My first exciting experience in a Hostess Club!

Feb. 11 Thursday

So today was supposed to be a day of fun ice skating with my Kembuchi girls. We all gathered at my apt at 8:30am and left to Asahikawa from there. We got to the ice rink, discovered that there were barely any people there and that the skate rental area was closed. I wondered why and decided to ask one of the staff. Apparently there were only hockey games going on today and no general ice skating. Boo! So we came all this way for no skating.

So we decided to leave and go somewhere else and have fun. We ended up going to Sugai to watch movies and go bowling. We first went bowling as there was a lot of time before the movies started, and as usual, I got the lowest score. I did, however, want to play billiards cuz I am quite the fan of it, but no one else wanted to play so I was stuck with bowling. Anyways afterwards we all went to watch our respective seperate movies. Tama-chan, Uno-san, and I went to go watch "Nodame Cantabile" the movie. That was so cute, funny, and interesting. Yay Tamaki Hiroshi! However, the ending just hurt me because it`s supposed to be a continuation to the second movie, but it ended in such a heart wrenching way that when I came out of it I was like "geez..." lol

Afterwards we went down to the 1st floor to take purikura. All the newest purikura machines have this thing where they make your eyes look bigger. My eyes were already pretty huge, so having them made bigger just makes me look alien. lol Afterwards we all decided to go eat at Bikkuri-Donkey. It`s a place that serves excellent hamburg steaks. I had a hamburg steak stuffed with cheese and potato salad. Yes, not the healthiest of things, I know. We talked about ikemen and other stuff and had a grand old time. But we vowed to go back ice skating one day, when the rink is opened to the public. lol

Feb. 12 Friday

So today after work is my Board of Education`s (BOE) group business trip/vacation, which wasn`t really so much a vacation as an enkai. Other depts. in the town hall got to go to the beach, to the mountains, and the lake. We, however, just went to the big city 1 hour from us (Asahikawa, which I always go to for shopping and eating anyways) and have a 1 night stay in the local expensive hotel. *sigh* But I do like staying in hotels, so I didn`t mind so much. However, my BOE and supervisor had told me that they wouldn`t be leaving until 5:30pm. And I was going to get there on time when my supervisor called me and asked where I was. Apparently, everyone had gotten there way earlier than me and were going to leave early. I was the only one who was going to arrive there on time, exactly. When I got there I expected to see my Su there waiting for me, but instead I only saw one car and saw the guy who`s the same age as me waiting by his car.

And I was like "No way, no way. I can`t believe Su and the others did this." This guy, fyi, likes me. Or at least it`s fairly obvious that he does from his actions and of those around him. And I know that the people at the BOE try hard to set him up, most of all, with me. And it`s terrible cuz I don`t like him like that and I don`t see him that way. Su even knows that too! >.< So I felt that this was all set up by them. Leaving earlier than planned and saying that we`d all go together and then leave before I get there to only see him waiting was all just too coincidental for it to have just happened. So I got in the car with him and I could totally feel him being nervous. I was just like, whatever, and chill in the car because I don`t have any feelings or anything for him. But I was a lil uncomfortable because he was nervous. He kept talking to me without stopping, and some of the topics didn`t even make sense or connect when we talked. I just tried to be nice about it and laugh along. He`s a sweet guy, but he`s just not my type. Needless to say, I was glad to finally get to the hotel with everyone after an hour of awkward talking in the car.

The restaurant we went to that night was cool! It was very osahare/stylish. And the food was amazing! I took pictures. And it was all you can drink alcohol. So, naturally, having no need of driving a car, I drank my fill of sake and ume-shuu. Then afterwards we all went to a place called "Pearl". Well, now, this was an experience I think I will not soon forget. When we went to the 7th floor and walked to the door of this place I was awed by the decoration just at the entrance. The borders of the door had large black marble slabs surrounding it and at the top was a bright black background with cream colored writing that said "Pearl". I walked inside, pass the beautiful sexy girl holding the door open for us and welcoming us in, and saw the luxurious ivory colored leather sofas/seats and bottles of alcohol and ice buckets prepared on every white lacquered table and the moody lighting, and I knew, I knew this had to be hostess bar/club. I also saw to my left a bar with middle-aged and old business men sitting across from these beautiful women who sat on the inner side of the bar. They were actively chatting and each guy had one girl to talk to, sometimes 2 if the girls weren`t busy.

The thing is, there were 4 women in our BOE group and I could tell some of them were uncomfortable. I, however, was quite excited, but also uncomfortable because I was with my bosses here. If it was a bunch of us young people I think it would`ve been quite fun and relaxing. I`ve always wanted to try to go to a hostess club to see what it is like. And plus two of my friends are beautiful hostesses. One`s in Tokyo, the other`s in CA. So I`ve always wanted to see how their work was like. After we sat down, I asked my friend Satomi who sat next to me if she knew that this was a hostess bar/club, and she answered no. She said that it was the head boss who suggested this place. o.O Apparently, he comes to hostess bars/clubs quite often. And, apparently, they also went to a hostess club for their dept. business trip last year as well. lol So at the two tables we sat at, each had 2 of us women each. And then, 2 hostesses came and sat at each of their respective tables. Ours was so cute and perfect sized. She had brown long playboy hair, a cute round face, wore a black sort of half jacket, and had on a sexy red dress. I saw her and immediately aspired to look as hot and sexy as that. >D

At first she seemed a little unsure because of the girls at the table, but she seemed to keep calm about everything. The guy my age who sat at my table with Satomi and I seemed a bit nervous since he was sitting next to her and he, obviously, had no experience with hostesses. Actually, he`s a lil feminine in my opinion, and I`m not the only one who thinks that. He just seems kinda timid and not for trying out new things kinda guy. I decided to strike up a conversation with her after semi-listening to my boss talk about his cousin in the states. Her name was Yoshimi-san. She started doing this job at 18 and has been here for 7 years. So I guess right after high school. I told her about my friends also being hostesses and she was surprised to know that there were hostesses outside of Japan too. But she seemed to find it interesting that I had hostess friends. She started asking about CA and how it was like. She works from 7pm to 1am every night and her day and night lifestyle is now completely opposite. But she has fun doing her job.

A couple more business men came in and sat at the other tables around us. And some even had a little room in the back reserved for them. Wow. While I was talking with her I watched her work. She knew the perfect amount for mixing alcohol and water so that it wasn`t too watery and not just pure alcohol flavor. Everytime my drink was halfway, immediately she would take my drink and fill it up. When we ate sweets or snacks laid out for us and we`d leave the wrappers on the table she would, in the blink of an eye, take the wrappers off the table and toss them somewhere out of our sight. Whenever my boss took out a cigarette, she would immediately light up a match ready to light the cigarette. Whenever we came back from the bathroom she would have a warm debacterialized wet towel ready to hand us as soon as we sat down. I was impressed. I knew hostesses were good at what they do, but really watching them do their work? Now, that was impressive. =D

After a while, I was getting tired, and was ready to go back to the hotel to chill. I had so much to drink that night because the hostess kept filling my drink up to the brim everytime it was just halfway. So I was ready to pass out. I went back to my wonderful room and took a nice relaxing long bath. Of which afterwards I passed out on the warm comfortable bed.

Feb. 13 Saturday

Got up for a good early breakfast buffet at the hotel this morning and left with everyone at 8:30am. Yeah. The checkout time was 11am, but because people wanted to leave early and go back to doing more work, we left early. Yes, this is the real reason why our trip was so short and in Asahikawa. Because the people in my BOE wanted to get back to work as soon as possible. THEY WANTED TO DO WORK! So they shortened the trip. Oh Japanese people, why do you work so hard to the point of even refusing vacation time. There were some others who didn`t come because they had work to do even though the head boss also came on the trip meaning that they didn`t have to do the work. Crazy. But I know this is their culture.

I came back home and did a load of absolutely nothing. Woo.

Feb. 14 Sunday

Today was my town`s snow festival. It started at 10am and went until 2pm. I decided to get there around lunch time. It was a beautiful day, so I decided to walk over there. On my walk over I saw lots of ice candle holders. If you placed a candle in them some of them would light up different colors and others would just shine brightly. I was impressed with all this.

Upon arriving at the snow festival I saw the town hall young people`s club and went over to their booth where they were making yakisoba. It was yummy! I then saw my students and went over to them and played with them for a while. A lot of the parents also came over to say hi to me. Some of the women manning the other booths knew who I was and gave me free food too! It was all so deliciuos! And best of all there was takoyaki! I bought alot of the food said goodbye to everyone after half an hour of being at the food booths area and walked over to the back side of the festival to see some of my other students playing on a slide made out of snow. I watched as my students sat on big fat inflatable black tubes and slide down 2 on each tube. It looked so fun. My kids saw me watching them and asked if I wanted to give it a try. Hell yeah I did. So my students said they would hold my stuff for me while I climbed up the stairs made of snow to the top where some of my 1st and 2nd grade babies were chilling. They were all very surprised to see me and were like "THERESA-SENSEI" I told them I`m going to give it a try. And they taught me how to sit on it and then all 4 of them helped to push me down the slide. lol I thought that was cute and funny.

I quite enjoyed the slide down. It was a lil freaky at first but fun. And then I noticed there was a crowd of parents and old people watching me that weren`t there before...hmm...lol Anyways, it was fun and I had a good time. Afterwards I went back to my apt. And chilled for the rest of the day. Good day today and lotsa good food. Oh and there was a pony area with whom the ponies I`ve become good friends with since I pet them and occasionally give them sugar cubes on my summer and fall walks. I really wanted to ride them, but thought that I`d crush them if I got on. lol

Anyways, so that`s all for now. Check out my pics yo! Otsukare!