sitting in this beautiful club, and you’re like, otoko-mae, handsome boys all around you, that are willing to listen to you, and not molest you. Why would someone want to spend a thousand dollars on a bottle of champagne? Why? When you see a “champagne call” you’ll know. Because it’s like the 4th of July. We play the flower music, and all these people are shouting… all the hosts are standing around the table. (The customer) becomes the center of attention. And the music is so loud, and then, suddenly — the music just shuts off. And it’s all quiet and we’re like “would you like another (bottle)?” And they’re just on the spot. And they just want to have that feeling again and boom! ‘bring me another bottle, let’s just pop it!’ I mean, I get excited just thinking about it.

– Jules

It’s eight am on Sunday morning. I climb out of bed, groggy and slightly hungover from a nomikai the night before. I give Jules a call to see if it’s a good time to visit the host club. “Sure,” he says. “Things are just getting started here. We opened at 5 (am), and one girl just popped a bottle of Dom (Perringnon) – I think it’s gonna be a wild night.” I resist the urge to point out that, one, it’s actually morning and two, I’ve just woken up. I tell him I’ll be there in a few minutes. “Just call me when you get to Dotombori (an area in Osaka known for its Host and Hostess Clubs) and I’ll come pick you up,” he says.

It’s been a few weeks since I first interviewed Jules, and my field trip happens to coincide with his last day of work at the host club. After a year of working as a host, he has decided to retire his Gucci shades to enroll in fashion school back in America. “You can’t be a host forever.” He says. That, and I have suspicions that he ran into problems with his not-entirely-legal Japanese visa.

The minute I walk through the door, I feel like I’ve stumbled into another world. There is a sickening mix of champagne, cologne and cigarette smoke in the air. I witness everything that Jules described to me: the surprisingly beautiful female customers; the excitement of the champagne calls; and the expensive reality of the bills – on my way in, I catch sight of two women paying a $400 bill. The nature of his job is brought home to me when I try to re-initiate our interview in the club. Jules stops me. “If you want to talk to me here at work, you’d better be a paying customer!” he quips smiling, as he hands me a menu.

Advice to the Wannabe Playas

I am the king of this world. I don’t take shit from anybody. There are a lot of arguments with me, because I break the hierarchy of the club a lot. Because I just don’t give a f***. But that’s part of what makes me sell. Because it’s fun, and the customers can open up and be themselves and I can open up and be myself.

– Jules

There is undoubtedly something in the male psyche that is attracted to the idea of getting paid to talk with women – of reversing the usual hierarchy of sexual power. To the uninitiated, it might seem like a dream job.

I ask Jules if he has any advice to other foreigners out there who think they have what it takes to become a successful Host in Japan: “The girls don’t come to a host club to see foreigners. They come to see the typical good-looking Japanese boy…. Part of (being successful as a foreigner) is, finding customers who are open to new experiences…”

Jules continues.“If you want to be a really good host, you have to open your heart. You have to accept your customers for who they are” he says. “You can’t just walk into a host club and start making money just because you’re there, or because you’re good looking. It’s your personality, the way that you handle the girls and have them be attracted to you.”

About the past year as a host, he adds, “I think it’s a wonderful, wonderful experience. But it does sour a typical person. A lot of guys, they come in thinking oh, I want to be a host and then they’ll quit within a few weeks. It’s just completely out of their reality.”

In just three days, Jules’ flight leaves for the US. I ask him if he’s finished with this line of work for good – whether the year of heavy drinking and unusual hours has gotten to him. “Nah.” He says. “I think I’ll come back every summer and do hosting to pay for school.” He flashes a devilish smile. “I don’t know what else I’d do for money…”

Below is part 2 of  my article about Jules, an American working in a host club in Japan.

If you missed part 1, click here.

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The Salaryman-Fuzoku-Host Triangle

What kind of women go to a host club? Before my research, I imagined the clientele was mostly lonely housewives of rich, neglectful businessmen and unattractive young women, starved for attention. The reality is quite different. “Sexual gratification workers make up about 50-60% (of our customers)” he says. Fuzoku (Prostitutes), Soapland Girls (erotic massage parlors) and Sexual Cabaret girls (dancing with heavy petting) are big industry in Japan, and the number of young girls walking around Osaka with four-thousand dollar Chanel handbags makes me wonder if not all of them have rich parents. Jules explains what he calls the Salaryman-Fuzoku-Host triangle: “You have the salarymen (Japanese businessmen), who have all this money and an empty life. They spend all their money at the night clubs and the cabaret girls. The cabaret girls need somewhere to spend all their money, so they spend it on clothes — and us. But we’re at the top of the food chain, because we spend our money on nobody.”

So at least half of his customers are girls with large incomes for dubious services – but why would they want or need to go to an overpriced club to talk to men, when they are usually the object of desire? “They’re looking for something” says Jules. “Like some kind of guidance, or something to connect with. Most of the girls that go to the host clubs, they work at night, they dance or (perform sexual acts) for money, so they can’t find good boyfriends. They live a totally unacceptable life by Japanese standards, so they can’t connect with anybody. They don’t even need sexual gratification, because they’re being molested by guys in the clubs all night. So they come to us and they’re looking for a connection, something else. To have fun with a male, instead of being molested and ogled. They want little — boy toys… To fill the holes in their heart.”

Conveniently, my next question is whether any relationships develop outside of the club with customers, or if there were the implication of sex in the client-host transaction. “It’s an intuition thing. We try not to have sex with the girls, because that’s what they want. They don’t have a reason to come in to the host club if they can meet you outside.” Under his breath he continues “I mean, I do have sex with some of my customers…” he laughs. “But — not all of them want sex.”

Jules tells me about the first and most important unspoken rule of hosting: do not ask about the girl’s work. “It’s embarrassing for girls that do work at those types of places (sex workers)” he says. “There are negative feelings attached to work, and (the host club) is a place of fun and enjoyment. We don’t want to talk about dark things.” I ask him what they might usually talk about. “Anything. Like, what I did today, or whatever. We have conversations and argue, sing karaoke, hold arms, and play drinking games… enjoy a bottle of champagne…hopefully.” And there are big dollar signs attached to Jules’ hopes. A Henessey Richard du 4th  in Jules’ club is $20,000 a bottle. Cost to the club is somewhere around a thousand dollars. “I mean, you can buy a bottle of Dom Perry for $120-150, but we sell it at the club for $1,200” says Jules. He says he mostly makes his commission on cocktails and individual drinks, but he has sold a few bottles of Dom – and at a 55% commission rate, that translates to a lot of Benjamins – or rather, Fukuzawa Yukichis.

The Hosts are rated on a scale of salary, and the Number One host at a club (the Japanese have a penchant for ranking everything) can make anywhere from $15,000 to $100,000 a month. The Number One at Jule’s club averages about $30-$40,000 per month.

Host Beginnings

Jules came to Japan four years ago when he was 19, planning to study Japanese for six months, but enjoyed it so much he stayed. He has half brothers and sisters in Korea, Hawaii, Brazil and America and his father is soon to file for his 7th divorce. It seems the old adage like father, like son is true in his case, although he maintains that his ability with women comes from “a shit load of experience and a whole lot of sweat.”

“I worked teaching English for six months and after that I was like, fuck this, teaching English is not for me. I’m young, I’m educated, there’s so much more I can do. I can speak Japanese better than anybody I know. I had seen those host guys on Television, and I was like, that’s what I gotta get into.”

One night, a Cabaret club girl he knew offered to give him an introduction to a host club manager. The manager of the club said he could hire him, but he would get paid only on a commission-only basis (ie. He would only make money from the customers he brought into the club), with no base salary. He left, after drinking for a few hours with the hosts, saying he’d think about it, but generally feeling unimpressed with the low-level host club.

That morning, on his way home, as the sun came was coming up, he stumbled past Dotombori bridge – generally referred to as nanpa bashi (“pickup bridge”). Wasting no opportunity to chat with women, he tried to sweet talk a pair of cute hostess girls walking out of a convenience store. The girls said they were waiting for their hosts to pick them up and escort them to their favorite club. Within minutes, Jules had them giggling and hanging off him, and when the two hosts showed up and saw him in action, they immediately offered him a job at their upscale club. He started work that morning.

The Dark Side of the Glamour

In reality, hosting isn’t that glamorous. But I love it, so it’s glamorous to me.

– Jules

Despite his youthful enthusiasm for his job, his face shows lines that would peg him as older than his 23 years. All the chain smoking, hard drinking and long hours have taken their toll. “It’s hard though.” He says. “It’s not regular work. We’re selling our energy and our livelihood. We’re selling our thoughts and our feelings; our insight and our advice.”

Because the host’s salaries are based on how much alcohol they can drink each night, the job has its obvious downsides – one of them alcohol abuse. “These hosts, they can drink so much. We’re just like big, walking barrels of gallons and gallons of alcohol. So girls think they’ll get another bottle and another bottle, and they think they can get us drunk, but they are mistaken. We can go on for hours… But we never let them see us puking or acting so drunk that we can’t talk. We do act drunk … to show them what we do for them. Like the girl buys a couple bottles, and we’re like, oh, you made me so drunk, I don’t know if I can handle anymore… But really we could be pretty sober.”

Because the commission is tied to how much they drink, some hosts drink so much that they develop a routine of forcing themselves to throw up in the restroom between customers. Jules says he himself might do it once a night on the weekdays, but the much busier nights on the weekends, he says up to three or four times each night.

I ask him the obvious question of whether he thinks the binge drinking has affected his health. “Oh, absolutely. My stomach is fucked.” Most hosts start when they’re just a little over twenty, and usually burn out after less than two years. “There was a 34 year old host I knew, and he was like, top of the clubs, making tons of money, and he just wanted to get out of it. He was looking to start a normal life, I guess. I mean, you can’t do it forever. I’ve only been doing it for a year or so, and my stomach is torn to hell.”

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Stay tuned for part 3 next of Jules’ story next Sunday…  (I only have internet on Sundays — long story.)

If you liked this story, you might enjoy another story I wrote about Jules’ run-in with the Japanese mafia.

**I spent some time shopping this article around a few years back, but it seemed to not want to be published. A few magazines were biting, but they wanted it edited too much. I’d rather keep the juicy bits and have it see some light here. Here’s part 1 of 3:

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Memoirs of a (Male) Geisha: The Unusual Story of an American Working in a Japanese Host Club

I mean, why wouldn’t women pay money to be with me? I give them everything they want and need; physical and mental gratification… and enough unpredictability to keep them interested until their money’s gone.

– Jules, American, Male Host in Minami Osaka club

Jules has a soft spot for expensive designer clothes.

The first time I meet him, he is wearing an $800 bright white Burberry jacket, a blue and yellow silk Gucci scarf, and $900 black loafers. These are all – including the $1200 Hermes wallet sticking out his back pants pocket — gifts from his customers and girlfriends.

We walk together to Osaka JR train station and sit down at a French-style café.

“I hear you’re pretty good with women.” I offer to start the conversation.

“I consider myself to be very good with women.” He says, completely deadpan and without a hint of self-consciousness.

Jules is at least 6 feet tall and tanned, though not classically good looking in the western sense. He has a slightly large nose and very average facial features. His highlighted hair is set straight down over his left ear. He brushes it back with one hand as he takes a drag off his cigarette with the other. He is sitting with his legs crossed, and I notice that his gestures come off as a bit feminine. Even as I’m wondering, why in the world women would pay money to talk with this guy, I become aware that there is something about him. Charisma? I wonder. No, that’s not it. It’s more like… Glamour. Jules has a glamour about him. Like a movie star. Or Ziggy Stardust maybe.

Just another day at work…

As a Host, your job is to sell THE DREAM: sell YOURSELF, SEX, and FREEDOM.

-Jules

Jules works as a male host at a Japanese Host Club – a classy lounge where women pay good money to sit and have drinks with handsome and charming young Japanese men. Unlike his co-workers, and 99% of the other hosts in Osaka, Jules is a foreigner – an American.

A typical work day for Jules involves waking up at midnight (hosts are notoriously nocturnal), heading to the club, and having a few drinks with his co-workers before work – “to reduce tension,” he says. The host club Jules works at is open from 5am to 2pm, to cater to the club ‘after party’ crowds and night workers of Minami (south) Osaka. Other clubs are open in the evening, or from midnight, depending on their target customer base. According to Jules, “Some girls will finish work at midnight, then go to one host club, then another, and then ours. (Other) girls finish (work) at 6am, and they come to our club, because it’s one of the only ones open. They’re already drunk by the time they get to our club, so they want to spend a lot of money.” He flashes a sly smile.

In a host club, women pay an hourly charge for a seat (in Jules’ bar about $25/hour) and pay for all the drinks that her — and her male host – drink, the least expensive being about $12 for a simple cocktail. When a customer who is new to the club arrives, she rotates through the hosts, spending about ten minutes sitting and talking with each — kind of like speed dating. She then nominates her favorite host, who then receives commission based on all the money she will ever spend at that club. Once a customer chooses her host, it is almost impossible for her to change it, until her chosen host retires or changes clubs. This is to prevent infighting and conflict among the hosts.

Jules makes a base pay of $75 a day, plus a 55% commission on seating charges ($25 to $100/hour) and alcohol. This makes for some outrageous bills, if you consider the club’s markup on the alcohol. “Our cheapest bottle is $220. You can buy that same bottle at any convenience store for $12.” Jules says.

I tentatively ask him about his usual monthly pay.

“Besides having girls take me out to dinner, and having zero living costs?” he says, with a cocky grin. “Probably about 6Gs (per month), easy. The most I’ve ever made is 10Gs. I mean, I’m not paying for living or whatever.”

I ask him if the host club is paying for the apartment.

“No, the girls are.” He says.

“The girls are paying… So then you’re living with the girls?”

“No.”

He explains to me what’s called Jikabiki – accepting private money or gifts from his customers, outside of work.

“And pretty much all the hosts do that?” I ask.

“Well, no…” He pauses to think. “But all the good ones do” he says and laughs.

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I’ll post part 2 soon if people are interested…  Comment below, please.

“What gets measured gets improved.” – Robin Sharma, author of The Greatness Guide.

I love reading financial blogs where they track savings/spendings and give their own figures. This week, I wanted to write my own post about the cost of living in an average city (ie. not Tokyo) in Japan.

As an experiment, I kept track of ever single yen I spent over the past week. It’s a good thing to do once in a while, especially if you find yourself at the end of the month with less than you had figured on – which, this month, I have…   ;)   It can be very eye-opening to see where all your hard-earned money is going, and useful for deciding how to adjust your spending habits.

(As a side note, my parents hate it when I write about money: too much personal information, they say. I respectfully disagree, and point to things I’ve learned from others’ financial blogs…  Sorry parents.)

I hope somebody living in Japan or planning on moving here will find my spending figures useful, but at the very least it was a good exercise for my own financial well-being.

Here’s the breakdown of what I spent this past week living in Japan (Mon, May 23rd to Sun, May 29th)

Utilities (electricity, gas and water, prorated to one week) 2,200 yen

Rent (prorated to one week) 9,030 yen

Groceries (5 trips to the grocery store, including wine) 11,492 yen

Eating out (sushi resto x1 and Yayoi-ken x3) 2,505 yen

Conbini Bentos (pre-made convenience store lunch x3) 1,261 yen

Cleaning supplies (from the 100 yen shop) 525 yen

“Band meeting” (ie. Chipping in for lunch at a jam session) 850 yen

Stuff I didn’t actually need (new earrings, etc) 5,000 yen

Grand total 32,863 yen

Or, $388 CAD per week. Not terrible, but not where I want to be.

Analyze

It was admittedly a quiet week: I had a bad cold for a few days and didn’t go to any bars (an average weekly bar tally might be 1500 yen). As if to make up for that, I bought some stuff I don’t really need but wanted (earrings, cologne) — I don’t usually spend this money. So if we remove the “stuff I didn’t need” from the equation, and if I spend a similar amount every week for a month, that amounts to about 123,000 yen — which puts me only slightly over budget. About 4000 yen per week over, which is completely fixable.

Another reason my numbers are high this week: I’m trying to gain weight. I’ve been working out, trying to put on a bit of muscle (I’ve had very mild success so far and I stepped it up this week) and protein is expensive in Japan. For example, as I type this, I’m snacking on a bag of cashews – 130g of nuts for 320yen (almost $4 CAD). That’s pretty expensive in my books. For protein in Japan, Chicken breast is the best deal, at between 58 and 68 yen per 100g, but I’ve discovered that one can only eat so much chicken…

Improve

Looking at my numbers, I can see that I could cut down on my costs by replacing most of my restaurant and conbini meals with home-made bentos — which also has the added benefit of being healthier. I’m also thinking about cheaper, yet still healthy sources of protein — but I would much rather be eating healthy than saving a few extra bucks. I may try this receipt-saving experiment again in a few weeks time to see if I can bring my costs down.

If you’re reading this, and have some cost of living tips for Japan (especially about buying groceries), please leave a comment!

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Postscript: I suppose I should also address the elephant in the room. Some of my friends reading this may have noticed that my numbers are for only one person. Kim and I had some amazing adventures together over the years, but in April we went our separate ways. Kim’s now on her way to India for some spirit-cleansing yoga. She’s an amazing woman on an incredible path, and I wish her the best.

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Again, visions of future travels cloud my thoughts. I`m gonna roll with it.

My top 5 Travel Books of All-Time:

1. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

Most people point to reading Kerouac`s On the Road as the root of their wanderlust or obsession with freight trains and hitchhiking. For me, it was The Dharma Bums that turned me into a perpetual vagabond.

Amazon Description: The Dharma Bums was published one year after On the Road made Jack Kerouac a celebrity and a spokesperson for the Beat Generation. Sparked by his contagious zest for life, the novel relates the adventures of an ebullient group of Beatnik seekers in a freewheeling exploration of Buddhism and the search for Truth.

2. Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

This is by far the most lucid, well-thought out book out there on extended travel. Covering both the how-to and philosophy of backpacking, it should be required reading for any traveler.

Review from Booklist:  Veteran vagabond Potts regales readers with his mantra: anyone with an adventurous spirit can achieve the feat of taking extended time off from work to experience the world. In 11 short chapters that follow the same structure, Potts tells how to negotiate time off from work, prepare for travel, and get the most out of your time on the road. Each chapter contains a profile of a famous proponent of vagabonding (e.g., Thoreau, Annie Dillard), quotes from everyday people with extensive travel experience, and a tip sheet of print and online sources for practical travel advice on topics such as airline tickets and accommodations as well as safety concerns. Alternately warning readers about using drugs in foreign countries and entertaining them with anecdotes from exotic ports of call, Potts gives a thorough recounting of his outlook on traveling. This book seems squarely aimed at twenty- and thirtysomethings; anyone with decidedly non-vagabond accoutrements (e.g., children or career ambition) might be more skeptical of Potts’ philosophy. For those with a bad case of wanderlust. Joanne Wilkinson

3. Jupiter`s Travels by Ted Simon

One guy, one motorbike, 45 countries. Awesome.

Amazon Description: Simon rode a motorcycle around the world in the seventies, when such a thing was unheard of. In four years he covered 78,000 miles through 45 countries, living with peasants and presidents, in prisons and palaces, through wars and revolutions. What distinguishes this book is that Simon was already an accomplished writer. In 25 years this book has changed many lives, and inspired many to travel, including Ewan McGregor.

4. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Guy escapes prison. Guy goes to India on fake passport and can`t leave. Epic adventure ensues.

From Publisher`s Weekly: At the start of this massive, thrillingly undomesticated potboiler, a young Australian man bearing a false New Zealand passport that gives his name as “Lindsay” flies to Bombay some time in the early ’80s. On his first day there, Lindsay meets the two people who will largely influence his fate in the city. One is a young tour guide, Prabaker, whose gifts include a large smile and an unstoppably joyful heart. Through Prabaker, Lindsay learns Marathi (a language not often spoken by gora, or foreigners), gets to know village India and settles, for a time, in a vast shantytown, operating an illicit free clinic. The second person he meets is Karla, a beautiful Swiss-American woman with sea-green eyes and a circle of expatriate friends. Lin’s love for Karla—and her mysterious inability to love in return—gives the book its central tension. “Linbaba’s” life in the slum abruptly ends when he is arrested without charge and thrown into the hell of Arthur Road Prison. Upon his release, he moves from the slum and begins laundering money and forging passports for one of the heads of the Bombay mafia, guru/sage Abdel Khader Khan. Eventually, he follows Khader as an improbable guerrilla in the war against the Russians in Afghanistan. There he learns about Karla’s connection to Khader and discovers who set him up for arrest. Roberts, who wrote the first drafts of the novel in prison, has poured everything he knows into this book and it shows. It has a heartfelt, cinemascope feel. If there are occasional passages that would make the very angels of purple prose weep, there are also images, plots, characters, philosophical dialogues and mysteries that more than compensate for the novel’s flaws. A sensational read, it might well reproduce its bestselling success in Australia here.

5. The Drifters by James Mitchner

I`m surprised this one doesn`t get more attention. Hedonistic backpacking in the 60s and 70s never had a better ambassador than Michener in this book.

Amazon Description:  In his triumphant best seller, James Michener unfolds a powerful and poignant drama of six young runaways adrift in a world they have created out of dreams, drugs, and dedication to pleasure. With the sure touch of a master, Michener pulls us into the dark center of their private world, whether it’s in Spain, Marrakech, or Mozambique, and exposes the naked nerve ends with shocking candor and infinite compassion.

Runners-up:

Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Less a travel book than a profound treatise on minimalism and living consciously.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. I`m not into drugs, but the sense of adventure conveyed in this book is wicked contagious.

And of course, The Beach, Into the Wild and Motorcycle Diaries (see my post on best travel movies)

And the Worst Travel Book Award? If you`ve read it, you know what I`m about to write:  Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I want my 5 hours back (okay, so I skimmed most of it…).

Got one that`s not on my list? I`d love to hear it.

From my blog, you might be able to tell that I’m a little bit obsessed (just a little… ) with introducing changes to my life that make me more efficient, productive, inspired, or just add a little awesome to my day. That’s why I think it’s strange that I didn’t try speed reading earlier – I guess I just always thought it was a scam. Not so.

I’ve always been an avid but admittedly slow reader. Since I bought my Kindle 3 (which is a whole lot of awesome by the way), I’ve been spending even more time reading, and so I finally did a little research on how to read faster. According to the blogosphere and Amazon reviews, Breakthrough Rapid Reading by Peter Krump is the best out there. I’m only 3 days into the course and I can’t say enough positive things about it. The book is full exercises to increase your reading speed in a short amount of time and gives you the theory and science behind why it works.

Fast Gains

With Mr. Kump’s book, you’ll likely see results very quickly, just from the first few steps of speed reading. Simply using your finger to guide your eye makes a huge difference. In my case, before I started the course, my base rate was only 320wpm (words per minute) with medium-difficulty reading material – which is on the slow side. After an hour of practice using my finger as a guide, I jumped to 418wpm. After three days of practice and following the exercises, one hour each day, I was up to 556wpm, a 57% increase in only three days – with no loss in comprehension (Of course, like anything, the speed of your gains will follow the law of diminishing returns).

Why YOU should learn to Speed Read

For a minimal amount of time and energy – in my case, just 3 hours so far, I’ve increased my reading speed by more than 50%. That means I have more free time to do other things — or just reading more. I’ll be continuing the program, and adding some updates here and there. Reading faster is something that will benefit me for my whole life – I wish I had started years ago.

After many months of using anime as a tool to learn Japanese, I thought I’d share some tips that have been useful for seeing real improvements in my Japanese. Here’s my Eightfold Path to Japanese Enlightenment through Anime:

1) Right Mindset. If you like watching anime for fun, it could be a good tool for you to learn Japanese. Unfortunately, you will not absorb the language through osmosis — you have to put in the effort. That means being active, not sitting on your butt. More on this below.

2) Right Anime. Be aware that depending on the anime characters you try to imitate, you could end up speaking like a 17th century samurai, a yakuza enforcer, or worse — a shinigami. There’s lots of ‘slice of life anime’ where the characters don’t call each other temai or slur their words like yakuza. Bakuman, Kino’s Journey, and Working are good places to start. Also Death Note, despite its Shinigami theme, has characters that speak relatively normal Japanese.

3) Right Subs. Meaning, No Subs. Once you’re past a certain point in your Japanese level (say you’re around N4 – maybe earlier), you need to axe the subtitles. When you read English subtitles, you’re effectively telling your brain: hey brain, you know, you can stop thinking now, it doesn’t really matter if I understand the Japanese dialogue.  So turn off the subs and exercise your brain. For watching online, where everything is subtitled in English, I put a 2” wide black piece of cardboard against the screen where the subs would be – think of it as watching anime in widescreen. For show links, I recommend animecrazy.net.

4) Right Repetition. Some of my Japanese friends have noticed an improvement in my pronunciation recently. I attribute this directly to the way I watch anime. While watching, I try to repeat whatever was just said by a male character (there’s a big difference between male and female Japanese – I prefer not to sound like a girl). I usually end up only repeating the first and last parts of the sentence, but it has definitely helped. Warning: if you do this while watching anime with a friend, you may notice your friends start to distance themselves from you.

5) Right Dick. Dictionary, that is. If you’re passively watching, you’re not learning – you’re just wasting time. You need to be actively picking out new words, pressing pause, looking them up, reviewing them, and trying to use them in your conversations with friends. If you’re skipping any of these steps, you may as well be watching Glee on FOX.

6) Right Study. Anime shouldn’t be your only method of studying. I’ve seen my biggest improvements when I’ve been able to confirm my understanding using a grammar book or dictionary examples. Recently I’ve been using Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese for sentence patterns (free and highly recommended) and iKanji to learn new Kanji (a few bucks, but worth it) – I enjoy being able to read, too.

7) Right Practice. I know it might sound a little wacky, but you need to actually practice the language with other people. Preferably live, native speakers, though other L2 learners will do in a pinch. Some people suggest Skype chat. I suggest get out of your house and meet people in real life.

8) Right Blog. My blog. Okay, just kidding. I couldn’t think of an eighth.

Have experience learning Japanese through anime? I’d love to hear it. Otakus of the world, unite!