Hosts

One of the strangest sights I've seen here in Japan so far, are hundreds of young Japanese men, just standing around looking very smart in their suits with highlights in their hair(looking like a horde of 80s Simon le Bon lookalikes), in a part of Shinjuku called Kabukicho (a very dodgy area if you know what I mean - I was lost, honest!).

I later found out that these men were hosts. Apparently women can hire out their services for a bit of company and they can earn up to fifty thousand yen a night.

I'm obviously in the wrong profession. I'm more than happy to charge 20,000 yen a night (+ bus fare home and a bag of fish and chips). The thing is I think some of them in the menu above, taken from outside a host bar in Osaka, look a little odd.

And if you think hosts are overcharging, apparently Mickey Mouse costs 330,000 yen just for fifteen minutes if you want him to come to your party. I've learnt that he is so expensive because there can be only one Mickey Mouse at a time in Japan. You can't have more than one existing at the same time in different places.

Hello! It's a man in a suit. He doesn't even say anything.