We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!
Export Podcast Subscriptions
cover of episode Sitting Down With a Real Japanese Host | Trash Taste #78

Sitting Down With a Real Japanese Host | Trash Taste #78

2021/12/10
logo of podcast Trash Taste Podcast

Trash Taste Podcast

AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
People
C
Connor
G
Garnt
J
Joey
J
John
一位专注于跨境资本市场、并购和公司治理的资深律师。
S
Sherry
Topics
John: 我在日本做过男公关,我的经历很独特,因为我一半是日本人,一半是土耳其人。我从18岁开始做男公关,起初是在一家披萨店兼职,后来因为与顾客的互动良好而转行。在男公关俱乐部工作,我与形形色色的顾客打交道,从年轻偶像到年长的富婆都有。我与顾客的交流方式与传统男公关不同,我更注重深入了解他们的生活和经历,并给予他们人生建议。我曾经在一家俱乐部做到第三名,这需要付出巨大的努力和时间,包括与顾客约会、送礼物等。男公关行业竞争激烈,也存在一些负面现象,例如酗酒、职场暴力等。但这个行业也有其独特的魅力,它反映了日本社会结构和人际关系的复杂性。 Joey: 作为Trash Taste节目的主持人,我对John在日本男公关俱乐部的经历感到非常好奇。我们讨论了日本男公关行业的文化、工作方式、客户群体以及行业内的一些问题。John的经历让我们对日本夜生活和社会文化有了更深入的了解。 Garnt: 我对John在日本男公关俱乐部的经历感到非常惊讶,特别是他在日本讨价还价的经历,以及他与各种各样的人的互动。他的故事让我们对日本文化和社会有了更深入的了解。 Connor: 我对John的经历感到好奇,特别是关于男公关行业的一些负面现象,例如职场暴力和酗酒。同时,我也对男公关行业与日本社会结构的关系很感兴趣。 Sherry: 我介绍了John作为嘉宾,并对他的经历表示赞赏。

Deep Dive

Chapters
The episode introduces the concept of host clubs in Japan, where guests pay to socialize with hosts who provide entertainment and conversation.

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

Good evening. It's me, The Monk. Have you ever listened to Trash Taste and Thoughts? That doesn't seem too hard. I can do that. Well, you're in luck, because today I want to talk about Anchor, the easiest way to make podcasts, and it's completely free. Anchor will distribute your podcast for you, so it can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and

many, many more. I mean, it's literally what we're using now. They have creation tools that allow you to record and edit a podcast from your phone or computer. And you can add any songs from Spotify directly to your episodes. The possibilities are literally endless. You can make anything. Music analysis, talk shows, or even an anime podcast that talks about anime.

Anime! It's everything you need to make a podcast in one place. So, if you want to give podcasting a go, download the free Anchor app or go to anchor.fm to get started. Anyway, back to the episode.

- I'm dead on the inside. Welcome to Trash Taste Podcast. - Wow. That was an intro, Joey. - Yeah, that was definitely an intro. - Yeah, you guys were like, "Oh, what happened to the Joey intros, man? I want them back." So I brought them back. I hope you're happy. - Is that a Joey intro? - That was a Joey intro. - We've gone from like, "Kombini, I'm not gonna say the words," to "I'm dead inside." How did we go from one side to the other, Joey? It makes no sense. - What a tragic evolution. - Yeah, that's what happens, man. When you do Trash Taste for that long, that's what happens. - We have de-evolved. - We've devolved. - Yes.

- I'm Joey and as always, I'm with the other two people who are dead inside, Garnt and Connor. - You're making me dead inside. - Who's our guest, Sherry? - I don't know, introduce yourself. - Well, what's up guys? It's your homie, John, AKA Sushi Kebab Guy. Nice to meet you all today. - How are you, man? - I'm good, bro. - You are so nervous, it's so funny. - I shit myself, man, oh my God. - So Jan is a friend of ours, a mutual friend of ours, and you are, or you were, a host.

- Indeed. - Yeah, I mean, we met you through mutual friends, but like, you know when you meet someone in your life and you just think like, wow, you're one of the most interesting people I've ever met. - Thank you. - Because like, Jan's one of those people who, whenever you go to a party, whenever you speak to him, he'll have a new story every fucking time.

And like, I don't know how you do it, but like, 'cause we've hung out so many times and every time we hang out, you come out with a new story about something that's happened in your life. So like, even on this podcast, there's so many questions I want to ask about your just like life experience here in Japan, because like, unlike,

any of our previous guests, Jan doesn't have an internet presence. - True. - Yeah, yet, yet. So understandable that he is a bit nervous, so go easy on him guys. - But it's also like how often do you just like come across a dude who used to be a host? Because I feel that's just like a part of like Japanese subculture life that you just don't hear about.

- Yeah, it seems very, very Japanese. And from what I saw, it was extremely Japanese. - Yeah, also I feel the only time you would ever get to know a host is if you yourself end up going to a host club enough that you get to know a host. And I mean, the three of us don't. - I mean, almost no foreigners become hosts anyway. Like even if you're half like me, no one really like applies to become one.

- So you're half Turkish, half Japanese? - Half Turkish, half Japanese. So if any Turkish people watching, what's up? - Let's go. - You got it, man. - Is that a part of Turkish culture? Because anytime we go out and we're with Jan, he meets another Turkish person. - For sure. - It's like the Longbox Brothers. And like you get free shit and like you take care of them, they take care of you. And I'm just like, what is going on? - It's like the world's strongest magnets. They're just like from distance. They're like, oh, there you are.

- I remember we got a restaurant one time and they were like, you gotta leave in like one hour. And then the manager of the restaurant was Turkish. And he was also named Jam. - Oh yeah.

And it was like, - That's right. - It was like the moment that he found that out, it was like, the guy was like, "Oh no, no, you stay as long as you want." - Yeah, I remember that. - Whatever you wanna do, you know, it's like, what is this bro? What is this? This is insane. - They actually wanted to move us if you remember. - Yeah, they did. - Oh yeah. - So I think we managed to stay in our spot. Like they moved the guests away.

- Yeah. - People fucking book that place, you know, like we're going over our time and then they told the guests like, "Oh, these guys, you know, they're not gonna move. How about you guys go there?" I mean, Japanese people are like, yeah. - They go to that guest like, "Are you a Jan? I didn't think so." - I think where if you hang out with you, one thing you notice is that, yeah, you're not very Japanese in certain ways. - Well, I mean, I hope so. - But that's almost, you know, being a host requires you to be extremely extroverted

And I think that applies to you. I've never seen someone haggle in Japan. - Yeah. - But this man, this man haggles in Japan. - I didn't even know you were like allowed to haggle in Japan until I saw Jandar. - Well, hey, you gotta try it, right? And then see what happens. - Yeah, right. But like just based on like just pre-assumptions of how Japanese like, you know, that kind of stuff in Japan works, right? It's like, I was watching you haggle for the first time.

I was like, "Are you doing something illegal?" - Yeah. - Because it just looks so wrong. - Yeah, I'm just like, sometimes you go out with Jan and I'm just like, "I didn't know you could do this." Because it just wasn't part of like the rule sets that I was taught in Japanese culture. But I mean, I guess that's how you found yourself in a position like becoming a host. I mean, you know, it's- - Yeah, we should go like the backstory of how Jan, I guess how you, first of all, like ended up coming to Japan. - Sure, sure, sure. - Were you born in Japan?

No, I was born in Turkey, actually. So I was born and raised in Turkey until I was like 16. Japanese school until 7th grade, and then international school until 10th grade. And then I moved to United Arab Emirates, Dubai. That's how the locals say it. So I was in Dubai for two years, came back to Turkey for uni for two years.

went to Czech Republic. And then on my final year, I went to Georgia, so Tokyo. I graduated here and then decided to stay here. So I was in Jochi and then, you know- - What was that? - Yeah, Yotsuya? - Yeah. - Oh, is it just a university? - Yeah, it's like a central Tokyo university. - It's a high school university, bro. Like one of the four hottest chicks in Tokyo. That's what they say in terms of university. - They call a university the hottest chick? - No, no, there's like top four in terms of hottest girls. - Oh, right, right, right. - Yeah, like Aoyama.

So we clearly know why he decided to go to this uni. - So you were born a host, I guess. - Bro, no, okay, so I'm a fucking introvert, guys. - Shut up. - Bro. - Like actually, that's the biggest lie of the century. - This guy has been on YouTube for five minutes and now he's claiming to be an introvert. - Come on. - Like actual introverts watching this show are like, "Get the fuck out of here, dude."

- You are not one of us. - The internet has ruined the term introvert now. 'Cause now everyone claims to be an introvert. - Now we have a literal fucking hug. - You can't just say you're an introvert to try and be humble. That doesn't work that way. - What is your justification of being? - Sorry? - Tell us why you're an introvert. - Yeah, why are you an introvert?

For example, I love just being by myself. Who doesn't? Okay. See, the thing is like, you know, I feel the need to hang out. You know, I understand that. Because if I don't, I don't get to make new friends. I don't get to do fun stuff. But when I'm like outside hanging out with people, I should turn out like 95% of the time, I'm always like,

I'd rather be at home, play League of Legends or some shit. Or watch anime. - That doesn't make you an introvert, that just makes you unsociable. - I don't even wanna play League. - I definitely don't. - Maybe he is introverted then. - See, dude, that's what I'm saying, bro. I do spend a lot of time outside socializing with people 'cause I also do enjoy that. - No, no, okay, but I think you need to understand,

- An introverted person is incapable of being social. - No, no, no, no, no, no, no. - Really? - Yeah, because either because they don't have the confidence to be social or because they don't know how to. That's how I see an introvert. - I think that's like, obviously if you're introverted,

- An introvert doesn't mean like you're scared of social interaction. That might be some introverts, but that's not every introvert. - It's like a level of scale, there's severity. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'd say I'm an introvert and the best way I can describe it is that I can be a social person, but I have this battery, right? It's my social battery. And if I don't interact with people for a long time, that battery, it fills up to the point where it starts like overflowing to be like, okay, I just wanna go out and talk to people.

But when I go out and socialize, that battery depletes and depletes more and depletes more. And sometimes it just gets completely fucking empty. Like you boys have hung out with me sometimes where I'm just like, I'm just not gonna say a word this time I'm hanging out. I'm just like, you guys can just talk and I'm just gonna sit here. - Does that have to do with being introverted though? Because I feel even extroverts like that. - If you're tired.

- What I've heard about extroverts is that they actually get energy from social interaction. So they start off the day with an empty battery and then they go out and socialize and that's how they energize themselves. - That's how I feel. - Okay. - Yeah. - If I'm alone for too long, I start to get like sad and shit. - Yeah. - Right. - Do you now? - Yeah. So yeah, Connor's definitely-

guys you know i i invited this guy well i invited myself over to his house you don't yeah if there's one thing you need to know about you don't invite jim jan invites himself i'm gonna get called out to watch the finals well not the finals but you know t1 versus don juan yeah it was uh with league of legends yeah so you know because i i heard this guy mentioned that you know he feels lonely people don't hit

- No, no, no, no, no, no. - No, that's misconstrued. - He has no friends. - I got you man, let's watch some League, let's have a nice drink together, let's hang out. And he's like, "Ah, you know, excuses, excuses." - No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what happened. - Shut the fuck up. - I agreed to go to something and I forgot and then I went to the thing and it wasn't that good. I rather wish I watched a League of Legends. - Yeah, that's what you were telling me and I was like, "Well, hmm." - Yeah, yeah.

- So like going back to the host thing and you know, your backstory for say, so you are half Japanese, half Turkish. - Yeah. - So your mom taught you Japanese? - My dad is Japanese actually. - Ah, okay, okay, okay. - Yeah, and my mom's Turkish.

- So you are, so, 'cause you're- - I love my mom. - Yeah, her mom's as well, man. - If I think about her, I gotta say something nice. - I'm sure she's a lovely lady. - That's cute, yeah. - So like, how did you get fluent? Because you're pretty damn fluent.

- No, as someone who also is half, I'm not even half actually. My parents are fully Thai, but I grew up in a different country. So it's half in a sense, but like I'm full-blooded Thai, but still I grew up in another culture and I wouldn't say I'm like fully fluent in Thai. So if you're fluent in a, I say like your mother tongue language like Joey is, you really have to go out and study it.

True. So how did you get fluent in it? Well, you know, I lived in Turkey, so I didn't really have to study it. Yeah. Because I'm like surrounded by it. Yeah. But Japanese, so starting from first grade, I was enrolled in a Japanese school until seventh grade. Right. And my dad never spoke to me in any other language, you know?

- He was so persistent to just speak to me in Japanese that, you know. - That's exactly how my mom did it. - Bro, see? Great parenting, bro. Look at us now. - Yeah, exactly. Now we're fluent. - Look at us. Look at us. - Look at us. - Feel different. - Yeah, no, but yeah, I agree though. Like that is the 100% the way to do it. Because any other method, if you slip up with another language, then it just lets the kid know,

"Oh, I can get away with just speaking the other way." - Does that get you fluent though? 'Cause I swear, that takes you up to a certain level, but it doesn't get you like- - Oh, I mean, yeah, you obviously have to study it as well, which I did a lot of, and I'm sure you did as well. - Yeah, dude, so my dad,

- So to go over the story, there were chores that I can earn money out of by filling out Kanji Doriru. So like the Kanji studying fucking textbooks. If I got one correct, I would get 0.5 Turkish Liras, which is like 10 yen or some shit. - You got money for studying? - I just got my meal for the day.

- That wasn't a reward in my house. That was like an obligation. He was in a pay to win house. - Yeah, right? - He came out of the womb haggling. - He's like, "Mother, trade off for mother. I complete kanji test, you give me money."

But yeah, I think that was one of the biggest incentives for me to actually learn. - Well, yeah. Money is a big incentive for a lot of things, you know? - Absolutely, yeah. - Because at that age as well, like even, you know, like 10 cents is like, whoa. - Well, you know. - Yeah, for sure. Like you're trying to get your like ice cream money for the day, you know? That's what you're like focused on. - How did you decide on a pricing system? Were you just like, "Yo, I'll learn 10 counting." - I actually had to have it with my dad, you know?

Obviously So actually you know Now that you guys Talk about it Yeah Actually I want to Kind of go on a huge tangent

This is trash days. Whenever I went to your house and I can get with all of us and whatnot, there would always be a period where it's only you and me on your balcony and we're like reflecting on our lives. It's like the 5 a.m. talk. I'm always gone by like 3 a.m. You're always just like, peace out. But then, you know, Garnt is always like, bro, why are you so fucked up?

- You're asking that to me, you know, really, really helped me, you know, go over stuff with you because I mean, new perspective that you're adding here, right? - Oh, thank you, man. Like how I know when I'm going to bed, when I hang out with Jan is when I see the sun. That is how that's like, well, it's kind of the sun's kind of coming up, Jan. I should probably get to bed right now. - I just love how you just,

you found out how fucked up your life was because God was like, why are you so fucked up, bro? Well, like, he really, you know, in detailed fashion, he went over certain, like, aspects of what we talked about. You know, how I ended up doing certain things, some decision making. And, you know, really, like, put your own thought into your answers and your evaluation that,

- Oh, thank God. - God's a good father figure. - Yeah, he's a good father figure for sure. - Father figure slash therapist, I would say. - I'm just a big brother, come on. - I'm not a dad here, guys. I'm not a dad here. - He's the Oni-chan of trash tales, that's for sure. - God is the wisest person I know.

- I'd say so. - I think it's the Zen like monk state that he has. - That's very true. - Garnt just sees things like differently. I don't know, it hits different. - He sees things through his third eye. - He does bro, he does. - Except for food. - He sees things through his third eye, but his other two eyes he doesn't see shit. - Garnt would be right, but I'll just disagree with it. - One random question, do people still pick on you for the way you drink stuff? - Yeah. - I mean, okay.

- Have you seen our subreddit? - Here's the thing, here's the thing. In my entire life, no one has ever picked on me for the way I drink stuff. And now only as Trash Taste has started, have I noticed how I drink things. And I've never noticed that before, before I started Trash Taste. - Being on camera sucks. - Thank you. - You are kind of forced to strive for perfection on this show. Like any one slip up in our audience is like, gotcha. - I don't care anymore, I'll fucking.

- Oh God. - There you go. - So damn, you got like fluent in kanji, I guess, similar to Joey. - Can't write for shit though. - You can't write? But you can read kanji, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the usual. - I mean, when I talk to Jan, it's like I'm talking to a native. It's like, I can tell not only you are actually fluent, but you also like, 'cause you know, there are people who just know the vocab, but don't actually understand the,

the culture behind the language. When I speak to Jan, it's like, he clearly also gets the culture. - I think that's because we both follow anime and manga, you know, like deep into that shit. - Yeah, but I mean, it also helps again that your dad, you know, did that whole Orleans and Japanese technique, which I honestly would recommend to any parent. - No, yeah.

There's two examples that have been proven to work, right? It's a must, man. I think so. It's a must, honestly. I think so. So when did you move to Japan originally to come live here? So I visit every year to see my grandparents and hang out here. And I think that's one of the reasons also why there's no cultural gap in my vocabulary, for example. But I moved here permanently about three years ago. So right after graduating from Jochi to actually start working here.

- And you became a house. - No, so that's the, that's never been my main profession. - Right, right. - Yeah. - So. - It's like a side hustle? - Yeah, basically. - How long have you been doing it for then? - Of course I started after 18. - Yeah, of course, of course. - It's not like I started any time before that. But, so it's been how long? Seven years since I started, I guess, huh? 'Cause I'm 25 now.

Is that a long time for a host? Like what's like the average that a host would be a host fully? - Dude, it really depends on the club, but I would say like the general lifespan of a single host is pretty short. - Yeah, it seems like it. - Yeah, honestly. - But the thing is like in my case, for example, I wasn't like a full time, right? Like for example, until I moved here permanently, it was always like a,

one month thing. So for like the audience or like the customers, it was like, oh my God, I can only see this dude one month out of the whole year. That's crazy. Because for me, it's like I've,

during my breaks, I would just like go and play Xbox the whole time. I didn't even have the capacity to even find- - Jan was on that grind. - How did you even like, so you became a host, you said like what, for one month for summer? - How did that start? - How the hell did you even get into that? - I'm so curious. - Okay, so to go over, since, you know, even before I was 18, I would always go to Kabukicho

you know the host central yeah yeah the red light district exactly the closest thing to it that's where all the amalgamation of all the you know fun cool shit and toga happens and sketchy stuff yeah also very sketchy yeah but you know like i would hear stories from my dad how this street was because my dad used to work there too at a bar called subaltern my dad is like a huge ass motherfucker so he was like a bouncer for one of the you know bars back in the day right so he would tell me how he used to play a card with like you know people who are missing a part

portion of their finger. Right, right, right. So I was really curious to see like, what is this place like now? So I would go there with my, you know. Before you were 18. I mean, just to look around, you know. So I would go there and like, the people there just, you know, treated me like I'm an adult, you know. Right.

Right. I mean, it do be like that when you're like half Turkish. Yeah, exactly. You have a fucking beard like this. If you're a beard, you're 40 years old in Japan. Yeah, exactly. I never had an issue like buying or doing anything here, you know? Yeah, yeah. So yeah, outside summer would go there just to experience what it's like, you know, see places. It's not like I did anything. We're just, you know, looking. Yeah. And then, you know,

Once I turned 18 I decided Well when I'm going to Japan I should probably Make some money Meaning I should do Some baito Because my dad was like Well now that you're 18 I ain't gonna give you Any money bro Just do something You know So I was like Alright am I gonna work At a fucking pizzaya Yeah Or a hostel

And then I decided to choose the pizza. - Why was that your two options? - Surely there's more choices. - So when I was 18- - Wait, father, I will work for Domino's or the sketchiest bar in Tokyo. Which one should I choose? - Extreme. - Yeah.

- When you put it like that, it's like such fucking- - It's not my first two choices, I can say that. - Okay, okay, so to go over why that- - You could've just worked at McDonald's. - Yeah, no shit. - A conbini or something, you know? - The way it transpired is that when I turned 18, near my parents' house, there was a pizza called

I'm not going to name it because it's my surname. - What is a pizza? - Pizza shop. - Okay, I understood that was it, but I just wanted to make sure. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a pizza shop. - So the shop's name was literally my surname. So I went there, chat with the guy. He's like, "Yo, we have the same surname." And he looks like exactly like me, bro. This guy is Japanese, has a beard, huge nose and everything. - Was he Turkish as well? - No, he's not. He's not. But we became really good friends and he was like, "Why don't you work here?" You know, I heard you're here for the summer, you know, I'll give you good cash, 900 yen an hour.

It's like 10 bucks. Yeah, but it was like, you know, free food all day, bro. I'm like, shit, let's go. So I started working there for, you know, a few months. Yeah. When I was 18, I stayed in Japan for much longer than one month, actually.

probably like four months. Yep. The first two months I was there, um, I worked there and then I started taking night shifts because my, you know, Tantral wanted me to make drinks and serve it to the customers at the counter. Huh? And he said, it's like a pizza place that served alcohol. Exactly. Right, right, right. And then the main customers that come in the evening were, um,

Melfs, let's say. I'm happy with that. So he was like, yo, John. So he's like an ex-sports teacher. He still has good ties with the school and all of his ex-students he's still in contact with. And now they're all adults. Yeah, and most of the females are married, they have kids, they're like 25. And when you're 25 and you're married to a 30-year-old Japanese guy and he's away a lot,

And, you know, maybe he has like an erectile dysfunction. Yeah.

- She kind of wants to go talk to other people, right? - Okay, I was gonna say that. - We fucking at the pizzeria. - We fucking at Chuck E Cheese. - I'm just giving you some context. - I was just about like, what you're describing literally sounds like the start of a porn. - Guys, to be fair. - That's gonna happen a lot throughout this episode. - I mean, one thing that we should probably mention is that cheating culture in Japan is pretty prevalent, right? - It's fucking- - It's very normal, unfortunately. - It's nuts, bro.

Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. So I started working at this pizza place, taking the night shifts, making drinks for these ladies, chatting with them. And I realized they're coming back specifically to chat with me. That's what the boss is telling me. They're like, yo, this is...

- These ladies, they want to hang out with you after. - This is dangerous feeding an 18 year old. - Yeah, yeah. - And then I realized that they're allowed to buy drinks for me while I'm making drinks for them. So I'm like, you know. - What kind of pizza place is this? - It's not a pizza place. - Yo guys, it is. - What's happening? - Where did we get the drinks from? I thought we, I had the image of like,

- The Domino's counter and you would just take orders? - I don't think this is a pizza place. I think this is a bar that serves pizza. - Well, it's like a really high end pizza place that has a really, really sexy counter with like a lot of high end alcohol kind of lined up. And then there's a nice stool that people can sit on and then drink one-to-one with the bartender. - Right, right, right. It's all bar.

- With pizza attached to it. - Yeah, yeah. So it's a bar that serves pizza. It's not a pizza place. - So when the wife goes there, she can be like, "No, no, I'm not gonna go to a bar. I'm gonna go to a pizza place." - I'm gonna get pizza. - It's not a fat pepperoni. - That's an excuse for your husband. - You don't have to fear the pizza boy. He's a pizza boy. - So after like a month or so working there, you know, in the night shift, I realized that, you know,

I may be good at this. So my boss was like, and he's such a nice guy, bro. - You took any contact with him? - Yeah, of course, of course. I go hang out with him, stay over at his house and shit. So he told me, you know, 'cause I was talking to him about becoming a host initially, but I told him, you know, like, "I don't want to let my parents down." - Okay, so why did you want to be a host initially before you entered?

- Easy money, man. - Easy money. - Bro, guys, think about it. There's a job where you literally get paid money to drink with girls. - Yeah, the money- - And just chat with them. - When I did my video, the money I saw that they were getting paid was insane. - Yeah. - It's nuts. - Yeah, yeah. - It was like, some of them could make like $50,000 a night. - Yeah. - Easy. - If it's your birthday- - Why are we YouTubers?

- They fucking laughed at me when they were like, "How much do you make?" And I told them how much I made like the year before. And they were like, "That's how much you made?" They all started fucking laughing. I was like, "What the fuck?" - They were like, "Look at this peasant." - Bro, I'm like, "What the hell?" - Some of them don't pay tax. - Yeah, yeah. - It's all cash in there. - Yeah, exactly. Just write off whatever the fuck.

- It's crazy, bro. - So, okay. So what was the process of like getting into your first hosting job then? - Okay, so after the piece of stuff I decided to apply, right? - Yeah. Apply, like do you just talk to someone or do you have like a job offer or? - Yeah. - So you go on the fucking internet guys, holy shit. - So you just type in, you know, Host Club Tokyo and then you just find it. - Craigslist, right?

- So you just find the nearest one. So I went to the one in Ikebukuro, 'cause that was like five minutes train away from where I was living at that time. - Yeah. - Not sure if that was attention. That was attention. - This is like his host coming out. - He's drinking a gin and tonic by the way. - Oh yeah, guys. - It's like two in the afternoon.

We want a drink, but we can't. We have our health checkups. Let me go over this real quick. I have to get out of my chair. So people, listen to me. We've been discussing about this podcast day for like a year. Since we met. We've been trying to get gentle for a while now. And then I was always like, you know, we're going to get fucking smashed when I show up, right? Are you guys fucking ready? And last week, I had to cancel because some shit happened. And then I said, about next week. And what is it? Yeah, let's do it. And I show up today with this bottle.

And the first thing they say, they're like, "Oh, you can't drink today though." Damn. - I'm sorry. - To be fair, Jan, we have been asking you for a whole year. You've had 52 weeks, which is not this week, to say yes. - So that's a valid enough excuse to not let me know that you can't drink this week. We didn't think about it. - Well, we didn't think about it. I actually completely forgot I had a health checkup until this morning. I came in. I was like, "Oh yeah, that's tomorrow, shit."

- I have no excuse. - We'll drink when the cameras are off, when it's not today. Like we always do, like we always do. - The day that this episode goes up, we'll drink. - Fuck yeah, let's do it. - So save it until then. - Cheers. - I'll camp you some cucumber water. - Some cucumber water. - Shit. - Thank you, bro.

- I thought I'd camp I'd gone. I thought it was like a group camp I. - Yeah. - No, it doesn't work that way bro. - I wanna go around camping everyone individually. I'm like, cheers, cheers, cheers. - I mean, Jan does it right? - He's a host though. - This episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. - Using the internet without using ExpressVPN is like leaving your keys in the car while you run to the gas station for a snack. Most of the time you're probably fine, but what if you come back to see someone driving off with your car

Every time you connect to an unencrypted network, cafes, hotels, airports, any hacker on the same network can gain access to your personal data. Passwords, financial details, etc. And it really doesn't take much technical knowledge to hack someone. Just some cheap hardware is needed. Even Joey could do it without his graphics card. Your data is valuable and hackers can make up to $1,000 per person selling personal information on the dark web. But guys, why use ExpressVPN? Well, let me tell you. It creates a secure, encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet. Hackers can't steal your sensitive data at all. It would take Joey over

- And everyone who watches Trash Taste knows that I use ExpressVPN. It's easy, it's very easy to use. - It's genuine. - It's very simple. You can't fuck it up. You can change the country. It's super easy. I just use it 'cause it's painless. - Even I can use it. - So secure your data today by visiting expressvpn.com/trashtaste. That's expressvpn.com/trash-taste.

E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N.com/trashtaste and you can get an extra three free months. - That's expressvpn.com/trashtaste, links in the description below. - Back to the episode. - All right, so yeah, tell us how you got into this. - So you looked up Host Club Tokyo and then you applied for one in Ikebukuro and then you just walked in? - Yeah, basically. - Is it that easy? - Well, they have an interview and they actually pay you.

to go to the interview. Why? Can you believe that? Is that new or is that like, has it always been like that? This is where the, you know, difference in clubs come in. So for example, if you go to a, you know, very well-known club in Kabukicho, like Prachina,

If you know, that's like one of the fucking most prestigious clubs. I know the name, yeah. Yeah. So they're not going to pay you to go there. You're going to go there, you're going to do the interview, and they're going to tell you to fuck off like 90% of the time. Yeah, yeah. But smaller clubs in, you know, buttfuck nowhere, like Ikebukuro, kind of,

they are lacking staff. So they need more hosts to actually fill the place. So they actually pay people to take the interviews 'cause they can afford it. - Wait, so they pay you even if you don't get in? - Yeah, exactly. They pay you for your time, bro. - Wow. - So actually the first, yeah, go for it. - So is the host industry that big that we have like a shortage of like employees in the host industry?

- I mean, there is a shitload of host clubs just in Tokyo. So I mean, I guess the demand is there. - Yeah. - I guess it's not really like apparent maybe if you just look at it from a surface of like just how much in demand it is. - I think back in the day, at least for girls bars, I read that they would literally just like hire tourists

Really? No, they weren't. They're not allowed to, obviously. Yeah, those bars. They would hire foreign girls for girls bars on tourist visas. You could just like, girls would just walk into bars. I can believe that. I want to work here. Okay, sure. Wow. I met a girl like that the other day, actually. Of course you did. Near a girls bar next to my house that I always go to just to check out who's new and stuff. There was this Russian girl.

This episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Going online without ExpressVPN is like not having a case on your phone. Most of the time, you'll probably be fine, but all it takes is one drop and you'll wish you spent those extra few dollars on a case. Did you know that your data is valuable? Yes, even you, your data is valuable. And hackers can make as much as $1,000 selling your personal information on the dark web. I don't think you want that. And it doesn't take much technical knowledge to know how to hack someone. A smart 12-year-old can do it.

I can't, though. Every time you connect to an unencrypted network in cafes, hotels, airports, your online data is not secure. Let me tell you a little bit why ExpressVPN is the best. You see, it would take a hacker with a supercomputer over a billion years to get past ExpressVPN's encryption. And it's super easy to use. Just fire up the app and click one button to start getting protected. And it works on pretty much every device, phones, laptops, tablets, pretty much anything you have. So you can always stay protected on the go.

and it's also rated number one by tech reviews like cnet and the verge i'm traveling around the world right now and especially pn has genuinely been saving my ass i like watching tv shows and it's very annoying that i have accounts in japan and when i travel it does not like it so being able to just spoof that i'm in japan or in any other country to watch any kind of content

is very helpful so secure your online data today by visiting expressvpn.com slash trash taste that's e-x-p-r-e-s-s-vpn.com slash trash taste and you can get an extra three months for free that's expressvpn.com slash trash taste thank you to expressvpn for sponsoring this video back to the episode what's here for like exchange yeah you know she's only here for like four months yeah it's just be working yeah exactly the visa doesn't allow yeah exactly no it's nothing legal but she's still there

I'm sure that's not the dodgiest thing you've seen, but we'll get into some of the other stories later. - So you join this, you get paid for the interview. - Yeah, so I hopped two places. And then at that time I was thinking like, how about I hop like 50 places and not join any of them? - 'Cause when you said that they would pay you and not even join, I'm just like, there's an idea. What if I just apply to jobs and not join? - How does this interview process go then? Do they just make you drink?

So you go, you fill in like a basic sheet. That's kind of the employment thing, your name, your address and whatnot. And then they ask you questions just to chat with you. You know, have you ever done this before? Are you good at socializing? Can you handle drinks? How long can you work for? I just, you know, watch League of Legends. Yeah.

- I watch the legends now. - Get out, get out. - You can't talk right now. But yeah, I was gonna originally do like a hopping thing just to collect like, and they pay a lot. They pay like 4,000, some of them pay 6,000. - So it's $40 to $60? - Yeah, just to go to an interview, which finishes in like an hour, bro. I know, right? Crazy. - So how many hours is that at the pizzeria?

- Don't even, man. - It's like five, six hours. - Six hours for a single interview. - That place was not about money. It's about the friends we made along the way. - Fucking God, Jack.

- How much longer do we have to have him on the show? - Whoa, come on now, man. I didn't start talking about the good shit. - Okay, okay, okay. - Bro, we need this to go down until like the midpoint. - Oh my God. - This is 47% by the way. - I know, I know. - One shot of vodka. - How sad is this though, just getting smashed by myself?

Anyway, yeah. So you decided to join the Ikebukuro one? Yeah. So after two interviews, I decided, you know what? I kind of like this place. So it was a really interesting one because until that point, they never really made me sit with an actual customer. But for the Ikebukuro place that I went to, it was called Acid.

That place literally made me sit down with a customer and just drink with them straight up. - So it wasn't even like, it was like trial by fire. It was just around an actual customer that was there. - Yeah, exactly. But it was like one of the closed customers of one of the members there. The shacho asked him, is it okay if we have this random ass guy just chat with her for a bit just to see if he's capable. And she said, fuck yeah.

So I sat down, drank fucking Jager bombs with her. - Fuckin' love you. - Was that her choice? - My choice, bro. - Oh my God. - It's gross. - Of course you're 18 at the time. That makes so much sense. - Red Bull, Red Bull, Red Bull. Put it in my veins. - So we drank Jager bombs and Cocadero. Do you know Cocadero? - Yeah, I know. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Shit's crazy. - The green one, right? It's got like some substance in it that's like,

- It's like taurine I think is actually in the cocktail, in the alcohol. - Yeah. - Actually? - Something like that, yeah. - It's awful for your heart. - Yeah. - I'm not surprised, bro. - I think I served it in the gay bar video I did. - Yeah. - It's green at the bottom. - It's like a green one, yeah. - Red bull at the bottom, then it's just like not mixed. - Red bull with coca-lera? Jesus Christ. - Yeah, so it's red bull at the bottom and then it's the 40% spirit on top and they're not supposed to mix. - Yeah. - So the idea is that it's like this presentation that's like fancy and stuff. - Bloody hell. - It's shit.

- I think you can pull someone out of a coma with that. - Yeah, genuinely. Like just dude, let's just question people with that. The fucking baby will start floating. - The baby will start floating. - Yeah, the baby will start fucking just floating away. Sorry, go ahead. - Yeah, so you sat down with this lady. - Oh yeah, we just started drinking with her. - Just like try it out. - So that was your first time? - Yeah, first time ever. - Did you kill her? Did it go well? Was it awkward? - No, not at all, man. - What did you drink with her? You know, like why did you come here? Well, I'm trying it out. I'm a student, blah, blah, blah.

- It sounds like she was interviewing you. Maybe she was the real interviewer. - Yeah, that was the real interviewer. - This is like some undercover boss. - I'm actually the owner of this place. - The thing is, I'll get into this a bit more later, but like, you know,

In like the traditional way of doing a hostel, you're supposed to have the other person talk the most. Yeah. That's with any sales tactic, right? If you come out of an interview in general, talking more than the other person, that means you have to do the selling. Right. If you make the other person talk more, that means, you know, they're trying to do something to impress you or they're just having a good time that they just want to talk more. But in this case, she was just asking me questions like, where are you from? Why do you have a fucking beard? How old are you? 18? How old is she? 35? You know, stuff like that. Yeah.

- Small talk stuff. - And like the more I answered stuff, it intrigued her more to ask more questions. So, you know, at the end she said, you know, "I want to see this guy again. "I'm gonna fucking hire him." I was like, "Let's go, start tomorrow." - Right, right. - Make it sound so simple. Just ask questions, bro. - I mean, you guys probably not, but you could become a host of tomorrow, bro. - Why me? - 'Cause you speak Japanese. - It doesn't mean I'm good at socializing. - Nah, you're fine.

Not that I have any plans to be a host. It's all right guys, I'm not going to. - Well, we have a plan, don't you think? - Yeah, I want to do like a version two of it. - What do you mean? - The host club video. - Oh, the host club video, right, right, right. - Just go with Jad now, it's like, show you around. - Yeah, exactly. - Yeah, bro, I want to take you to my homies place.

- Show you around. - When Jan says homies place, it's like, I just think of like the most sketchy. I don't know why. - I have like my preconceptions of host clubs and whatnot just 'cause from filming my video where I went to host club and I got to see everything there, you know? And obviously we cut a lot of stuff that I couldn't share. But one misconception I had about host clubs is that I thought you had to be like fucking, like literally looking like a rock star, like sexy as fuck.

- It's like, you literally just have to have a gimmick almost. And this guy's gimmick was that he was an asshole. That was like his character, right, Maylene? Was that? Yeah, so I think, like- - Was it this? - I know who's kind of, so he was a bit larger. - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - But he was just big. - I thought he was called big. He calls himself big.

- Oh, he calls himself a pig? - I'm very grateful they let me film. I mean, they really did give me all access and like- - It's pretty tough to get permission with. - They're really nice about it. - Did you have to hook them up and stuff? - No. - No? We didn't do anything, did we?

- We literally just shouted out his YouTube, I think. That was it. It was one of the situations where I didn't really know what was going on. I don't think any of us really knew what was happening. We just kind of got dragged in and we were doing it and I didn't know if I was gonna pay for stuff. But like, you know, he was, from what I was gathering, like he was being rude

Like it was partially a character, but I think there was partially some of it that might've been how he actually behaves. - It has to have stemmed from somewhere, right? - You know, he was trying to be funny as well. Like he was trying to crack jokes at my expense, which I didn't mind. You know, I can take that. I'm not self-conscious. - I just fucking go as you, ha ha.

- I don't know. Sometimes when you bring cameras into a place like that, sometimes people feel like they wanna- - Show off. - Yeah. - Do I seem like that to you right now? - No, no, no. I know that you fuck off. - You're more of an asshole off camera. - That is not the case. That is not the case. But yeah, it was interesting. What shocked me the most was how like,

transparent it all was. Like the hosts were like very transparent about that. They were like, we don't care, but they do this whole act that they do care. But it's so obvious that they don't. And they almost tell them that they don't care in many ways. It's really- - Oh, to the customers. - Yeah, it's really strange. - Right, right, right. - And that's where we go into the whole psychology of it and then the tactics they employ to actually, you know, garner these-

It's something I don't think I can quite, if you're not from Japan, it would take years for you to wrap your head around because you feel like you have to need to understand what led up to this as a culture. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - To understand why this is even a thing. - So like as a host, what is the big appeal of host clubs? You know, from the other side. - Yeah, why do so many girls in Japan love going to host clubs and like not just going, but like spending like gargantuan amounts of money for these hosts. - Very good question.

So this has kind of a lot of sides to it, but the main answer I would say is just the social structure of Japan itself. Right. As you also mentioned, Japan is not really like...

social friendly place especially when you look at the type of people that actually go to the host clubs so again a huge tangent but the reason why i wanted to go to host club or one of the reasons is to see what kind of people actually work there yeah what kind of people actually go there because it made no sense like why would i spend money to chat with guys yeah i can just go to you know bar and pay to drink with a guy right that's a girl yeah so

And once I entered, that was like the main thing that I looked into. What kind of people go there? Why do they go there? And what kind of people actually work there? So what I figured out is most of the customers that we would get, and I'm sure it's the same across the board, they're also people who work in the nightlife.

Yeah. Oh, okay. I noticed that. I noticed that the people... Like, easy, I would say more than 80% of the people that we got, they were always, you know... Like, kyabakura, soap, whatever. Some kind of a nightlife where...

your pride your dignity it's fucking stepped on all day long and it's you know you're out of your job the one thing you want is being pampered one thing you want is feeling like you're being respected one thing you want is even if it's artificial as fuck yeah you know it you want to feel this guy giving you this utter you

you know sense of service and then you know do anything for you kind of thing yeah yeah yeah quite depressing aspect of japanese culture yeah if you put it in that perspective yeah but it has its own culture within itself where you know once you go a lot to a host club for example like you get to meet the shacho you know like all like owners basically of these host clubs and they're not like you know random ass people they're usually very wealthy japanese businessmen yeah

And if you're in the nightlife and then you get to hang out with the shacho, you know, he might elevate you in some way or other. Maybe he might put you in a different, you know, like a kebapura or something, you know. So there's actually different reasons as to why you would go to a host club. Depends on the person. All right.

So how often would you get like, you know, like a newbie come to the host club? Like, you know, someone who- - First time ever. - Yeah, you know, someone who was like, say not part of like the industry or that kind of environment. Someone just like- - Someone is just like curious to be like, oh, I wanna see what a host club is like. - Yeah, yeah. - Actually, when you start off, that's your main goal.

You go outside the club, you go Nampa on the street with random girls and you let them- - What's Nampa? - Nampa is like hitting- - Yeah, you just hit on them. - Bro, you're like a 2010 YouTuber. - It's fucking vitally. - You wanna make out? - Camera's right there, just kidding. - So, you know, the thing was you just go up to them and be like, "Hey, I work right there. You know, I would love to drink with you. It's 1,600 yen per hour, onomiho day."

- What's the success rate of this? - One in a hundred will be generous. - Yeah, right? - Oh, well they'll do it just 'cause they feel sorry for you. - Bro, it's Japan, bro. People value their time and money. - And privacy as well. - Exactly, exactly. No one appreciates some random dude getting this close and being like, no one's gonna be like, "Yeah, let's do it."

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. 'Cause I see it all the time when you go to like Shibuya and Shinjuku of like these dudes who clearly work at host clubs going up to these girls and these girls just don't even give them like any attention at all. - They're used to it, bro. Japanese girls that go to these places, they know that some catchy guy is gonna come to you and just walk straight ahead. - Well, it's kind of the same with like maid cafes, but just like the opposite way around, bro. So like you go to Akihabara or Kabukicho and you like see

a lot of maids on the streets trying to get people to come in their maid cafes as well. - And you just like, don't even give them periphery at all. Just like, don't make eye contact. Don't make eye contact. - The moment they realized in the periphery they are there, they'll just come up to you and like give you a pamphlet, right? - Yeah, sucks. - So like, so was that what you had to do when you joined the host club? Was that like your first jobs? - Yeah.

Initially, that was my first ever proper job after the pizza bar. So for the first couple of months, not even the first year, because I wasn't living in Japan. So for the first time I was there and the second year that I was there, you go in at 5 p.m., clean the fucking place with your other homies that are not selling. So you just make everything pristine as fuck. And then your senpais would come in and be like, what's the fucking dirt there, bro? Hi!

you know that thing but i love that about japan i mean but you know it's fun because i still make banter out of it you know yeah like no one would go up to their senpai and be like how about you do it but like i would do it you know like pissed off and be like you know number one you think you're this hot come you clean it i'm not doing it you and he'll be like yo i like you

- The same price as old tsundere's. - That's the whole industry. - They're like, "Oh, that's what I'm fighting about." - Being a writer's just got so much material. - Yeah, right? - Absolutely, and it's the same with the way you approach the customers because the number one rule they tell you when you join is do not ask them personal questions.

Don't ask them what they do, their real name, their address, how they make their living. - It's so hard 'cause remember when I did it, I was like, fuck, it's like when you meet someone, all you do is just ask them like, hey, what are you doing? - Yeah, exactly. - I was like, I don't know what to ask. - And combined with the fact that I'm also used to that, but also my main purpose was to do a survey as to why the fuck do people come to these places anyway? So I was like, crack, okay, first girl I ever go into.

- Why are you here? - Why are you here? - Yeah, why are you here? - And my senpais are just like, "What the fuck?" - Did the girls like that? - Well, that's what worked in my favor because I was acting like- - That was your gimmick? - Yeah, exactly. - It's like the girl's like, "No one's ever asked me before." - This is some fucking anime plot. - I was acting that Japanese- - I love how your gimmick is just, "You're the guy that gives the survey."

- No, there's a word to it. - Bring the survey guy. - He is a YouTuber. - The social experiment guy. - What's up guys? I'm here in Kibbutz show. - Well, the main purpose also was to get information, but again,

I was playing this character where I'm that gaijin guy who has no idea what the fuck he's doing, but it's that friendly neighborhood gaijin doing his best. - Right. - That character. - Gathering information. - So was that like a character you made up or was that something you were just like, okay, I know this is the character I'm gonna play and I'm gonna play it out. - Quite naturally really, 'cause I never gave a shit what they told me to do. 'Cause I was like, bro, you fire me today, I'll go to the next place.

They pay me money to go to the interviews. Like, I give a care. Right, right. I never give a fuck. So, you know. You figured out the system, man. Yeah, exactly. The system. It's just all about not giving a fuck. Horse Club hate this one trick. Click to find out. So, you know, employing this tactic of just asking these girls, like, what do you do? My main structure of conversation was literally just being a life coach to these girls. Right. But,

Just Bitcoin, NFT. Buy, invest, invest. Just to go over the general structure. So I think last time I went over how I got chosen and shit. So you clean the stuff, you start sitting down with girls. And then when there's a new girl that comes in, who's never been to that club before, what you do is each guy gets to sit down with her for five minutes. Just five minutes. You give your card, you compliment them, you talk to them.

And then after five minutes, they switch around. - I love that host clubs have business cards. Hosts have business cards. - I should have brought mine today, bro. It's really sick. - It's like some stock trading stuff. - Let me bring it out. - Is it just like that scene from like American Psycho? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Let me see your business card. - Fine, go. - Nice print. - Italics. - That's the five minutes. - Offline. - Sorry, sorry, go ahead. - Patrick Bateman moment. - Yeah, it really was.

- So you had five minutes to prove yourself. - Yeah, exactly. So you do that, you rotate, and after the first 45 or 50 minutes- - They choose someone, right? - Yeah. - How'd you stand out in five minutes? - Well, see, that's the thing, bro. Most people just go like, "Oh, your eyes are beautiful." "I love your nails." Stuff like that. - John comes in, "Why are you here?"

Why are you gay? I'm like, why are you here? Why don't you go somewhere else and hang out with your friends? And she's like, what do you mean? And I'm like, well, I love him. Well, you're spending money to drink with me. That means, you know, there's a reason why you're here. Why are you here?

And then like, I make them explain, like justify their reason for being there. So like, I clearly don't get along with close minded people or people who are not willing to chat. Bro, you would get ladies that would just come in and open their phones and just, you know, scroll through. And I see that for like a minute and I'm like, yeah, no. Fucking change. I'm not gonna sit with her. - I mean, to be fair, that is a waste of money. - But it's wasting my time. - It's a waste of the host time. - A lot of the host clubs, they offer,

unlimited drinks for the first 60 minutes you're in there. And it's normally considerably cheaper. - It's fucking cheap. - It's like 1,000 yen for like all you can drink. - So I guess girls just come in to just drink. - Yeah, because the next drink, if you buy one beer, it's like 30 bucks. - Everything's like 10 times the fucking market price. - I mean, it's like that with a lot of like, even girls bars as well. That's how they get you in, right? They get you in for the all you can drink and then,

and then they sell you on other stuff, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Luckily I think guys are a little bit easier to convince to stay in the bar than that. - They're fucking girls, right? - Yeah, I think so. I think they're like, "Ooh, hot girl, I will say." - One thing that I've always been curious about is how cutthroat is it? How cutthroat is this industry?

- Honestly, again, this comes down to what kind of club you work at. The place I was at, it's like fucking teddy bears and sugar daddies. - You're coming on trash days and you're cleaning our set for us. - I feel bad. - I've done a lot of the host clubs. I don't know if yours did this, but they rank all the staff, right? - Oh yeah, they were. - This is some anime shit. - Well, they have to, 'cause at the entrance. So at my peak, I was number three out of 20 people that were working there. - Nice. - Yeah, fuck yeah. - S rank. - S rank.

- People got power rankings here. But can you be Goku? - Oh shit. - You know, Goku was always at the top. I will get to that one day. - At the entrance of the club, you usually have like a little poster that says, who has the most amount of shime, which is girls that come in and choose you as like their daddy, basically. - Right, right. - Whenever they come in, they want to sit with you. - Right. - Do you have to use the word daddy? - What's the equivalent in English? - Shime. - Like honey?

Daddy the show. It gives you money. Exactly. Would you call him daddy? Daddy. Really? You're asking the wrong person. Yeah, you're right. Okay, carry on. All right, yeah, daddy anyway.

So yeah, they display that because as I mentioned, the value of your host club is also elevated by what kind of person you have there. So some clubs, they have this one host who's like the industry head, like top. If he moves, it's like, good example would be League of Legends professional scene. - Now you're talking my language. - Yeah, boy, let's go. - Do you mean at any sport? - Yeah. - Hey, shut the fuck up. - Only League of Legends. - Only League. - Let's talk about the one I know. So for example, if double lifts change teams,

Who's going to follow him? The fans. And in League of Legends professional scene, the fans make up the entirety. Merch, you know, like filling the stage and generally all the hype of the- - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - So it's the same with host clubs. - So people aren't loyal to the host club. They're loyal to the host. - Depends. Some host clubs have a huge history like Prachina. They're known to be a fucking, you know, industry standard in terms of being like a really high end club with-

spectacular service and having the best hosts. But there are some newbie clubs that are elevated by perhaps recruiting these guys who work at these prestigious clubs and raise their name value. - So it is literally like they're trying to poach the best players at this club. - Yeah, for sure. - I guess all this anime ranking system, which is based off the host. - It comes off the host industry. - It's strange in Japan how in some ways

- The work culture is so like against ranking anyone against each other, but there's certain industries where it's like you're ranked against everyone. If you fail, you are fucking eliminated. - I mean, Japanese schools do that shit as well. - Yeah, exactly. - It's strange. - Yeah, like an end of year exam and like two weeks later when they finished marking it, there's huge fucking, it's not all schools, but most schools have these huge fucking posters saying like, here's the top 100 placements. - I just realized fucking host club just sounds like ranked ELO. - Yeah. - Like what? - So, technically,

- Money is Elo. - Yeah, exactly. - Technically, Garnt, you're fucking right. - But then the dichotomy is that they have lifetime contracts, right? Workers can't be fired from companies. It's just so weird. It's like, pick one. - It's like, okay, so I'm not gonna get fired from my job just 'cause I'm a low-ranking. You just literally did it to make me feel like shit. That's the only reason. - So you were number three out of all this thing. - For a time being. - Okay, damn, that's crazy.

How fast did it take you to get to number three? - Years, bro. - I assume that's difficult, right? - You have to build their clientele.

Right. Like, as I mentioned, the tactic that I was employing, it's not really customer friendly. You know, most Japanese ladies are not used to some gaijin with a beard coming up to them and be like, why are you here? Why are you paying money to see guys when you can just go to a club or anywhere? So the people that actually stuck around to drink with me, they're like open-minded people. They wanted to mostly hear about my experiences in life.

living abroad, experiencing going to a bunch of countries, having fucked up parties and stuff. - If you don't want me asking, what is the normal clientele demographic? - So it really changes, man. So most people might imagine it's like, obachans, you know, like old ladies with rich husbands. But, to your surprise, you actually get like, early 20s, like idols and stuff sometimes. - Really? - Like, "I'm just an idol."

- I mean, I guess that kind of makes sense, right? 'Cause in what environment can an idol just go out and just be comfortable, right? In a normal environment. - Maybe not like the super popular ones, but like especially like all the underground idols, like there's a shitload of them. - Yeah, there's a shitload of them, bro. - Where they don't really have like an image to keep, I guess, as strong as like say like AKB48 or something, right? So they can go to a host club.

- 'Cause as someone who grew up abroad from Japan, do you think the host environment can work in like any other country or is it just like something that's only in Japan and only because of the social structure? - You do that in Turkey? You do that in Turkey? Look, you live a fucking like, arm your taxi drivers ready to beat you up.

Like literally Why taxi drivers Bro cause they're like They're like the mafia Of Turkey Bro Dude In Turkey they say Don't fuck with bus drivers And taxi drivers Because they're only like You know Gang So fuck with one of them You call up The entire neighborhood

- Dude, like, I need to see this. - Did someone call a taxi? - Kik gives a one-star Uber review. - He cracks knuckles. - This is real though, this is huge because I don't know if I told you guys, but like in the past three years, when I go back to Turkey, I always find this one taxi guy who can like, quote unquote, "shaform" me around. But that's because Turkish currency is shit right now. So, you know, I can take cabs anywhere.

but once you're really good with the taxi guy and you know treat him like your own personal driver and you get to experience what kind of life he lives man wherever district you go to he calls somebody up and says you know what's the next target you have any customers around here talk let me let me redirect these people to your way bro they work like a hive mind bro it's crazy

- They just sound like a bunch of like organized assassins. - They're insane bro. - They've all got bar cards in the back. - So like whenever you get into trouble, you call one of them, like my main homie, and then he will call this homie's homie, and then in 10 minutes, you will have like 30 fucking guys ready for you.

- I shit you not. - What? - That's the benefit of being, it's going on in Turkey. - Bro, it's all about connections and people you meet, man. - Why taxi drivers? - 'Cause they're amazing, bro. - They get everywhere. - I mean, yeah. - They know everybody, bro. 'Cause who talks to customers the most? Barbers and taxi drivers. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Not in Japan, 'cause they suck here, but in Turkey, like you get on, first thing they say is like, "What's your religion?" - Why are you here? - Yeah, bro, why are you here?

- The CIA, I sleep. Turkish taxi drivers, that's the real shit. - Honesty, honesty, honesty. People don't know about this. It's fucking underground information. - Jon Snowden just moved to Turkey and like, all right, now I'm impressed.

- Sorry, I forgot completely where we've got to. That was like one of the weirdest hand gestures I've ever gone on. Going back to, I think what we were talking about before with taxi drivers, what are like some of the most interesting clientele that you've had?

- Before taxis. - Yeah, oh yeah. We're talking about demographics and shit. - So you said you had like really, really like young girls, like in like early twenties and stuff? - Yeah, you know, like people, the audience would kill to drink with, you know, you can lay eyes upon. - Don't mean to brag. - The thing is, our Shacho was the owner of a apparel brand.

So he knew a lot of models and stuff. - Oh, okay, okay. - Yeah, so he was really well versed in the whole, you know, underground. - So he'd invite the models to like come to the club and stuff. - Yeah, he would invite his like people he works with, who he works with to the club. And then, you know, we would have a jolly good time together. - Who were like some of the most like, I guess, memorable ones you had? - Memorable. - 'Cause I'm sure you've met like a wide array of like different characters. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, honestly, the young girls, not really memorable because,

At the end of the day, if you lived in Japan your whole life and never left the country... Mm-hmm.

with the lack of life experience, there's not much I can gain out of you. It's mostly me talking about myself and like, you know, I used to party like that, blah, blah. But it gets old after a while. So the best client that I ever had, and I still do see sometimes to this day, is a very, you know, senior lady who is just there for, you know, gaining more friends in life. Okay. Someone who's like above 60. Wow.

She doesn't need to do anything. She's like Shefford Bentley. She comes to the place, Shefford Manor. She comes in, spends money, leaves. But the stories she has is something. Spending time with her is... That's when I feel like I'm actually doing something.

- So that's what you enjoy about being a host, I guess, is hearing interesting stories, hearing about life experiences. - Yeah, exactly. I mean, it gets boring after a while, you know, just talking about yourself. - What the fuck? - A lot of things just fell there. - Yeah. - So maybe I jinxed something. I'm sorry, my patron. - I guess it makes sense, right? 'Cause there's only so many times where you can tell your life story and get the same old over and over again, right? - Yeah.

- I get that, yeah. That would get boring. - What do you think makes a successful host then?

- Is it the gimmick? Do you need like a unique gimmick to be like a successful host? - Well, looks definitely don't mean shit in the grand scheme of things. - Which is weird because you'd think that that would mean something, right? - A lot of comments on my YouTube video were like, well, some of these guys aren't beautiful. And it's like, yeah, they don't have to be. - That has like a surface level value to it. - First impression. - First impression, yeah. - But after that, it's all about your demeanor, the way you fucking carry yourself forward, how you present yourself. And most people,

Employ what I just told you guys about, which is don't talk about personal stuff. Compliment them. Beautiful eyes, whatever. And then try to get them to like you in that way. Everybody has their own shtick to a certain degree. So you'd say personality is way more important. Yeah, 100%. Like in real life. Yeah, like in real life. Like in real life, holy shit. Honestly. This is where I want to mention my most respected hostel-related person, which is Roran-san.

He's like the top of the top. He's not even a host anymore. No, not anymore. He was. Yeah, he was. Explain what Roland is to the audience. So to those that don't know, please, this is Rolando. Check him out. But to those who don't know, Rolando started off as a host in his early 20s. Mm-hmm.

- You gotta like plan out these like six man. Do it when someone else is talking or something. You do realize there are people who listen to audio only, right? So there's just like a long pause. - Okay, well then you filled the gap for me. - Yeah, when you do it, so like out of nowhere. - What happened? - Oh shit.

Okay, yeah, so Roland, right? Yeah. So he started as a normal host, and he climbed his way through. He went to Prachina, and then he went to his own club called Zakrab. Basically, man, this guy...

Prove to the world that hosto is not something that only dumbasses who fail at life do. It's what shrewd businessman can do to leverage their position. Because he's like super smart, right? Bro, he's, you know, he has- I mean, not just like straight smart, but he's also like actually book smart. Exactly. But the fact that he always keeps his own hosto values, which is how arrogant he is, the way he brings himself forward. Like he always knows and shows that he's the best looking and the smartest guy in the room. Right. Yeah.

You know, in Japanese culture, it's always about like, arigatou gozaimasu. You know, like being below the other person at all times. Being humble, right? Exactly. But he takes this and then flips on the, and then basically like mounts on you. Right. And like these poor Japanese businessmen, they're just like, oh my God, they don't know how to handle it. So basically he's a Chad. Yeah, he's a fucking Chad. He's like a giga Chad. Yeah. I'm surprised you guys didn't like collab or do anything with him yet, you know?

- Why would he give a shit? - Yeah, why would he give a shit about us? - I don't even know if he speaks English. - Well, the thing is, diversifying into the foreign market. - I mean, I'd like to do something with him. - Go ahead, Josh. - Because I've known about him for such a long time because at one point, especially when he had just come out of the host business and started his own company and ran and shit like that, he was everywhere on Japanese TV. He was like, he's probably like,

I would say on in the grander scale of Japanese entertainment, he's probably the most well-known host ever. - Absolutely bro, absolutely. - So it was just really interesting 'cause I read up on him as well 'cause I was like, who's this fucking Roland guy? And I read up on him and he's like, yeah, you can tell this guy is just so fucking street smart when it comes to business and stuff like that. And he clearly knows his way on making himself big. - Well, you gotta be street smart to be a fucking host. - Right, but I think as Jan said, it completely flipped

of what hosts can be, right? - Yeah. - Because it's, yeah, as you said, like to everyone hosts were just like good looking dudes who have nowhere to go and just wanna like talk to chicks. - Yeah, like scat girls for money and blah, blah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, I think Roland completely flipped that over and was like, no, you don't have to be like that to be a successful host. If anything,

doing that doesn't make you successful. Exactly. And the most like impressive thing about Roland is the way he approaches, you know, his customers. As I mentioned, my main impression is through him. Well, I discovered him after I became a host, to be honest with you. But then I discovered the way I do things similar to him, which is,

Be arrogant. Be arrogant about yourself because I know for a fact that within the entire district of Ikebukuro, I have more like life experience, quote unquote, than anybody that you can meet there. But with that as leverage, what I try to do is, you know, levitate the other person.

I want the customer to leave my presence with a feeling of rejuvenation. Something like- - The words you're using, I don't know if it's- - You say it as if they came out of a baptism. - Exactly.

- It's not like you're saying a religion. I'm a new man. - Where do you think life experience comes from? Where do you think you learn life experience? - Mine. - In general, where do you think it comes from? - Well, just tackling new activities in different places with people we have never met before.

Like if you stayed in Japan your whole life, never left the fucking neighborhood versus someone who's traveled the world, especially like if you live in the vicinity of Europe, you can't just go to like 20 different countries. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Like easily. - That's the good thing about Europe. - Yeah, exactly. - For me, 'cause like to me, the concept of driving to another country is so- - Boy. - Because like Japan, you can't do that. Australia, you sure as shit can't do that. I can't even drive to the next state.

So it's like, it's so cool to think that in such a small space, there are so many cultures. So I've always been jealous of like, especially you guys, like the fact that you guys lived in the UK and like, you know, didn't explore all of Europe. - I've been through a lot of Europe. - Yeah? What's your favorite European country? - That's the way to do it though. - Austria? - Austria? - Austria is like chill Germany.

- I'm sure the Germans will be thrilled to hear that. - Germans know they love their rules. - Austria's got like everything that Germany has, but it's like, chill. - Where's your favorite that's not Turkey? - Oh man, Czech Republic. - Oh yeah. - I've heard really good things about Czech. - I've been rubbing my foot against your leg. - That's all good now. - He's getting into it.

- Bro, bro, man, like it's middle of Europe, Germany, like Berlin is like 500 bus away. So we can- - You know, in the UK, right? People are just obsessed with getting cheap holidays. So I ended up going to like really odd places that you would like never go to for any normal reason. 'Cause someone was like, "We're having a wedding there." Like I went to Malta.

I was probably like the four Malta viewers who are watching this. - Cheap holiday, right? - It's like, it's a really cool place. - Yeah, it is. - It is.

- You go to a travel agent sometimes in England and they just like, there are these certain countries. - We have a country. - There's a good deal going on. There's a good deal going on in this country right now. - I feel that's the best though. - Cyprus. - Because those aren't countries that you- - Cyprus is fake Turkey. - Well, Cyprus' history is like half Germany. - Feels like there's some beef going on there. - Attack you guys, we should probably cut that one.

- Nah, it's fine, they'll understand. We shit on countries all the time. - That's your beef, right? - Yeah, you're the one that said not us. - Well, I'm Turkish, that's why. - You're Turkish, so it's all good. - You have horse in this race, if I say it. - So just look forward to a lot of people from Cyprus coming into your chat to just remind you of what you said. - Call to my Twitch stream, just to shit on me. Welcome, guys, let's go. - No, but that's the thing, right? That's what I like about Europe, though, is because there's the countries that everyone knows, that everyone wants to go to, like Italy, France, Spain, the ones that you think of when you think Europe.

But then you realize that there are so much more. And even these tiny countries, there's so much like unique culture just within that. So it's like, for me, it's like, I want to try and go to as much of Europe as I possibly can. Problem is my entire life, it's been on the other side of the fucking world.

- Yeah, it's like the grass is greener on the other side, right? Because for me, I never fully took advantage of that because I was like so obsessed with exploring Asia. Like I just loved like exploring Asian countries that I just didn't realize what the fuck was in my backyard my entire life. - My parents fought like-

- I don't know if they took me, I don't have a choice, but I probably wouldn't have gone. I would have definitely gone to Asia or America. - Right, right. - 'Cause like for me, I grew up and I'm just like, oh, mom and dad, are we going on holiday? Oh, is it Thailand again? Oh, we're gonna see grandma again for like the 20th time in my life for being like being 20 years old.

- That was like holidays for me. - Yeah, that makes sense. - Yeah. But like getting back to, where did we get to the fucking hosting again? - Shit. - So you were talking about the very rich 60 year old bougie lady. - Oh yeah, man, like honestly, like I don't know if she will ever watch this, but what I really like about her, it's how seductive she is in the way she just like conducts herself.

I feel that was a better choice for Rhodes there, to be honest. She is though. She would just ask me like, hey John, how was your day? But like the way she does it, the way she moves her body, the way she has eye contact, like she just, it's like someone who's aware of every single like muscle movement in their body.

And I just watch her and just melt away. I'm like, "Keep talking to me, please." - And that's too fair. I guess six-year-old Japanese women look a lot younger than 60-year-old Japanese women. - That is true. - 60-year-old Japanese women can look 30 if they wanted to die. - Bro, she looks magnificent.

- You would barely think she's over 35. - Oh, he's telling on the host mode. - And she would always come in traditional. - Does she have pretty eyes? - She's beautiful, man. She's actually beautiful. - Is that what you tell her? Is that what you tell her? - Obviously, I always tell her like, you know. - Well, clearly he actually feels that way. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - He actually brings it out, probably. Sounds like you're describing the love of your life. What's going on? - No, I just, you know, like since I also respect her a lot because of her experiences in general,

She has a lot to talk about. But also the fact that she's such a self-aware person who's able to make me feel the way I do, that's something. It's stuff like the idol girls can't do. I speak to these girls and I just feel like, wow, you're fucking stupid, aren't you? It's just the truth though. Sometimes when you're speaking and- - I mean, you must've met some really stupid girls if you're saying that.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

- I didn't mean it that way, I didn't mean it that way. That came out wrong. That came out wrong. - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let me explain myself, let me explain myself. I'm not calling you stupid. I mean, you've met a lot of stupid people. - I know that. - Yeah. So like your level of stupid must be like really, really stupid because you've met all sorts of different people. I realized that came out very wrong. - He saved it at a last minute. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not calling Jan stupid. - I would like to say we do not have our mans right now.

This is not our man. - Come on guys. - I'm in the corner over here. I'm literally backed into a corner. - You just pull like the fucking black hole spin in the interstellar. - I pulled out. - Sometimes you're on a night out with a bro and you're just like, you know what?

- If you're doing this, I'm sorry man, I don't have your back, man. - I'm going to the toilet. - I'm going to the toilet with this one. There are some times you're like, yeah, got your back, anything you do, Joey? Sometimes it's like, yeah. - I was getting ready to call my taxi driver home. - Yeah, yeah. - Dude, please, anything but the taxi driver. - I'd rather you call the CIA.

- So like, okay. So you were the third best host. Like how much grinding did you need to do? How much grinding on the ladder did you need to do, man? - Fuck off. - I guess like what constitutes as grinding in the host world? - See, that's a good thing. So I guess I can go into like the downsides of being a host at this point. - Yeah, okay.

tying it back down to why people even go to the host club so the reason is because you can only find a hostel in the host club right why because the guy is working in the evening until morning sometimes he sleeps he wakes up he does his daily chores and then he has to go to work again and it's like 5pm

So that's why the only time you can see a hostel is at the club. But as a successful hostel who has a bunch of clients that they're juggling, you have to go to lunches, you have to go to their birthdays, you have to go to anniversaries or whatever the sorts, to Disneyland. And you have to spend a lot of money on gifts. When you go on a date with them outside of the host club, you pay for everything, right? Yeah. During the day when you see them, I mean, I don't do that because I never went on a date with a girl during the day.

because I just didn't care. But number one guy, that's the difference between me and the number one guy because that's what he did. He would sleep like two hours and then he would go on a date with a girl to Disneyland, act like he's having fun, buy shit at the Disney store.

It's literally like school. It's like, if you do extracurricular activities, you're going to be placed higher. Yeah, but you have to. Same thing. Because it's like a give and take, right? Yeah. The more you invest in the girls that you hang out with, the more they want to give back. But, you know, that's not what I was interested in. I always made my interest very clear from the beginning, which is, why the fuck are you here? I mean,

- I'm just here to collect data for us. - This literally just sounds like Persona 5. You like bring a gift, like the social ranking increases sometimes. - Does your mind just like connect everything with the gacha in general? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Persona 5's not gacha.

- Persona 5's not gotcha. - I know, but that system is very well incorporated in the game. - Yeah, it is. It's like you go on a date, if you want the girl to fight alongside you during the battle, then you gotta be nice to them in the real world, right? - This is just a simulation. - It's the exact same thing. - This is a simulation. - Persona 5 is a host simulator. - Yo! - Discovery of the century. - Discovery of the century. Goddamn.

- Okay, yeah, 'cause like, oh my God. 'Cause like, yeah, when you said gift, like giving gifts and stuff like that, and the host has to give gifts, I can't imagine how many gifts you have to give considering Japan's gift-giving culture is already insane. - It's batshit crazy, bro. The number one host though, he would tell me, depending on the month, depending on how the stars align and how many people have, you know, under-reviews and shit in that month, he might spend up to 70% of his income of that month on just gifting shit.

going to places, doing shit. - Right. - Right. - But I guess that's like an investment for him for sorts, right? - Yeah. - I mean, yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - And then when your birthday comes and then you're calling like 14 girls to your birthday and they're all paying like,

- Dude, that's the schedule. - That's the payout day, that's his payday. - I saw like advertisements of like one host that he'd made over $100,000 in one night from his birthday. - Easy bro, easy. - $100,000. - From gifts or? - Just from people coming, you know, gifts, everything.

- Champagne tower that they built for you. - That's when you like, that's an actual person who wishes their birthday was two days. The one guy who's like, can I have a birthday month please? I can't believe I've got 24 hours in my birthday. Like, I guess I'm not sleeping tonight 'cause that's like an extra like fucking 10K that I could be earning. - Wonder what I'll get. - One thing I remember,

definitely being a definite downside I'd say is that a lot of them, you know, a lot of them seemed like they had developed an alcohol addiction of sorts because you're forced to drink almost every day. - All right. - To a lot of, a lot. - Yeah, yeah. Can we go over the whole drinking culture? - Sure. - Let's do it. - It seems insane. - He says with a bottle of gin on the table. - He literally has a quarter of his gin.

- Okay, so one thing that I found really weird is that they were all just talking to each other and joking about how they had all been like throwing up that morning 'cause they were so hungover. - Right, right. - And then I was like, how often do you, I'm not sure if it was in the video. So how often do you like get so drunk that you throw up? He was like, yeah, three, four times a week. Three, four times a week he's throwing up from drinking. That's insane. That's insane. - How much do you have to drink on like a regular working night?

For me, it was mostly just about how much I want. Yeah. Yeah.

- So are you allowed to say, so say if like one of your clienteles like buys you a drink, can you say no to it? - Exactly. So the way the structure within the host club works is if you're the one coming in with a client already that you met, you sit at the table side like us. And across from us, you would have a helping person who would be the one arranging the drinks, pouring shit for you, you know, the peasantry work basically.

- Stuff I haven't done in ages. - Was he a host himself or was it just- - Yeah, they're all hostos. They're all hostos. - Oh, so it's someone who was like low down in the rankings. - I mean, if you don't have a girl for yourself, then might as well help your bro kind of thing. - Right, right, right. - And your specific job is to just drink so that your homie doesn't have to drink, so he can persuade the girl to buy more drinks so that you can drink kind of thing. - Right. So he literally gets paid to drink your drinks? - Yeah, exactly.

- Yeah, because you, so I don't know if we've said this in the episode, but like the way that hosts make money is from them buying drinks, right? - Yeah, for sure. - And food too, bro. - So you get a cut of every single drink? How does it work? - At the end of the night, depending on the payment, but usually you get 40% off the spend, spending? - Of the gross spending? So if they buy a $50 drink, you might get like- - Yeah, if the girls spend a thousand- - Why did you choose 15? - If you buy a $10 drink, you get $4. - Yeah, you get $4. - Let's see a thousand more realistic though.

then you'd be like 400 bucks that you'll make. - Right. - Just drinking with somebody. - Man, why are you hiring hosts? Just hire like a fucking Aussie in the back room, just like, drink it all for you. - See, like, does that Aussie speak Japanese? - That's why at the beginning of the episode I said he could be a great host. - No, no.

- Going with how this story has gone, I wouldn't be a great host. I'd be a great host who helps his homie finish his drink. - So this guy, this guy. - I would basically be an extra liver for you. - So this helper guy, he will sit at the table while you're talking and he'll drink your drink that this girl has brought for you. - He doesn't talk, right? - Of course he talks. You have to make good conversation 'cause I was doing that for two years, bro.

- True. - Okay. - What you have to do is just make conversation. - But like how do you not step on the other guy's toes if it's his girl? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It's his girl. - Well, sometimes some treacherous shit happens when- - Backstabbing. - Do you have any examples or stories? - Yeah, of course. - Do share.

If you can. Mostly happened between me and the number one guy of the place I worked at because we were really close homies. Yeah. Because number one guy was very interesting, man. This guy, he was a normal salaryman in the architecture business earning a good salary for world standard until he was 27. And one day he said, fuck this, I'm just going to become a host.

Literally, he just gave up everything. He said, I don't care about it anymore. I'm just going to become a host. And he's fucking successful at it. The dude is genius. He's very smart, very good looking, feminine as fuck, but that's just the way it is. But this guy, for example, what we're talking about, by the way,

- The drinks are in him. - Did you ever have like, 'cause obviously you have the helper and the main guy. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. - So when this guy brings in, you know, like there will be evenings where the number one guy would invite like seven, eight different girls at the same time. So we would have to like- - How did they not get pissed off? - See, they can't say anything. What are the girls gonna say?

- I'm mad that you're so successful. - The girls can say like, I'm buying you drinks to give me more attention. - Well, he says, well, sucks for you. Other girls want me too. - They don't want it. Get the fuck out. - No, 'cause then they would- - That's what they say, bro. - What they would do is they'd be like, hey, if you want your turn, you gotta buy me the champagne thing that costs like 10 grand. - Yeah, exactly. You want me to stay?

shopping is right there we can pop it and I'll steal it it's literally like some kind of like fucking squid game ass thing where like putting them against each other yeah right in the essence of it it's really kind of like a it's taking advantage kind of thing of course it's absolutely taking advantage but in the grand scheme of things the girls are the ones who decide to come back to it

Yeah, that's true. I guess they're not helping themselves. You're not tying them down. Right, right, right. Strange. Yeah, De Niro. De Niro, in some ways, yeah, that's one way to look at it, but I'm sure it's way deeper than that, right? Yeah. I feel like, yeah, I don't know. It depends on the person, I guess, right?

I mean, it just feels like the host, the entire host culture and entire host world just works in like obviously different social rules and different social values. I mean, none of them would probably be in a host club if that wasn't the case, right? We're four guys talking about why women might go to it, right? We probably don't understand it as well as we think we do. That is true, yeah. So I feel like, you know, I don't want to come off as misogynistic or anything. No. Women just want to

- I'm sure there's a lot more layers to it that we don't understand. I don't understand the culture. - We're obviously just talking from like a surface. - I honestly just find it fascinating. - Did they go over it though? Like why the demographic? - But I'm sure not all girls are like that though, right? Like why they come back to- - I'm sure there's a lot more to it. It's one of those things as well. And I don't know, I feel like as well because

I guess misogyny in Japan is like a thing, like a bit more than the West, I'd probably say. I mean, the rules are structured around it, right? - Yeah. - Well- - And the laws as well. - The interesting thing about that is,

So in any culture, whether Japanese or whatever, girls are attracted towards what's perceived as an alpha, right? Someone who seems to dominate the environment. Someone who seems like they're on top of things. So the way the host... I think it's all in Japanese. So in terms of the hostel industry in itself, it's made so that if it's a girl that you invited is coming over, everybody around you, including the shacho,

you know the owner of the business will do everything in their power to make you look like the rock star of the business for the time being because they understand that if they do that the girls will be like oh my god you know the guy I've chosen

he fucking owns the place. The little owner of the fucking bar is bending over fucking, doing backflips just to please my homie. So I must've chosen the right guy. - It's all an act. - Well, it's not though. The thing is at least the way I act it. - Well, okay. - Your act comes from some kind of basis of you as a person. - Yeah, exactly. - And I'm sure all the other hosts do that, right? - Yeah. - How much are the host,

have like a genuine personality behind that character and how much is just like completely made up. - That depends from person to person. - Right. - I'm sure you've seen both cases. - Yeah, of course, of course. Some of them really try to play it up. - Yeah. - And it's just not them at all. - Yeah, not at all. But sometimes, I mean, you know, like piggy boy that you went on a date with, you know, like that guy, bro. - It was really bizarre because I didn't quite come across in the video,

'cause obviously it was cut in like five minutes, like the whole part of it. But he had this one girl in that video who we blurred out, who was like obsessed with him. But like, he like didn't give her the time of day. Like he barely gave any attention to her. - Of course, that's what she likes bro. - She was so weird watching it. It was like, he literally couldn't give a fuck. And she was like, I'm gonna marry him. And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was so strange, wasn't it, Maylene?

- Like watching this guy. - Right, Meilyne? - Yeah, right, Meilyne? - Back me up, back me up, Meilyne. Back me up, back your homie up. - Get your mans, Meilyne, get your mans. - Do you remember how obsessed this girl was about the main host and he just didn't give a fuck. - And it was like- - She bought me the champagne because he was like, "Oh, I wanna impress the viewers." - Yeah, just go. - So she, God knows how much she spent on that champagne 'cause the cheapest one I saw was like 5K or something. - Dollars. - Yeah, dollars.

So I don't want to know how much you spent just to impress him for like one second. It didn't even seem like he gave a fuck. Right. Well, from what like I'm hearing right now, you know, like I'd say like the closest comparison I think of in the West is, you know, people maybe pay for like a, like,

like an experience if they have like a really weird fetish or something, right? And it seems like in Japan, this is just like the social fetish in a way where it's just, they're paying for like a certain experience that, you know, that maybe they can't, you know, stay out in normal life. - It was cool on the surface. - Why are you laughing? Why are you laughing?

- What's so funny about it? - I'm just speaking facts, right? - He just realized that he worked for a social fetish. I think that's what he realized. - I realized that I'm running my own fetish too at the same time, you know? - Yeah. - It's an ego stroke, right? - It's not like I don't enjoy it, you know? - No, it's, bro, is there a bigger ego stroke than being paid to like have people talk like,

- Yeah, exactly. - People pamper you. - Exactly. But like my general impression of it when I left, I was like, you know, 'cause you have all this fucking anime all around host club and you hear about host clubs, oh, it's so cool. You know, you think this is kind of like cool, kind of like, you know, when I left, I was like, fuck, this is depressing as fuck. I'd say like most of the,

seemed like depressed. It was like, it was hard. - The hosts or people coming in? - Some of the hosts and some of the girls. - Where the fuck did you go to? - I just felt like they would just describe it like they had like nothing else to do. Like it was, I don't know for me, it was kind of like, oh God. - I'm sure for some girls though, that is the case, right? And I think that's why they go to host clubs because that's the only place where, as you said,

they've been shit on the entire day. They just want someone to make them feel good. - And they do have this fucking club and they got to deal with me pointing the camera at their fucking face. I felt so bad. - Me being awkward as fuck, like Jesus Christ. - Maybe they're really depressed in front of the camera. - That might have been it. - Like cool, the one time I get privacy, this dude has a camera. - You disagree with that? Or you think it's all like fun? - No, I agree with you, bro. - Oh, okay. - I agree with you. No, 'cause you know, one thing that I have to always remember is,

- The customers that I attract versus the Arojo is very different. - I guess you're not going, you're not attracting the same types of people that I was being introduced to, I think. - Dude, none of my customers are miserable fucks. - I met one person on that video who could speak English and she was super chill. She was really cool. - Yeah? - Yeah, really, really nice. - Maybe they were miserable because they couldn't talk to you. - But I just saw how they interacted 'cause I was getting like live translations in my ear the whole time and I was like watching it and it was like, I was like,

- Right. What was like the stuff they were talking about was depressing or? - It was just kind of how like- - Or just the atmosphere. - The atmosphere, I don't, you know, it was, don't get me wrong, that seemed like the club was going well, but like sometimes they would say things and I was like, Jesus Christ.

Like, you know, they would say something that was like, you know, they were trying to like, I don't know, they were trying to go for something and the guy was just like, "Oh fuck." Like watching car crashes or something. It was just like, oh my God. - Just like try not to cringe compilations. - Yeah. - It was, you know, it's weird. - It is a weird world. - It's strange. - What's like some of the weirdest shit you've seen? - I'm sure you got stories out the ass for that.

- That you're allowed to tell. - Muda, get ready. - Keep in mind we have to air this to like a million people. So what you can say and not have the fucking yuckers up our ass or whatever.

- He's like filtering himself out. - Family friendly stories, right? - No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, look, when people think crazy host stories, they're gonna think of some crazy shit. - Yeah, we're not on fucking BBC. - Yeah, but also you have to think about the current people who employ me as well. They might see this shit and be like,

- Be as generic as possible. - Okay, some generic things you've seen in the host industry or some dodgy things that go on in the host industry. - Dodgy things. - Yeah. Or maybe something you personally experienced that you thought was a bit dodgy. - Well, I guess this is an interesting one. So the way they do their,

指名交換 in Japanese. So this is the way you actually boost your numbers within the industry. So 指名 is, as I mentioned in the beginning of the episode, this is when you have people choose you as their daddy. Right.

The more people choose as your daddy, your rank gets higher. Yeah. Billboard. So people notice you more. Yeah. So one way to do that is go to other clubs like Kabakura, like female-oriented clubs as your host boys. Yeah. Like goal spas and stuff. Yeah, exactly. And give them your, you know, vote and then tell them this is where I work at.

- You gotta come here then vote for me. And they're like, all right, sure. And then they come vote for you. - It's like presidential campaign. - It's like politics. This is literal politics right now. - But yeah, I guess if you say it that way. - Do you have like a tagline and shit like that? It's like, Jan, I will ask you what you are doing here. - I am a champ. My name is Jan.

- Wait, so wait, so did you have to do that as well? Like would you have to go to like girls bars and like stuff like that and be like, and like, oh. - A lot, dude, the shot show would like just take all of us, people who build that night or the people who are like chilling with other girls that night, you know, late into the evening because host club finished at like 12:00 PM let's say. And then we would have like a, you know, subsidiary bar, subsidiary. - Why does it close so early? Why does it close at 12? - They're lost bro.

You just take it to a different venue. And, you know, at that bar, it's still same shit. Everything is expensive as fuck. Yeah. But, you know, you get to just be a bit more relaxed and then more intimate, let's say. And at that place, if you're staying there for long, Shacho would come there and be like, yo, guys, we're going somewhere and get the boys and go to a club after. It could be like a kebapura or like whatever establishment you can think of in Tokyo. Right. Yeah.

And then, you know, the Shacho would pay for everything. I've seen Shacho pay up to like, you know, six, seven K us one evening for like three, four guys total. Jeez. It was a shell the fuck out.

- But I suppose like considering the amount of money the host make anyway, that's like- - The guy doesn't care, bro. He's chilling, man. He's chilling. - So you would do that and you would go around and interact with the girls at those establishments? - Yeah, supposedly. - To basically be like, "Hey, when you come to my club next time, choose me." - Well, not when, but like you're coming next week, right?

- It's not a suggestion. - It's more like- - It's a command. - Right, right, right. Oh, okay, okay. - I'm popping this bottle for you today. So you're coming next week Tuesday, right? - What happens if they don't come?

- I mean, nothing. You sound like I'm gonna call the Turkish taxi. - It's like, if you don't vote for me, I got a lot of taxi drivers on the line. - We're on the plane right now, Jam, we're coming. - And they're not Japanese. - See, that's not what's gonna happen, but if you know anything about Japan,

verbal agreements mean a lot. - Yeah. - In Japan, rather than paper signing, most deals are done through verbal agreements. That's because- - Is that true? I think a lot of things in Japan done by like on paper agreements from my experience. - I mean, that's also true, but if you look at- - I think socially speaking. - Yeah, socially and traditionally, for example,

a lot of verbal stuff holds more value to it especially if you have like it's all about the respect like renowned family if you're from like a renowned family for example and you don't like uphold your promise and you know you risk losing that repetition for your family yeah your family will like whip you yeah you know but i mean that was back in the day right not even even now bro even now there's just a lot of big families right still to this day like a lot of people who want to respect their like you know

- A lineage. - A lineage, yeah. - I mean, not that many anymore, but depending on like the, for example, if you look at like really family owned businesses, that's how it functions. - Right, right. - Like for example, the people who make like, you know, food pen, calligraphy, how do you? - The calligraphy. - Yeah, calligraphy pens made out of like fucking rare, whatever the fuck, hide off or whatever the fuck.

- You really know your shit, Jan. - I don't know. I'm just saying he's- - Describing a girl versus Jan describing a pen.

Yo, she was elegant, moved all of her muscles, made me melt. And I saw this fucking pen that was made out of the hair of whatever the fuck animal. So anyhow, you know, imagine you're like the supplier of this hide for this pen and then you're dealing with the people who make like the holding part, the wooden, you know, shit. You know, you don't make fucking paper contracts. You make verbal contracts. Why? Because your relationship date back to like 150 years. Right, right, right, right. That's what I'm talking about.

But I mean, is that the same as making a verbal agreement at a girls bar for you to come to the next- - Now that you mentioned it. - For them to come the next day, right? Like I don't think there's many girls in a Kyabakura who are like, "Oh fuck, well I better go to this club. I don't want my family on my ass." - A part of it does translate though.

Right. What I mean by that. I'm sure it does, but not to the same capacity. No, not the same capacity, not in the same like respect values, but in terms of like, you know, if you're, if you're like a, you know, renowned person in your bar and then you make a promise and you don't, you know, protect that or like, you know, make that come true. Other people are going to see you as some lying bastard. Right. You know,

So you just get outed from the industry then, I guess. Well, not outed, but, you know, like... I guess bad rumors will spread. Yeah, you know, like, we cheat to make promises. Right, right, right, right. I guess, yeah, because it's such a small industry, right? Everybody knows each other. Yeah, what it gets around. Yeah, exactly. You know, I was sucking Roland's dick the entire time, but... Literally your figure time. Fuck!

Doesn't matter, bro. Maybe he's a JoJo fan. So anyhow...

you know i know a few people who have you know had fun with him drank with him in the past so if i really really really wanted to i could still get a message across to him right i could reach out to his sns message saying some dude called john saying this to him right right right that's how close contact this entire industry is doesn't matter if you're like you know the most renowned host or

- Sounds like Turkish taxi drivers to me. - Now that you mentioned it bro. - Shit, do I actually need to fly out my homies to establish my own network? - All the hosts are Turkish taxi drivers. - Dude, honestly, like where do people talk? Host clubbing? How much shit does Jan know after all of his clients? - I'm curious about,

how, you know, you mentioned your club and then you've mentioned there's other famous ones. Yes, sir. Is there, first of all, how long have clubs been around to, I host clubs, sorry, in Japan and to what's the difference between like the older ones and the new ones? How long have they been around? That's your first question, right? Yeah. Like as a subculture. Yeah. Dozens of years, bro.

- Thousands of years? - No, dozens of years. - Thousands? I was like, bro, dude. - A while. No, like shit. A while, man, a while. Horse club culture has been around for a while, but when it started popping off, I would say in like the last 15 years. - Right, right. - It seems like a really new thing.

- I mean, looking at it from the surface. - To a certain degree. - Well, I think Japan has become more lonely over technology and- - Well, when is their birth rate? When did their birth rate start declining, right? - About 10, 15 years ago. - That makes sense. - That makes sense. - So what's the difference then between a club that's been around 50 years? How do they do business? What's the difference between that and how, say, a club that popped up two weeks ago was? - Well, I was saying, for example, a club like Prachina that hosted,

know one of the most legendary hosts all time like Rolando just by hosting them there they can up their name value meaning people who don't know anything about clubs they get the club's name into their ear through social you know right anything goes on like Twitter news fucking Ryan news anything they kind of see that exposure club name I mean it says a lot that I know even though I've never

I've never- - Yeah, exactly. - I don't even know where it is. - There's these fucking vans that drive around Shinjuku. - Oh yeah, just massive vans. - They just fucking screech this horrible music out with like these- - Oh, that's what they are. - Some of them are host clubs. - Some of them are host clubs, yeah. - I didn't know. - It's awful. It's the most horrible- - It's a fortune to get those too, you know? - Yeah, I can imagine. - The car with your face on it and just waving.

- All I hear sometimes are just like the fucking, like the political people were just shouting things out. - Space boosted speakers, you can't even hear what they're saying. They're just being loud. - Yeah. - That's so annoying. - There's also the one that goes around in like Shinjuku and Shuby all the time. It's like, "Bye, bye, bye."

- I can't imagine being the truck driver, man. How long is this shit? - I have actually seen, when one of the vanilla trucks went past, I was like, I want to get a look of the actual driver's face. Yo, he looked brain dead as fuck. - It's gotta be that meme from Caroline, the guy on the PC.

- That's what he looked like. - So go ahead about the differences between the clubs. - Yeah, yeah, so what would you say? Like, is it like a difference in service or like the way that they do it or like the rules? - I'll say the main difference is... - What? - Oh. - So dramatic, so dramatic. I need to pee as well, actually. - This episode is sponsored by Bokksu. Connor, what is that special wooden box you've got there? - Thought you'd never ask, Joey, 'cause this is a special gift just for you. - Is that a wooden box?

Wooden Bokksu? It sure is. Hold your horses, gentlemen. What is this Bokksu thing you talk about? I'm glad you asked, Garnt. Let me tell you. Bokksu is a monthly snack box subscription service that delivers original assortments of premium Japanese snacks and tea pairings. Bokksu makes such a perfect and memorable gift for anyone in your life who appreciates Japanese snacks and culture, especially during a time where people aren't able to travel as easily as they would like to. Gentlemen, you know what's special about Bokksu this month? What is it, Joey? Free tickets to Japan.

- Boxers having a giveaway where one lucky winner will win a free ticket to Japan. That's right. And anyone who has subscribed before December 31st is automatically entered. Link is in the description below so you can check out the terms and conditions and other methods of entry. - And another thing that is super special this month is the wooden box, which is also known as a Kiribaku box, which I didn't know about that. - I knew that. What's Kiribaku?

- Wooden box. - From now until December 30th, you can receive your next Bokksu in a special Kiribako wooden box for an additional $50. - Damn! - Lovingly crafted in the Koga city, Japan by Masuda Kiribako. - So what are you waiting for? You can use Trash Taste 10 and the link in the description below to become eligible to win the giveaway by subscribing to Bokksu. The code will get you 10% off your subscription.

Don't miss out on this unique opportunity for anyone who subscribes until December 31st. So like I said, get yourself or a special loved one a Kiribaku box suit and check out the link for a chance to win a free trip to Trash Taste Land. Back to the show. So the main difference between like a new club that just popped out versus a club with a long, long history is...

how much respect it has from other clubs surrounding it. So as I mentioned, if you're like a long time club, that means you have at least a few people who either like came out of your club or went to your club and became really popping off, you know, went on like news medias or just carried your club to the surface. And that carries a lot of value in the hosting industry. It's weird to me that Japan puts hosts on this like pedestal, but then, you

- You know how it is. If you're a woman doing the exact same job reversed, it's like, oh yeah, it's like, you're like the scum of society. It's bizarre really. - It is very double standards for sure. - Even if we had that in the West, I don't think we'd be putting the hosts on TV and stuff like that. But in Japan it's just like, dude, this guy's sick, bro. He like talks to girls all day. Oh, your woman talks to guys? - It gets paid for it. - Fuck, you're disgusting. It's like, the fuck?

- Yeah, sorry, I should have mentioned that. - But I think as well, like that's like going back to like Roland, right? Like I think the reason why it became like that is because in a lot of ways it's because of Roland. - I think it's accepted that a guy can be like that, right? At least in Japanese society, that's a character. They're like, yeah, this is good. But if a woman acted the same way. - I think if there was like a female equivalent of Roland, it wouldn't happen the same way, unfortunately. - You do have good examples of that though. A lot of huge cosmetic shachos right now come from Kimbakura background and stuff like that.

But like you mentioned, Roland's impact on this industry is impeccable. Something you cannot measure with just numbers. - Also he sold himself as a personality on TV. Whereas we haven't really had that for the female like Kabakura Saiyan. - So you joined a new club, right? Let's say you're a rookie, you're shitty at your job, you're just terrible.

- What's the experience I would have being terrible in like one of the old amazing, perfect respected clubs versus being in a club that's kind of shit and like small and like just kind of like- - Would you even get a job in that sense? - Well, let's say you got it, right? Let's say you got it and then you started fucking up. Like, you know, you couldn't get any clients. Like how would they,

Because I can imagine that they don't treat you that... They're not like, oh, it's okay, it's okay. I imagine... These are the traditional men. But I imagine the one that's kind of worse off is like, oh, dude... I mean, the best example I can give is imagine being in an unknown-ass fucking consulting company versus being in fucking Boston Consulting. Right, right, right. That's a very specific example. Look, the pressure you have at Boston Consulting doesn't derive from the fact that...

you suck but it's because this is the company you know values we uphold are you reaching that standard right you know if you're not we have a thousand other recruits outside lining up to take your placement versus an unknown as club it's like we could fire you but we'll have nobody else that's the difference right right so like is it how dangerous is the industry

That's a good question. Dangerous. Well, actually, that's a really great question because, you know, from the old times, a lot of host clubs are known to have a lot of violence involved in them. Meaning if you're not performing well, if you're, you know, slacking,

your boss might kind of like slap you around. And what do you mean? Slap around? Like, like, like, like a little, like, like, like, no, bro. I'm talking about that. You're sleeping and they'll fucking bash your head and shit. You know, it's like, it's like fucking good fellas. Even in my host club, not, not within there, but previous to joining there, I've had stories told to me from those people there that, you know,

They were kind of falling asleep and then they got smacked in the head so hard that their fucking tooth chipped and shit. Bro, like... Just because they were sleeping? Yeah, exactly. Just because they were like not so, you know, responsive and whatnot. And even within my host club, we would have like meetings to go over like...

who's billing well, who's a good helper. Because even if you're not billing, if you're contributing so that girls are drinking, they will respect you. Because that means... Because you're doing your job. Yeah, exactly. That means you contribute to the actual revenue. But if you're just like, you're not even catching girls outside and when the girl sits with you, you're some boring ass motherfucker, they're going to fucking bitch about it.

And that's the main way to make you quit. By keep putting on a spotlight and be like, you fucking suck. - They can't just tell you to like fuck off. - No. - 'Cause I mean, that's not the way Japanese people do it. - They want to shame you publicly until you quit? - Bro, yeah, honestly, yeah. - That's fucked up. - Truthfully. - That's so fucked. - I mean, regular companies do that too. - Yeah, that's 'cause they have lifetime contracts. - Yeah, yeah. - It starts in school, right bro? - It's the same, bro. - If they're willing to like slap you in the head, why aren't they willing to tell you to not turn up to work tomorrow? I don't understand.

- I love that how it's like, I have no resistance to actually smacking you in the back of the head, but I don't have the heart to tell you to quit. - The thing is, if you prevail from this agonizing pain. - That's such bullshit. - Bro, come on. It is a real true phenomenon where if you're strong enough to prevail this challenge that's given to you, that means you could become a man.

- I agree in some senses. - I don't know about that. - I think that only works in shonen anime. - Tell me your pussy ass excuse, come on, tell me. - Listen, there is a challenge and there has been beaten up in your work. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Bro. - Well, you're not Mike Tyson, bro. You're not throwing hands at the club, man. - Host industry is not some like, you know,

- I'm not saying it is. - We've established that it's dodgy as fuck. - It is dodgy as fuck. - You have to know your street knowledge. If you don't have any street abilities, you're gonna get fucking bulldozed over. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I understand that. - Of course. - That's a fact. - But frightening it is some form of, it's a noble challenge that one must undertake to become. - Is that the way I'm putting it?

- I'm putting it in a way that it's like rolling in the mud and wrestling until one of them chokes to death. That's the kind of challenge that you have to undertake. - Did you think that analogy was better? - I think it reflects the situation or at least reflects the reality of the situation in a more- - So do you think it's fucked up?

It's fucked up, but you also think there's a point to it. Yeah, absolutely. No, it's not fucked up, bro.

- No, it's fucked up. - Who am I to judge? - You literally just said you're rolling around in the mud until one of them, like gladiators did that back like the Roman Empire. - In any business, right? There is a reason as to why the whole thing transpired to become what it is. - Yeah. - I understand that. - You have to respect what came before you. - Of course, yeah. - And understand why it's the way it is. That's the whole core of understanding what a culture is.

- I get that, but then there are, you know, sometimes there are cultures that should maybe be changed. - Just because something's been established doesn't mean you can't change the rules. - I feel Japan though. - I'm sensing some woke bullshitting here. - No, no, no, no, no, no. - Do you put "Games, see it, whatever" in your fucking Twitter profile, bitch? - No, I just think generally that, you know, I understand why these kind of stories can happen in the industry.

- I'm not gonna say that it's funny, that it's not fucked up. Let's just break the sound. You're literally trying to say that getting your teeth kicked in is not fucked up. - Obviously, obviously, obviously. - You say it's not fucked up because it happened to my senpai. - My sincere apologies for not making this clear. There is a huge difference between having a disciplined way of conducting your business versus violence because violence is really frowned upon.

- No matter what. - Finally a take I can agree with. - You're right Jan, water is wet. - How is like xenophobia and racism within the host? - Yeah, because I've heard- - There's plenty of that shit man. - Yeah, because like I've heard that some, a lot of host clubs actually don't let- - No, they don't because like, what are they gonna do? - Well, I mean, what if they wanna have like a good time trying to like interact with the locals? - Can't communicate.

- If you can speak Japanese and you're a foreigner, will they let you in? - If you can speak Japanese and you're a foreigner, you have a chance. - A chance. - You have a chance. - Yeah. - See, that's interesting. - Survive the beating and we'll give you a drink. - This is the same with almost all other Japanese businesses that are nightlife related. - That is true. - If you're a foreigner, most likely they'll be like, and then not accept you. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, some restaurants fucking do this, right? Let alone nightlife stuff. - This is like going back to the whole discrimination thing that I just mentioned. 'Cause you're a halfu.

- Am I now? - Yes, you are. - Shit, I don't know, bro. - You like to know where I'm going. - We're all being Mary Sue's here, you know? - Cut back to an hour ago, yes. - I've seen Joey being a Hongo Joe's like five billion times, you know?

- From what I've seen, and Joey, I'm sure you can say if I'm right or wrong. If you don't look 100% Japanese, they just assume you're like foreign, just fully foreign. - 100%. - So how does that, you know, 'cause that comes into play a lot in Japan. - For sure. - So how does it come into play in a host club? - How many times were you Nihongo Jozu at a host club? - Every single time. - Yeah, right?

- How surely they must in some senses they're like, oh, you're not Japanese bro. You're like the gimmick bro. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Each time, each time. - So did you use that to your advantage or did you like try and fight against it? - As I mentioned to you guys before, I had no interest in talking to girls who had no life experience or who had no interest in life experience. So I would come across some people that say like, I asked them, do you wanna go abroad? I've been to this country, wanna know more about it? And they're like, no, I'm okay with just staying in Japan. I'll be like,

Okay, next guy. It's weirdly common. It happens a lot, bro. It happens a lot. But, you know, I skip those girls because I have nothing that I want to talk to them about. But until I find the people that I want to know more about, you know, living abroad. Worldly things. Yeah.

That's when I shine. - So these girls, we've established like just how much money is spent in these host clubs. Like how do these clients have this much money? Because as we've established, not everyone is like old, mature, successful business. - How did these like women in their early twenties kind of like spend like stupid amounts of money? - So this comes back to the discussion about the demographic of the host clubs. So most of them are in the nightlife and nightlife in Japan pays a lot.

- Yeah, right. - Like substantial amounts. So they have a huge amount of disposable income or such expenditures. And that's what they decide to spend it on. - I mean like every week it seems like ex-celebrity is caught in a soap line or a girls bar. So I mean clearly no shortage of clientele. And given the frequency of these girls bars, I mean they're everywhere in Tokyo. - Yeah, they are. - No doubt that they are.

They're not struggling. - It seems like everyone pays each other back, right? - It's the same artist who's spending the $50 around, right? It's just like, yeah, there's a lot of money, but I'm gonna be paying that money back to you. Oh, it's you? Okay, now it's your turn to pay me. - I think a cool experiment would be if you leave a little mark

on like a thousand yen note and see if it eventually comes back into your hand. That could be kind of cool. - That's a good one. - I'm sure it happens. - Or we'll just rob some bank. - But the core of the business does lie in that though. It's that the knife life people support each other. - So do you have time to spend the money that you earn or does it just go back into the industry?

- Not for sure bro, 'cause as I was mentioning, I don't do this full time. Like I never did it full time. - I mean talking about like hosts in general. - Yeah, like full time hosts. Do they have enough time to like spend it on themselves or? - Look, like just if you're at like the top 1% percentile kind of thing,

You barely have time to sleep, honestly. Yeah, right? Yeah. So they just get, like, no days off, right? They, like, spend it on themselves. I had a few benders with the number one guy back in the day, and, like, his day would go like this. I would see him at the host club after his, like, hair and makeup, and, you know, he would do his own makeup in the bathroom. I would call him, like, all the names I can while he's doing his makeup. Right.

And then, you know, once the night starts, I see him bring out all his girls until like midnight. And then from there, he would take me to the subsidiary bar where we would drink for like three, four hours. And then we would meet up with another separate group of girls that are just like the late night crew, you know, after like 3, 4 a.m. That just want to hang out until like 10 a.m., you know. And then we just go hard until that. And then this guy would not sleep and go for a lunch.

- Okay. - With another girl he's already like seeing. - Oh my God. - And he would have a lunch with her and sometimes go to Disneyland and shit without sleeping, bro. - How does this man not look like a human rat? - Bro, like- - That's what they're all skinny as shit, dude. - I do that for one night, bro. And I look like I've been hit by a car. - Yeah. - I look dreadful. - It's difficult stuff, man. So he goes to sleep at like 3:00, 4:00 PM, wakes up in two, three hours. Same thing again, gets your hair done, get your makeup while I'm laughing at him.

- Same thing over and over. - Jesus. - So like, I guess from what it sounds like the lifespan of a host can't be that long normally. - Depends on how you conduct yourself. - Well, if you're in that cycle. - If you're in that cycle. - Yeah, of course. - But this is where Rolando really comes in strong because he's known to never drink.

- Oh, he has the helpers with him all the time. - Yeah, and like, he's the fucking definition of, you know, to become a host, you don't have to drink. All you have to have is good conversational skills and the people who come to the club only have to come just because they wanna chat with you and they wanna gain something out of it. So become like a life coach almost. - Why is it that they have to buy drinks to like pay the hosts? Can you not just like fucking just give them money?

- I think it's because if you give someone money, you're way less likely to like give someone money. If you're buying drinks, it's like feeding the atmosphere. - It's a gift. - And you know, you both win. You're getting the drink you want. - It's like buying rounds at a pub. - Yeah, if I give you a 10 and I'm like, "Spot-o-ry for an hour, Garnt." I'm gonna be like, "Fuck, I'm looking at the clock every 10 minutes." But if you finish your drink, I'm like, "You want another drink, Garnt?" - Yeah. - You know what I mean? I think it's because you just wouldn't get as much money. - Is that the reason? - Spot on analysis, my friend. - Oh, okay. - There you go.

- No, because like I maybe compare this to, you know, like going to a strip club or something and buying a dance that is like money being exchanged. - I mean, I'm sure because like, I think it's the same thing, right? Like, I guess for a lot of girls, like getting to talk to a person is like paying for a service, right? Kind of similar to like at a strip club, for example. - When you're hanging out with your friends, right? If you want to keep hanging out, what do you do?

- Buy another drink. - Right, buy a round. - Buy another drink. - Exactly. - So how much are these drinks marked up?

- How much are these drinks marked up? - Everything is about like times 10. - I saw Strong Zero, like the dead ass bring out the can and charge you 30 bucks for it. - As I said, times 10 of the original price. - That's not times 10, that's like times 30. - And that was Chaser, that was like their water. The Strong Zero, which is like a 9% drink, they drink is like a Chaser.

- It was like, oh, that drink was so strong. I'm gonna drink some water. Oh, it's strong zero. - Yeah, because the one thing I always like know about like the host thing is like the Dom Piri Tower. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - The champagne towers. - Oh yeah, yeah. - Like how many of those did you have to do?

- Or is that just like- - Every birthday. - Okay, 'cause I always thought like- - How many birthdays are you going through? - How much is for one? Because is it just one bottle of Dom Perignon that you just pour? - Depends. - Or is it like multiple bottles? - Multiple bottles, depending on the tower that you- - So multiple bottles of Dom Perignon, which are marked up 10 times the price.

- What was it like $10,000? - Yeah, I mean like how much for one, at the club you worked at, when you got a champagne tower, how much would a girl have to spend? If I was a girl and I wanted to buy you a Dom Perignon champagne tower, how much would I have to spend? - So again, this kind of requires some explaining because

If you're stingy as fuck and you want to build like the, you know, smallest tower, you can. But again, it's different levels. How many glasses? Like exactly. It's all about, you know, like showcasing. Yeah. Right. The more glasses of tower you have, the more glamorous it looks. Yeah. So even if you're building half of it with cheap alcohol and the other half with actual premium alcohol. Yeah. As soon as it looks big enough. Yeah. It does the job. Huh? Right. Right.

So even if it's someone who has like a, you know, like only like two, three patrons who's only willing to shell out total maximum, maybe like 10K US for your birthday. - Only 10K. - Get the fuck out of the club, you cheapskate.

- Your money isn't wanted here. - We're just talking about like 40% commission of people earning like over 50K per birthday. So come on, imagine the glamorous fucking towers that day. - What's the most expensive one you've ever received? Or seen? - What's the most you've seen someone spend on one night? - Bro, like this is, I will be proud to tell this story to the day I die, but my number one homie, he on this one day,

his 30th birthday yeah he racked over 200k us in in and what did you do on your 30th

- Where's my 200Ks? - I know what I'm doing. - I just hung out with the boys. They bought me a fucking drink. It costs like a fucking tenner. Could've got 200 fucking K, what's going on? - Joey's expectations are gonna be through the roof. - Finally, an upside to turning 30. What the fuck? I'm like 200K. So that's 200K is 40%, right? - So you get to get like 0.1% of the LA house. - Yeah, exactly.

And, you know, when you're reaching that level, of course, you can still have champagne towers that, like, surround itself. Yeah. The trick is to just make it three-dimensional so you feel more space. Yeah. You know? But...

You want to be more glamorous when you're hostile so we hired like a you know Rolls-Royce at the entrance of the club We have like fucking firework kind of stands at the entrance saying shit like make it look like a wedding You literally go pyrotechnics when going into the club, bro. It was so much fun though, you know

- Yeah, I bet. Sounds like the beginning of like a WWE match or something, you know? Fucking Stone Cold. - The injury from the Rolls Royce. - But the saddest thing is, well, the host can only go on a date and come to the venue in a Rolls Royce with only one girl, right?

- Oh my God. - So you better pick well. - So the thing is, the thing is when you're the number one, that means you have host buddies or I mean, sorry, the ladies that are saving up for your occasion for like months. - Right. - You know, like. - Very sad hearing that. - After this day, you know, for like the next two, three weeks, it's all about the conversations like, oh, I saved up for like eight months and I still couldn't get the position. It's like, oh my God.

- I guess that makes sense why the host club you went to was just like, everyone was depressed. Maybe it was right after a birthday. - Yeah, exactly. Everyone's chasing happiness and nobody's getting it. - All the girls are like, "Oh, I was eighth in line." - Finally, an enemy that can rival VTubers. - Who earns more? - You think these rainbow super charts are impressive? - $200,000 Dom Perignon towers.

- Beat your heart out. - Maybe that's the next thing. Maybe that's the VTuber hostel? VTuber Cabba Crab? - I mean, it is. I guess it's just, it is the same thing. It's just digitally. - That's true. - I guess that's what super chats are. Just get attention from VTubers. - There's definitely some of them that are like,

you know, organizing one-on-ones where you can buy time. - Oh yeah, of course, of course. That's the only difference, right? - Rarely though. - Yeah, rarely right now. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I reckon I would become a more of a thing. - Who's your favorite YouTuber? - Why are you asking me this, Jen? - You know, I see you, you know, playing some games. - Do you like VTubers, Jen? - I do. - Yeah? - I do, I do. - Who's your favorite?

- So you get back from the host club, right? All right, just fucking, I got like 500. Send the super chat on. - It's like 10 ladies come home with you. It's like, ladies, not tonight. I have a super chat to follow. - The guy on the bed with like four women around him. He's like, they're sending a super chat.

Not tonight, ladies. There's like six women on me right now. I just wanted to tell you that you're my favorite VTuber. Here's five bucks. Is that how it is? Who's your favorite then? Ahoy.

- Yes. - Hoshomari. - Hoshomari. - She was my favorite for a while. - Who's your favorite? - Why are you asking me? Don't ask me these questions. Don't ask me. - I feel like I know, but no, you don't. - I know you're just sensing about it. - No, don't bring this up. Don't fucking bring this up. - If you're listening, tame your friend. - Come get your mans.

- Moving on. - Clippers are just like watching this. - Enhance, enhance, enhance. - Fuck the clip. - But I guess like, so you don't do hosting anymore, right? - I don't belong to a club anymore. - Wait, what does that mean? - So this is like a deposition. It's like not answering the question but answering the question.

- You can take the man out of the host, but not the host out of the man. - I beat you, but not part of an agency. It's like same thing. - Kind of like that. So basically, you know, I- - Well, you're a freelance host? - Kind of like that, yeah. - But you graduated? - Holy shit. - Wait, how the fuck do you freelance host? - So, you know- - Previous clients, right? - Since I've been doing this for almost 10 years now. - Oh, right. Yeah. - Like the people I've, you know, met along the way, at this point, they're just there to, you know, drink with me to get life updates.

'Cause I've known these- - Like an old friend. - Yeah. I've known them for like almost 10 years, some of them, you know? - Right, right. - That's great. That means you get to like- - I've been invited to weddings and shit, you know, of the girls that are getting married, you know? And I went to some. - What? - I should not. - What? - Dude. - How did, how did, when you, when you spoke to people at the wedding, how did that go? Were they like, "Oh, this is Jen, this is the guy." - Yeah. - Yeah. - Wait, wait, wait. - How did the wife explain to the husband? - That's what I was gonna ask. - Bro, so for example, like there was a lady who was,

Back in the day, she was in her late university time. And I was telling her, you know, like, you should do exchange. Go to other countries. Live life. Giving life advice. Yeah, exactly. And then a few years later, you know, I find out that she's marrying somebody she met overseas. Nice. Thanks to her experience abroad. And then she says she got to do this just because I fucking gave her the encouragement to go abroad. Right. I'm skipping, like, the whole arc here. That's the end result here, bro. I imagine the husband was like, you're inviting what? Yeah.

- A host? - Is this why NTR is so popular in Japan? - The moment the husband meets me and I talk about the way we met and what kind of quality conversations we had, nobody's suspecting anything. 'Cause I'm honest, bro. - Did you tell him that you were a host? - That's how the wife introduced.

- That's insane. - The wife's got some balls. - I've never seen someone with such big dick energy. - Yeah. - Hi honey. - Hi honey, here's another man that I spent a lot of money on before I met you. But we met because of this man. - Dude, I thought, interestingly, I have a lot of that.

Even with my ex-girlfriends, I still see some of them with their current boyfriends and we still hang out and shit. That's still the case with hostel stuff. Some people that don't even see me anymore just want to hang out with their new boyfriends. Yeah, I see what you're writing. We can't say that out loud. Can you just say yes or no to me? I mean, you can hint at it.

- That's fucked up. - For you viewers, the wedding isn't as innocent as it seems. - Listen, I mean, you know, everyone, you know, the hosts are not just for talking, right? But you can't say that. I know, I know, I know, I know. - Elaborate your sentence.

- What are part of the host's responsibilities? - It's not all Disneyland. - It's not all Disneyland. - It isn't all candies and rainbows. - We know that. - Are there more perks to the job? That's other than just going on the hardest key I've ever heard. - Perks. - You both get perks. - Yeah. - To answer your question kind of directly but indirectly,

It involves a lot of mental, psychological fuckery. Meaning, if you know what somebody wants and you give it to them straight away, you might get them to be bored of you and then they might not come back for more. So the strategy for some cases is to tease and edge.

- What are you laughing at, man? What are you laughing at? - It's like fucking Bonnie Stinson from "How I Met Your Mother." It's insane. - I understand that it's the job, right? - Yeah. - But it's just like psychotic.

It's one side of it though. One side of it. And on the other side, there are some people that don't want you for what you're, you know. No, I understand that like, it's just conversation. Yeah, exactly. They're there for, just for your company. And so, if you push for it on a drunken evening, you might just fucking ruin your relationship and then they might not come back for you again. Right, of course. So, there's a lot that you have to think about. And this isn't with any other social encounter. You know, if you think somebody is beautiful and they're wonderful and you feel like you want to spend a night with them,

and they're down for it as well. - Yeah, I was gonna say, 'cause obviously it's the only thing that they pay for is the drinks. - I feel like I'm sitting with a bunch of virgin motherfuckers. - I'm just really enjoying you trying to explain yourself. - Listen, listen, listen. Okay, I understand, right? All they pay for is the drinks.

But what you're trying to do is secure that they keep coming for those strengths. - Exactly. - Yeah. - You do what you gotta do. I understand that. Business is business and it's ruthless, you know? And it's childish or naive as to think that that is not how the business works, right? - Right, right. - I've said that. Doesn't mean I can't be like, "That's fucked up." - Just to make myself clear, the way I conduct myself is with my wit and intelligence and my unique ability of talking about shit that they have no idea about, which is,

You are a worldly host. Yeah, exactly. Mr. Worldwide, fucking Pitbull. That's how I do my thing. But there are some people that, of course, push their physical attributes. That's like their main selling point. And they fall into a dilemma where if I don't give it to her now, she might not come back next time. But if I give it to her now...

She definitely won't come back next time. You know, exactly. Right, right. You know, if you're like this and you suck at it.

- What's gonna happen? - No, I totally get it. That's just the environment and the industry of the host club. But I'm sure to a lot of people watching and some people who are not versed in this world, it seems otherworldly. - It is almost like- - For them it's like, what sex? - To be fair, I think one of the most underrated different aspects of Japanese culture is the nightlife and the host industry and all that.

People are like, "Oh, it's so wacky. They have KFC on Christmas." It's like, no, bro. The real weird differences between the West and- - It's the shit that doesn't get talked about. - Yeah, it's the stuff that's happening at night, man. It's completely different. And in some ways,

you come into this with a foreign perspective and you judge it as such, but I feel like in some ways it's unfair of us to judge and be like, that's fucking weird what they do. It's like, well, I mean, that's what they do. That's what they've chosen to do and that's how they do the business. Does it sound predatory at times? A little bit, but I mean, it's my perspective. - Yeah, I mean, and again, like as you were saying, like it is a thing that, I think again, Japan is so good at maintaining

a culture, right? And like maintaining ways to do a culture where sometimes- - It's an ancient artifact. - Yeah, yeah. - Keep around. - Yeah, where sometimes, you know, they get so encapsulated in holding onto this specific cultural thing that they almost fail to realize that, you know what?

it doesn't really fit into society today's standards, right? Like, you know, it's the whole reason why the fucking fax machine still exists, right? It's like, you know, maybe- Great point right there. Maybe it's like, you know, like they don't realize that, you know, they just think to themselves, yeah, it's fucked up, but this is how it came to be. This is what makes Japanese nightlife Japanese nightlife. They never stopped to think to themselves-

maybe this is fucked up, just a bit. - Although hosts are promoted on TV, I'm under the impression that almost on a national level, it's something that they try and keep kind of hidden and that they're not too proud of. Would you say as a host- - I guess that's the whole reason why we got Jenna. - Yeah, exactly. - Open your eyes. So over the past 10 years, would you say that hosts and host clubs become less popular or more popular? - More popular. - Really? - Massively. - Why would you say that? - Again, thanks to Roland kind of people who,

Or mainstream and showcase that becoming a host. Is it just Roland though? Or is it maybe because the whole subculture of host clubs have just become a little bit more open to like a general public? Maybe. Yeah, it's becoming like. But what helped to achieve what you just talked about is through manga anime. Right. A lot of these medias picked up on that and then glorified it.

- Yeah, they make it look like it's actually fun. - Or a high school host club. - Exactly. - Or a high school host club. It couldn't be further from that. - You guys know this anime where this guy who does whatever the fuck he wants in school and everybody's mesmerized by him? - Or a high school host club.

I love Sakamoto. I love Sakamoto. I love Sakamoto. I love Sakamoto. Exactly that, you know. Where does that drive from? The core of that principle comes from the host mentality of being this, you know, superior, untouchable, fucking, you know,

or mighty being in the Japanese. - Meanwhile, they're throwing up in the Matsuya parking lot. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - After they've had a few one too many drinks. So I mean, pick your poison. - So Sakamoto doesn't show you. - Sakamoto injecting steroids into himself. - The core roots of the thing is the same. - Yeah, I agree. - It's interesting 'cause it's just so fucked.

- It's like you're literally, yeah. But it's just kind of crazy to think that there are people who literally put their life on the line to like maintain a facade because you know, that's what gets them the money, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I mean, it's not the only Japanese industry that does that. You look at the fucking idol industry, you know, it's entirely based on like maintaining an image. - And dude, I'd say that's 10 times more toxic, bro. - You think so?

- It says a lot. - It says a lot when the host says that. - After everything you said I said today. - I've heard some horror stories. - Oh yeah, I've heard some absolutely horror stories, which is why I'm like, I don't even think you're wrong in saying that after the stories I've heard. - My psychology comes from this. And I think this also relates to other idol related industries that are still popping up to this day, which is educating your audience.

Right. Your audience is your main sort of income, right? At the end of the day. And within the idol industry, they're so strict about everything that, you know, females do. The relationship they have with the boys or like any kind of interactions they have. It's almost toxic. Yeah. But why does that even exist? That's because the industry standard is bred to be that way. Yeah. Yeah.

So you have to educate your own audience so that you're more free, you're more open, you're more willing to accept radical ideas into your business. - But no one's willing to take that risk, are they? - Well, the company's on. - No, no, no, the company's on. - We're talking about Asian dudes in suits, bro. How are you gonna teach them new tricks, man?

- You're not gonna. - I get what you're saying. You just couldn't have said it in the worst way possible. - I guess you're Asian, right? It's okay. - I'm brutal in the way I carry myself forward. - Well, I guess you have to be to survive as a host, right? - Yeah. - At times like you can't. - I mean, generally as a businessman too, bro. My current job is mostly about convincing people to do shit that I want them to.

- Why do you make it sound so sinister? - Shit, this is one thing I promised myself not to do, to seem like a sinister fucking malicious bastard. - Well, I mean, like the thing is, like I get what you're saying, right? Because especially when it comes to the idol industry where it's like, you know, industries don't want to take

a stab at like a new idea, because again, it goes back to that whole thing of like maintaining tradition, right? Maintaining this is how we've been doing it. It's been working so far, let's do it. Idols can't fucking say anything because the moment they're like, "I have a radical idea." They're like, "All right, see you later. Bye bye." - Bye bye. - Say bye to your career. - Say goodbye. And then if a fan says, "Hey, maybe this is kind of fucked up." Then the community gets on his ass and goes like, "Ah, get the fuck out then." Right? So it's like, no one wins. There's no space for change.

until, yeah, as you said, like at the end of the day, you need to get like the entirety to be like, oh yeah, this fucked. And maybe we should change it. - And that changes over time. That can't be something that's done overnight. But like at the same time, who's gonna take that first step? 'Cause that's a massive risk. - Pioneers of the business, bro.

- In whatever format that is, whether it's, you know, really- - You think they wanna risk everything that they've built up over time for just like, they're not gonna wanna do that, right? That's the issue. That is unfortunately the issue. - Unless you have someone like super small, like again, like Roland, right? Like I guess he's a great example. - It takes a fucking person like Roland to really shake things up. - The example I wanna give here is from Naruto.

- Are you serious? - If you say believe it, I will actually smack you. - You did not just dead ass look me in the face and say that, Chad. - Do tell. - Don't lose hope on me, bro. - Okay, explain yourself. - You guys know Itachi, right? - Yes, we know Itachi. - Where are you going with this?

- No spoilers. - We can't spoil it too much. - If you haven't watched "Narrative", after all this time, fuck you, honestly. - I haven't watched "Narrative". - What? - You guys know I haven't watched "Narrative", right? - No, we don't. - How did you pop off on YouTube? - By not watching "Narrative". - What did you do? - You know what I did. - You give me hope, bro.

- Why me? - You give me hope that in five years, maybe I can be like. Why do you wanna be like me? - Well, no, you can't because you've seen Naruto. - Oh, shit. - Yeah, so you have no chance. - Level of life, huh? - Yeah. - Okay, so go on, tell us about Naruto then.

- Well, tell us about it. - He has no interest in watching Naruto. - Yeah, he's not gonna care. - You don't need to worry about it. - He's not gonna care. - I'm gonna watch it. - Can you guys refresh me on what the main topic of the argument is? - You were about to give some life advice concerning Itachi. - Yeah, and Naruto. - Why though? - Pioneer or something? You are quite drunk. You finished it a little. - Guys, please be sure, unless I get to this point.

Okay. Sober as daylight. Tell us the story. So basically, you know, Itachi sacrificed his whole life being for the greater good that he believed in. A shoe he had to fill in at an age that, you know, even he had no understanding or conscience about. Okay. Stop laughing, bitch. Go on, go on, go on. This...

Stop laughing bitch. - It's so hard to sound smart when you're talking. - That's why we laugh. - That's why we're laughing. - That's why we're laughing, Jared. - You had countless historical figures who sacrificed their entire existence for a cause and out of all of them, you chose fucking Itachi from Naruto. - He's very well suited though. - Okay, well go on then, go on, make your point.

- Was there a point? - He sacrifices himself for the greater good of the family. - I don't fucking know dude. You were the one who was like, bro, Itachi? Itachi though? Pioneer. - We were talking about pioneers who shake up the fucking industry. - Who sacrificed everything. - And then you said Itachi sacrificed his entire life. - Exactly. So for example, in the Narutoverse, right? If Itachi didn't do what he did, nobody would have come to realization of the whole,

- Like the dilemma of following the path and continuing the path you do leading to the same outcome. - Continuing the lineage, right? - Yeah, exactly. 'Cause you know, the whole Sasuke people and the Naruto Uzumaki people. - I'm sorry to interrupt. - You're talking about the Uchiha clan? - Yeah, I'm talking about the woman sitting down in the football stadium, the guys in the ear,

- This is him at the host club in the ears like, "Shit, they're winning." - Yo, so get this, Itachi sacrificed his life for the greater good. - He's talking about how he fucking was like, "You need life experience." He's like, "So Naruto, right?"

- Bro, you won't believe it, right? - So when he had the sand thing, he took off the weights. It was insane, bro. He took them off and he just- - You should have been there, bro. - Bro, it was insane. It changed history. - Okay, so- - Buy me a drink. - Is this what you'll be telling the girls?

- Just talk about Naruto? - No. That's different than the- - Okay, so you were saying, so he sacrifices himself for the good of the Uchiha family. - Exactly, and for the greater good, not even Uchiha family. - The clan, yeah.

I like Sasuke people. - Yeah, Sasuke people. - You know what I said? - The Sasuke people. - I'm sorry, guys. I'm so sorry. - He clearly loves Naruto. - I do though. I honestly, I fucking read the manga. Did you? You didn't? Fuck you. So, you know, that's what I consider the, you know, like the core medium-ass manga. If you haven't read the manga and you just watched the anime, you know, you ain't a true fucking fan.

Okay. In my book. So, you know, to those people who watch Berserk anime, didn't read the manga and you consider yourself a fan, you better don't. I mean, why are you going off on one of the anime fans? What happened to the life advice? The life advice here is that, so if Itachi didn't take the path he did, we would have never reached the conclusion that, you know, like, coming together to understand each other will be the solution. I know it's such a cheesy shit and, you

Naruto gives you that. But at the end of the day, that's what it came down to. Itachi going to break that path. Right. Which led to that. So what you're saying is every industry needs an Itachi. Exactly. Exactly. You might sacrifice yourself, your own being, your own career, but it's for the greater good of reaching, you know. Whew.

- A beautiful speech. Thanks for coming to this TED Talk. - Itachi, yeah? - Buy him a drink now. You have to buy him a drink now. We all have to buy you a drink now for that life advice. - Not a champagne towel. - Not a champagne towel. - Or buy you a normal drink at a normal bar. - I'm waiting for you guys at my next birthday.

- Would you, okay, hypothetically, right? - Me and Garnt will be kicked out. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - We can't get in, so unfortunately it's only Joey, Joey, Joey. Fuck. - Okay, hypothetically though, would you even accept if I did actually buy you a champagne towel? - Fuck yeah, bro. - Okay. - You know, I thought you were gonna be like a bro and be like, no, no, no. - The way you shook your head, I was like, you were just like.

- Fuck our friendship. - You wouldn't even consider it. - 'Cause that happens a lot actually. - What? - What? - The homies inviting their other homies. - To boost your numbers? - Not just boost your numbers, but to drink with you. 'Cause as I said, a lot of the most successful hostos- - Bro, this woman's boring as fuck, bro. Come on, bro. - That's the case, 'cause as I said, most successful hostos, they're so busy in the evening that even if you're good homies, you don't get to drink with that guy.

So sometimes you're like, bro, I want to drink with you. You know, I'm with your club. And you're like, yeah, sure, bro. Just pay the price and come over. This is like min-maxing. Yeah. Min-maxing social interaction. I get to hang out with my bros and I get paid. Yeah, exactly. But usually what you do is the money they pay you that gets into your pocket, you kind of... Give it back to them. In the next drinking, don't be kind. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You pay for them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on. You can't be...

- That would be a total social asshole. - So what you're saying is if I bought you a Dom Perignon champagne tower for your birthday, you will happily say hell yeah, but then you'd buy me drinks the following day? - Bro, he's gonna be paying you back for the rest of fucking time. I don't even wanna know how much that is. - Yeah, right? They'd probably go for like more than 10K, right? Like 10, maybe six digits, 100K?

- Are we talking JPY or dollars? - Dollars. - Six digits? - Yeah. Is that like six digits? - It's like Louis Martin kind of shit, bro. - So it exists? - It does exist. - Oh my God. Could you imagine spending $100,000 on a dude for his birthday? - No. - I can't even imagine spending $100,000. - Yeah, right? - Other than like a house that you're investing in or something. - Imagine you're the daughter of a billionaire, right? Then what are you gonna do? Your life is all about

- Spending money waiting to marry the right guy. - Well, that's a totally different world. - Yeah, we're not the daughter of a billionaire. - I know, I know, but I'm just giving you a perspective. - Another life, maybe. - Another life, yeah. - Another life indeed. - Jesus Christ. - Yeah, so like you're starting a Twitch, right? - Oh yeah, I am.

- Yeah, you're finally gonna have an internet presence. - Yep, indeed, finally, hopefully. - Yeah, I mean like we've focused on the host aspect, but Jan has a lot of varied stories in a lot of aspects in your life. He's not just an ex-host or I mean,

- Ex-host? - Freelance host now. - You've done a lot of shit and we've been trying to convince him for the longest time to start an IRL stream. - I mean, hopefully- - Whatever you wanna stream. - I mean, hopefully this Trash Taste episode has proven that like Jan has the chops to be like a really interesting internet personality. - You're a fucking character. - You are such a fucking character. - You are such a character. - Sometimes I'm just like, I just need to like give you a mic and just let you talk and just like.

I hope so, man. So you're starting a stream, right? Or Twitch? Indeed. Sushikibab. Check it out on Twitch. What are you going to do? Just play games or like do IRL stuff? Well, I'm not really planning on... I don't really want to play games. So what I have planned is every Sunday I want to do something called Controversial Sundays. What?

where I test the limits of Twitch and see how much- - Bro, you're gonna be banned so bad. - How much is it gonna take for me to ban on Twitch? That's what I wanna do on every Sunday. - You're doing a Twitch- - You actually wanna be banned? If I do get banned, for the fucks of it, yeah, why not? Oh my God. - What are you gonna do, get your dick out? What are you gonna do? What do we have to lose? I just wanna have fun on Twitch, bro. I just wanna have one- The reason I'm doing this- - Before you start, I was like- - Why are we promoting a Twitch channel that might get banned? - So we can all have fun together.

- Oh my God. - Look, so all I wanna do is talk about really fucked up subjects on Sundays. You know, get my take. If I can get any of your takes, that'll be great. But if you don't wanna- - No, you are not getting out takes again. - I ain't going near this. - I'm not sacrificing my career for you, Jan. I'm sorry. - By suckling on this sweet teats of social clout that I'm getting from you guys.

Hopefully I can get other smaller time people who want to call out with me to just talk about some fucked up subjects on Sundays. That'll be great. - Maybe you should have a, I think it's like X hamster. - Yeah. X videos I think is another good website. - Her chat debate has a really good. - You can talk about whatever the fuck you want there and not get banned for sure. - Live leak is pretty good too. - Yeah, live leak. Yeah. - I mean, how fucked up we talking? I don't know, John. - I was expecting like a nice warm welcome.

- Well, I mean, you know, when you said, when you told us that, when you were like, "Hey guys, I wanna start a Twitch channel." You know, in my head I was like, "Oh yeah, you know, like-" - You said you bought a PS5? What? He's gonna play some games like any other person on Twitch? Bro, as I mentioned, to be a host, you have to distinguish yourself. This is how I wanna distinguish myself. - So you're gonna just go say the N word on a live stream? - No! - Holy fuck, is that how your brain functions?

- I literally don't know. - You said you're gonna try your hardest to get banned on Twitch. - No, I'm gonna try my hardest to go towards the edge of getting banned and not banned. - Okay, so I guess like one question to wrap up this whole host club thing is like, because you said that the host club side of things has like grown massively in the past five, 10 years, whether that be because of Roland or not, you know, is up for debate. But like,

As someone who, again, used to be in that and is no longer in it anymore, where do you see it going in the next five, 10 years? Will it become more mainstream? Mainstream, as mainstream as it can be? Or will it just be forever this subculture thing? Difficult question because-

As you mentioned, Roland had a huge impact on the industry, right? He brought it to the mainstream. But due to the current unfortunate situation that's surrounding the whole world, the intimacy of host clubs are really limited. You have to wear masks and you have to have face barriers and stuff. Not very romantic, is it? Yeah, a lot of people are kind of not so...

incentivize to go to these clubs anymore. I mean, the whole like, Cabo Cachorro nightlife area just got absolutely fucked because of her. Yeah, exactly. So that is a huge obstacle. But a lot of, you know, places are finding their way around it.

What are by doing like, you know, streams actually. Hostel club streams. Yeah. Where? On Twitch and stuff? Or like Nico Nico and stuff? On YouTube or... On YouTube? Yeah. Hostels TV. We're going to send some links later. Yeah. I want to see these. Sure, bro. So people are doing their own, but mostly like individual hostels are doing their own thing because they do know that building your own brand is more important than building the company's brand. True, true. Yeah. Kind of like following in Roland's footstep.

Like, I'm really glamoring this guy, but like he really, really had a huge impact on the whole industry, man. Right. You know, the way he just brought in ideas and showcased the world that the way he wants to do his business can actually be viable. Mm-hmm.

- All right, well that was a pretty good answer. - Really left on like a somber note, right? - On that note, go check him out. - He's kinda trailed off. - There's a huge potential to the future though. - Yeah, yeah, definitely. - It's not gonna dwindle away. - No, I don't think so.

But yeah, thanks for coming on, Chad. This has been a wild ride. This has been a very interesting episode. The past 10 minutes, huh? But like, where can people find you? On Twitch, right? What's your username on Twitch? On Twitch, Twitter.

- Oh, is it all the same on Twitch and Twitter? - Twitch, Twitter, Instagram. What's the other one that people use? - YouTube, Facebook. - YouTube, fuck. Yeah, everything is sushi kebab guy. - Sushi kebab? - Sushi kebab. 'Cause when you say it's like sushi kebab and I'm like, yeah. - Sushi kebab. The reason, half Japanese, half Turkish. - And you're a guy. - Fuck, and I'm a guy, so sushi kebab guy. You can't miss it.

- All right, go check him out. I guess links in the description and look at all these patrons. - Yeah. - So many of them. Look at all of them. Who's your favorite? - That guy right there. - Who would you buy a drink for? No one. - You buy them a drink. - Who deserves the champagne tower? - Anyone that has a name that said with A and X.

- Why? - I don't know, just random. - Well, hopefully there's an ax out there. - Yeah, hopefully, yeah, an ax is like, "Yeah!" - You deserve a huge hug and a kiss from me. - Mind you, he has finished half a bottle of gin. - By myself, 'cause these pussy ass bitches didn't want to gin with me.

- Jesus Christ. - Thanks for joining us. - Yeah, if you wanna support the show, make sure to go to our Patreon, patreon.com/trashdays. Also follow us on Twitter, send us your memes on the subreddit. And if you hate our face, listen to us on Spotify. Go check out Jan and thanks for coming, dude. - Thank you, bro. - Thank you for having me, man. - Thank you for having me. - Pleasure, come on. - Come here, man. - A pleasure. - Pleasure doing business with you. - Pleasure. - God, your hands are so- - Can I stick it in this too?

- 'Cause you know, you promised this. When this episode is coming out or right after it comes out, me and Connor, we'll be doing a react episode on Twitch. - Are we gonna do react to it? - Yes. - All right, I guess we'll react to it. - Exactly. - We'll react to it. - All right. - Oh my God. All right, thanks for watching guys. I'll see you in the next one. - Bye. - Bye.