With the swine influenza infections threatening to run rampant in Kansai, the Fukuhara soapland district in Kobe has taken on the appearance of a ghost town over the past couple of weeks.
The manager of one establishment tells Shukan Post (June 5) his business is down by around 70 percent.
“Our girls all wear surgical masks on their commute to work, and we’ve installed air purifiers in all the massage rooms,” he says. “But the customers seem a bit anxious about catching a bug. We’ve had a case where a masseuse coughed once and the customer immediately demanded he be assigned a different girl.”
Other customers, however, have found the slack period has its advantages.
“If you go now, it’s easier to reserve more popular girls who are usually harder to get,” the regular patron at one shop grins.
The operator of an Osaka deri heru (out-call sex) service demonstrated how his city’s entrepreneurial spirit refuses to be intimidated by the doom-sayers.
“We don’t charge extra for costume play, and usually the two most popular costumes the girls put on are flight attendant uniforms and high school middie blouses,” he tells Shukan Post. “But with all the news about the flu, lately we’ve been flooded with requests for the girls to wear nurse’s uniforms.”
Apparently the customers find it psychologically reassuring to pretend that they’re getting a “sanitary” service.
The disappearance of masks and antibacterial goods from the shelves of local drug stores may be due in part to sex services buying them up in large quantity.
“We’ve asked our ‘nurses’ to take a swig of powerful throat gargle before they go down on the customers, and also to give their groins a thorough wipedown with rubbing alcohol before they move on to other activities,” the aforementioned manager tells the magazine, adding, “We call it ‘disinfection play.'”
“Since young people seem more susceptible to the flu, more customers have been requesting older women,” the operator of an Osaka massage shop tells the magazine.
But when it’s all said and done, getting laid still entails some degree of risk.
“If you’re next to a woman in an enclosed room and doing things like exchanging deep kisses, it’s not only influenza you need to worry about,” warns journalist-physician Takashi Fuke. (K.S.)
Source: “Naniwa fuzoku — ugaigusuri tairyo shiyo! ‘kangofu purei’ no shokon,” Shukan Post (June 5, page 39)