Playful prankster’s uninhibited prancing provokes prudish front-desk staffer

In her latest weekly installment in Nikkan Gendai (Aug. 12) the pseudonymous Shoko Harano, a divorcee who has spent three years working at the front desk of a Tokyo love hotel, relates a wacky incident in which she was involved.

Such hotels do not have restaurants on their premises; but as sexual activity tends to give some people a ravenous appetite, it’s common for customers to phone out for food. So as part of her duties, Harano is required to deliver snacks or meals. (Payment for food is added onto the room bill and usually made at checkout. The hotel then settles with the restaurant when their delivery staff comes to collect the dishes.) Read more

Summertime, and the hookin’ looks easy, Johns are jumpin’ and the gals are high

A young girl plying the trade known as enjokosai, or compensated dating, is hardly new. Yet, observes Shukan Jitsuwa (Aug. 19), the glut of school gals on summer break and the harsh economy are combining to make present conditions in Tokyo anything but a seller’s market.

The tabloid cites the entertainment areas of Shinjuku, Ikebukuro and Shibuya as common hot spots. Many young females migrate from the countryside and must offer sharp discounts, or gekiyasu enko, as slashed bonuses for salaried workers have become the norm.

Seated on a street corner is a 19-year-old from Niigata Prefecture. “I came to Tokyo to earn money for one week,” says the brown-haired girl. “I have only have a few hundred yen. Tonight I can’t find anyone. If someone will pay 5,000 yen and the hotel fee that’s acceptable…”

In Shibuya, the writer finds a deeply tanned female in a miniskirt. She does not offer sex, only hand-jobs, and handles five customers a day. Referred to as tekoki enko, the service costs 3,000 yen a pull. Read more

Kanagawa hubby arrested on heels of honeymoon for hiring hooker

Sometimes, begins Shukan Jitsuwa (Aug. 12), there are places you’d just rather not be.

On July 19, that was certainly the case for a 37-year-old employee at a life insurance firm from Kanagawa Prefecture. He was arrested by police from the city of Seya for violating prostitution and pornography statutes by hiring an underage prostitute. But that’s not all: The apprehension occurred two days after he returned from his honeymoon and in the “loving embrace” of his new wife.

“He’s a director of sales and has 15 people under him at the Odawara branch of AXA Life Insurance,” explains a newspaper reporter who covers the police beat in Kanagawa. “He’s suspected of paying 25,000 yen on April 7 for a romp in an Ebina City love hotel with a 17-year-old girl he met on a matchmaking site.”

The suspect was married on July 7 and departed on his honeymoon to Hawaii thereafter. The couple returned to their new home in Odawara 10 days later. Read more

The puerile perils of proletarian prostitution

Earlier in May, police in Chiryu City, Aichi Prefecture, arrested a 25-year-old man on charges of assault and robbery against a 34-year-old woman while in a love hotel.

Nikkan Gendai (May 29) reports that Kenta Hayashi, unemployed and with no fixed abode, allegedly used his hands or a towel to strangle his victim until she lost consciousness. He then stole 5,000 yen in cash and her cell phone from her handbag.

Hayashi admitted to police that he had met the woman via an encounter site on the Web.

“His motive was simple robbery and he had no intention of killing her,” a police source is quoted as saying. Read more

Tokyo furikome fraudsters go from princes to paupers

In a love hotel district of Tokyo, a minivan picks up a young woman. “What the hell were you doing?” she barks to the driver. “You are behind schedule.”

Kotaro Nishijima, which is not his real name, smiles in acknowledging his female passenger, who is young enough to be his daughter.

He currently earns 300,000 yen each month transporting gals in the deri heru trade (out-call sex) to their clients — a far cry from his days as head of a group of 80 that carried out frauds via phone communication (furikome sagi), which typically involves deceiving victims into wiring large sums of money to the group’s bank account. Read more

TV Tokyo talent dispensing deri heru services in Shibuya?

The claims from a caller dialing Shukan Jitsuwa’s tip desk were most tempting: “Right now I am in a love hotel for a deri heru service with a girl who resembles an idol I’ve seen on television. I have to say that it really looks like her! I’d like for you to confirm whether I am correct or not! We are in Shibuya at…”

Being a magazine that frequently covers the activities of call girls, as a deri heru gal might be best described, such an offer for the tabloid proved too irresistible to ignore and for an article appearing in its Apr. 22 issue a reporter was dispatched to the scene within one hour.

Upon arrival the couple were in the midst of exiting the lobby — at least a male matching the description conveyed over the phone was accompanied by a shapely lass in stockings, high heels and a long winter coat (as she was seen to be wearing in a pair of grainy black and white photos supplied by the tabloid).

That gal, the reporter concluded, was talent Urara Hanazono. A writer specializing in the idol beat, who joined Shukan Jitsuwa’s main reporter at the scene, gave his stamp of approval on the identification. Read more

Don’t leave home without it: Yes, love hotels accept plastic payment

“Recently there’s been an increase in customers who pay using credit cards,” writes Shoko Harano, pseudonym of a 36-year-old woman who works at the reception of a love hotel, and who contributes a regular column in Nikkan Gendai (March 25).

According to Harano, males account for about 80 percent of card users. Most of them are older (younger men almost always pay by cash), and typically before paying they will ask what name will appear on the monthly card billing.

Fortunately, it’s rare for love hotels in Japan to bill according to the same name on their outdoor sign. And that’s understandable; after all, who wants to have to explain to his wife a charge from the “Hot Springs Motel” or “Making Whoopie Inn”? In the case of Harano’s employer, for example, the name of a sports gym will appear. (“Honey, I was desperate for a workout and a sauna…”) Read more

Forsaken old yakuza checks out, possibly for good

“Excuse me, but I’d like to spend the night,” said the man, who appeared in his mid-60s, to the receptionist at the love hotel.

That, writes Shoko Harano — who has been chronicling her three-year tenure at a Tokyo love hotel for Nikkan Gendai (Feb. 18) — was not the expression habitually used by customers when checking into such establishments, who would normally use the phrase asa made (until morning) when requesting overnight accommodations.

The man appeared to be completely out of it. Moreover he was alone, and carried his belongings in two bulging shopping bags. Read more

Ex-dog’s AV bark worse than her overbite

As any television viewer knows well, there’s pulchritude a-plenty on the Japanese airwaves. The possible exception would be a show broadcast on Fuji TV and affiliates called “Beauty Colosseum,” hosted by beanpole entertainer Akiko Wada.

The show features a stream of weepy women who pour out their woes, while hostess Wada — certainly no great beauty herself — nods sympathetically and occasionally brushes away a tear.

The show’s homely subjects have been dealt a losing hand by nature, so to speak, causing them to suffer torment at the hands of their peers. In addition to their being verbally slanged, they suffer other forms of discrimination in education and employment, and needless to say romantic relations with the opposite sex typically run from little to none.

Did we say sex? Well, kindly remain calm until we can provide a few more details from Shukan Jitsuwa (Feb. 11). Read more

Ouch! Fetishists at love hotels leave behind bloody, malodorous messes

“I was really surprised. When I went in to clean up, the room was a bloody mess,” relates the meeku-san — as chambermaids at love hotels are referred to in the trade.

The reason for the speaker’s astonishment is evident in her ensuing remarks.

“I could tell it wasn’t just some woman having her period,” she says. “The bed sheets were covered with bloodstains that had soaked through all the way to the mattress cover. There were bloody tracks in the bath too.” Read more

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