Host Club
Want a relaxing night away from the office, your college, or your stupid boyfriend? If you're female, 18+, and you live in Japan, maybe you could go to a Host Club.
Like hostess clubs, most host clubs do not offer actual sex; only flirting, flattery, pampering and companionship in a congenial environment (and at an exorbitant rate). Unlike hostess clubs, the main market for host clubs is not White Collar Workers, but, instead, women who work in hostess clubs and other parts of the entertainment industry, looking to relax after a long hard night of being nice to inebriated, sexually-harassing Salarymen (since host clubs are mostly owned by the same people who own hostess clubs, this has the net effect of recouping some of the hostess' income, and thus hostesses are encouraged to partake of this form of entertainment).
Standard host clubs discourage male customers; there are separate "host bars" aimed at gay men.
For the younger set, Butler Cafes have a similar premise, only with afternoon tea rather than late-night booze.
Spear Counterpart to the Hostess Club.
- Ouran High School Host Club - A PG version.
- The Great Happiness Space - a documentary about host clubs
- Welcome to The NHK - In the manga Yamazaki ends up working at one.
- Seoul After Dark (aka Beastie Boys) - A movie about the host/hostess club lifestyle in Korea.
- In the manga series B.O.D.Y, the boy the protagonist has a crush on works at one because he enjoys being paid to flirt.
- In the third Where the Hell Is Matt video, Matt dances with the waitresses at a Meido-themed hostess club when he goes to Tokyo.
- Keith Goodman from Tiger and Bunny regularly visits one, because he thinks it's a normal cafe.
- Several of the supporting characters from Gintama work at host/hostess clubs. A few of the mini-arcs take place in the host clubs as well.