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…”

A wise man once said, If you have nothing good to say….  Post some pictures.

This weekend, I spent almost all my time at work and writing music, and I’m pretty tapped out. So here’s some pictures from Kachoen Bird Park in Kakegawa. I went there a few weekends ago with Kim and though I expected it would be interesting, I had a total blast.

We saw a lot of birds that start with ‘P’ —  penguins, parrots, parakeets, peacocks, pelicans…

As well as some other letters: ostriches, flamingos, and a large variety of angry looking owls (they are, after all, nocturnal).

The parakeets loved kim for some reason. At one point, there were 2 birds up her sleeve and another trying to unzip her jacket.

My favorite by far were the Toucans. At first they’re a little intimidating because they’re pretty big. But they’re really gentle and surprisingly light on your arm.

That’s it. Kakegawa Bird Park. Definitely going back, since I’m here for the next year.

(Click here for the original post with explanations of each goal)

Three months into 2011, here are some updates on my goals.

1) Accumulate $22,000 in savings. On payday this coming Friday (and after paying my bills and withdrawing food money for the month) I will be up to almost $8000 in savings. Getting there. Slow and steady. I’ve also picked up a few private lessons on the hush-hush, for about $40 an hour. This should help, but makes my week pretty busy.

2) Write and record a 5-song EP. Pretty much on track with this one. See #4.

3) Revive my blog, Project Hitchhiker. I had mentioned adding a post every Sunday, and so far I’m on track. To be honest though, I’m not really impressed with what I’ve been writing. The last post about stress, for instance, felt like a cop-out because I didn’t feel like writing. Working on a few bigger posts at the moment that should make up for it.

4) Write and record rough demos of at least 2 songs per month. In March I finished writing 2 songs, but haven’t recorded them yet. I’m waiting on buying some new music gear – a new travel guitar w/ pickup (the intonation on the Martin backpacker is driving me crazy — looking at a new Baby Taylor or similar), a new microphone (I’m currently using the built-in mic on my Zoom H4N), and a new Audio Interface for my laptop (as I write this, I’m thinking “Ouch, that’s really going to hurt my bankbook…”)

5) Exercise regularly. I’ve slacklined a few times, and my diet has gotten much healthier since I’ve last written (I’ve cut out added sugar and processed foods almost completely), but as far as exercise goes, I’ve been falling behind. My new apartment location, however, has forced me to bicycle to work and back every day (about 15-20mins each way) which is good.

6) Become a better teacher. A lot of my classes have just ended and I have some time to look at using new textbooks, which will be good for the new semester. I’ve been focusing on giving my students more fluency exercises rather than grammar.

7) Start a songwriting lodge in Hamamatsu. I arranged two songwriters meetings with two other guitar players here in Hamamatsu, but for various reasons they canceled. I’m finding it easy to sell the idea of a songwriter’s lodge, but in practice, people don’t want to spend a whole 12 hours on a songwriting session. I’ll go it alone if I have to…

8) Learn Live Looping with Ableton Live. Have to say I’ve only opened this program 3 times since I wrote about this goal. Fail.

9) Do a long walking trip during my summer vacation. No ideas yet. I’m thinking I might hitchhike instead and camp along the way. Would be good for my Japanese.

10) Write and publish an ebook or self-publish a book in print. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. I’m contemplating something along the lines of Tynan’s Life Nomadic book, about independent travel. Still in the brainstorming stage.

Overall, I give myself a 7 out of 10. Meaning, at this rate, I won’t achieve everything, but I’m pretty happy with my results.

New Goal:

Improve my Japanese. Since coming to Japan, I haven’t really spent a lot of time on Japanese study. It’s so easy as an English teacher to just live in an English Bubble that I neglected it.

After the recent earthquake and tsunami, it occurred me that my Japanese really sucked. I could only understand about 60% of the news on TV and 40% of the news on the radio. Not so useful for an emergency. After that experience I read a book on language learning (Language Learning Hacks – some good info, however overall not recommended) and decided to at the very least try for 2-kyu (level 2) on the Japanese Proficiency Test by next December. Right now my Kanji reading is about 3-ku, so I need to crank it up a bit. This means I’ll be using free time on the train, between classes, etc. to study Kanji and grammar.

At my friend Derek’s suggestion (thanks Derek!), I’ve been watching a lot of anime (Bakuman is pretty great and inspiring, despite being aimed at teens; Kino no Tabi was a great story – it helped that it was about motorcycles and travel) and Japanese soap operas (Orange Days isn’t too bad) to improve my listening. I’ll also be trying to speak to the office staff more in Japanese – they’ve been very helpful with correcting my Japanese in the last week. Pretty excited about this goal.

Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable! Cheers.

Some great things I’ve found recently:

-This inspirational post on Seth Godin’s blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/are-you-making-something.html

-New episode of Radiolab talks about extreme ways of quitting smoking and more: http://www.radiolab.org/2011/mar/08/

Below, a video of me in Northern Thailand, half-drunk on rice wine and trying deep fried bugs at the local market.

I love eating weird stuff. Love it.

Kangaroos. Caribou. Big bugs. Beating snake hearts. One of my favorite things about traveling is trying strange new foods — foods that the locals will eat usually to gross out a foreigner — that’s the stuff I seek out. It makes life more interesting and helps get me out of my travel routines.

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Jules is the most Japanese white guy I know. Not your predictable J-pop loving, Anime-watching, AV Idol-obsessed Japanophile. No, Jules is the exception to the rule. After four years of living in the Kanto region, he speaks near-perfect Japanese, and uses a dialect unique to Osaka – one used by many Japanese comedians. He works at a host club, an industry found only in Japan, where wealthy, lonely women pay exorbitant sums of money to sit and drink with charismatic, fashionable and conversationally skilled young Japanese men…  And one white guy named Jules. All of his co-workers and customers are Japanese and none of them speak any English. He is the antithesis of an ESL teacher in Japan.

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Cosplay: Corruption of the English Costume Play; To dress up in character (maid, schoolgirl, anime, furry animal). A cultural expression of socially awkward Japanese. Also a popular genre of Adult Video.

Karaoke: From the Japanese Karappo meaning empty, and the English Orchestra (oke); A worldwide phenomena wherein people who can’t really sing are encouraged to sing publicly.

A few friends and I went in November. This is the video that wasn’t supposed to get out…

“Dude, this is your fucking movie moment.”

I shoot a blank stare at Allusion.

“It’s like, if your life were a movie, this is the turning point, this is where you hop on a plane and say ‘Fuck yeah. I’m gonna do this shit’.” He pauses.

I’m at a Mexican restaurant having dinner with two famous pickup artists that I had interviewed recently for an article. They have since become good friends.

Allusion continues, “That, or you act like a scared pussy, ignore the opportunity, and pretend like nothing ever happened.”

It was true, but I didn’t need convincing. I knew what my choice was and I had already made it in my mind. One week notice at my job. Plane ticket reserved.

This was two days ago. Earlier in the day I had been contacted by a (here unnamed) Canadian/International Non-Profit Organization for a job interview that I had wanted since I realized I would actually have to work a “real job” after university.

The problem is I have a pretty sweet life going here in Osaka. Great friends, great lifestyle, decent (read: mindless) job… But even if I statistically have only a 40% chance of landing this job, I know that I have to do it. Not only do it, but give it 150%, which means cutting ties in Japan and planning as if I will be the next international field worker for X international organization. (You may say, what a cocky bastard, but in actual fact, I believe my chances to be closer to 90% based on my awesomeness and drive to achieve this goal).

So, back to Halifax it is.

I hate winter. I hate cold. And I really hate snow. But this is my movie moment, and I’m determined to direct my own film.

Hali: See yall soon. I’ll be intently focused and preparing until after the interview on the 11th of March. Then, the celebrations.

Below, a video of my roommate Erika, singing an improvised song about me leaving. (She doesn’t know it’s to the tune of Tenacious D’s F#$% Her Gently…)