The trouble with being foreign women in this situation is that there appears to be a bit of a bias not in our favor for accepting patronage. After about an hour of walking around, the other girls found the spot that they recognized as "the spot" to catch the eye of the hosts or the club promoters. Luckily, one promoter happened to approach us, tentatively testing our Japanese speaking ability and then tracking down a fellow promoter to get us where we wanted to go. This second promoter, who was all too eager to get us into a club, literally placed like 10-15 calls in the span of about 20 minutes checking to see where he could take us. Kyri and I chalked it up to either they were full (the establishments themselves do not appear to be very expansive), they were not up for accepting foreigners (they had not really given us much opportunity to use our Japanese by speaking to us in a lovely mixture of Japanglish), or a bit of both. Either way, after some time he hooked a location and gave us the news - there were no host clubs he could take us to but . . . there was a new-half club nearby. What is new-half you ask? Well by definition, according to Urban Dictionary, it is:
"a Japanese slang term for a pre-op or non-op male-to-female transsexual"
or from what I understand to be more PC American/Western terminology, the Japanese term for either a transgender woman (post-operation male-to-female) or pre-operation male who cross-dresses (both of which you will see in my descriptions of our hosts later). After allowing that term to process in my head and realizing that my friends had not heard that term before, I explained to them as best as I could and then asked how much it would cost. Let's just say that I could have found a better use of my money if I really wanted to. So after a short time of inadvertent bargaining, what began as a $50 endeavor went down to a $30 semi-triumph. For a once-in-a-lifetime intrigue I figured why not? Of course, I was not totally ready to jump at this opportunity and had to have little eye-twitching-under-our-breath-whispering consultations with the girls before we decided to give it a go.
Upon entering DREAM the staff seemed a bit hesitant about how to receive us (probably because they were shocked at the presence of foreigners, but more importantly foreign women). Being three of four natural born women in the entire club, I must say it was definitely going to be an interesting night. Each table had about one host to a group of customers but because we came in right as the show was about to start we did not yet receive a host. During the course of this description of our adventure I will be referring to these performers as women because they are physically women and probably identify with being a female (just to clear things up ahead of time). As we took our seats the lights dimmed and then went out completely signaling that a performance was about to begin. The first act was a group of three cops (one tall with long hair, one short and chubby with pinchable face cheeks, and another tall one who looked the most like a young woman but did not appear to enjoy her job) dressed in vinyl skirts and short tops with one short long-haired convict who liked to scream playfully in a white wide open jumpsuit that flashed what seemed to be an adolescent-sized breast on occasion. Up next was an older woman of about 35-45 years of age who performed a lovely dance in full kimono. She was absolutely precious and sweet and was actually one of my favorites. Next the younger performers did a uniquely feisty rendition of Gangnam Style. Another solo artist, the tall long-haired woman, performed a more sensual dance while wearing what I have deemed a "sexy" kimono made of silk. It was during this dance that the status of post-op could be given to this individual because, to be as discreet as possible, we were given a purposeful view of all of her lady bits (and no I am not a prude, I just chose to pick my words wisely for the readers). The final number involved all of the performers in cute frilly blue dresses dancing to a light and carefree song. 
Aside from the older performer, my two most favorite performers were the one's with the long hair. I am not sure what it was about them, presence or their ability to play to the crowd, but I found them somewhat attractive (they had beautiful bone structure in their faces) and added them to my oddly growing list of girl crushes I have developed since being on this trip. All of the performers did a great job involving the patrons, smiling and winking and dancing with them. After the show ended the performers then deposited themselves amongst the guests. This is when our host showed up (and I completely forgot his female host name). He, being clad in a long tropical dress, welcomed us and explained the rules of the nomihōdai and served us our drinks. His English was so-so but we did our best to communicate and not make him despise his job. I asked him how long he had been working there - a spare three months - and he told me that he was still all male but that he liked men, rejoicing in the fact that we were all the same in that way. He asked us where we were from, Kyri from Philadelphia, Rebekah from Texas (to which he responded "Gun slingers!") and me from Chicago (to which he smiled and said "Gangsters") He then asked how old we were and when I told him I was 21 he said that he thought I was older because of what I was wearing but that I was still pretty (thanks . . . ? lol). We got on the subject of boyfriends and when one of my companions expressed an interest in Asian men he asked very coyly if the ecchi [エッチ] (sex) and the men's "sizes" were adequate which made us all laugh hysterically, simply saying it was fine.
Later on, the chubby-cheeked performer came to our table for a chat just as we had decided that we needed to leave soon in order to be on time for the final trains. She spoke very good English which was pretty cool and we talked and laughed about various topics of discussion. She thought merely by looking at us that we were 18-19 years old and also assumed that since we said we were in college that we were younger as well. She explained that she had friends working government jobs in America but she herself had never been. Finally detaching ourselves from our captivating host and hostess we exited the room to the farewells of the other performers and hosts. Altogether we paid about 9,450 yen which was not really that bad but we definitely would have liked to have stayed a bit longer. As we reached the elevator to exit the building entirely, the tall long-haired performer ran out the door to catch us. She asked me a question in Japanese that took me a moment to process because I could not believe that that was what I was really being asked but it was basically along the lines of 『映画か番組にいるの？』, or "Are you in a movie or on a television show?" - a question prompted by one of her patrons.
Now for those of you how are familiar with my Facebook profile, you will recall a post that I wrote earlier in the semester which featured me showing my absolutely warranted vehemence at being mistaken for and/or associated with the detestable Nicki Minaj in a convenience store by a young Japanese guy. For everyone else I will just say that I was really upset and felt slightly disappointed with/unforgiving of the terribly short range of exposure to African-American individuals from the United States that is visited upon the Japanese people by world media outlets. But in this case I felt much better, flattered even, for this recognition (mostly for the lack of specificity) and despite the absence of any fame on my part in the U.S., I really enjoyed the attention we received from the hosts and performers. Maybe it was the green-colored contacts that I wore or maybe the guy just really needed glasses. In hind-sight I wish we had taken a picture with at least one of the performers and, we realized all too late, that we did not leave our host a tip (the one and only place we have seen in Japan where this typically Western practice is actually acceptable).
All in all, we had a fantastically fabulous time and I would love to come back there. Sadly, we missed the last train and had to hail a taxi halfway in between Shinjuku and our respective homes. But in spite of that mishap we really did enjoy ourselves. Ironically enough, we ended up discussing the multiplicities of sexuality as it relates to people in Japan where we came to the conclusion that coming out is not only very difficult but may even prove to create problems, much like it does world-wide, within one's family/peer group/larger society. More specifically in Japan, the performance of these multiplicities (namely any LGBTQ inclinations, outward appearances, etc.) tends to be more of a nature representing the extremes of such lifestyles which is more acceptable then actually admitting that one really and truly identifies with the LGBTQ community.
Understanding the standard of what a family [家族｜かぞく] is supposed to be while upholding ideologies of
uchi (inside/home life) [内｜うち] / soto (outside/social life) [外｜そと]
and
honne (real intention/private feelings) [本音｜ほんね] /
tatemae (outer expression/public face) [建前｜たてまえ]
tatemae (outer expression/public face) [建前｜たてまえ]
continues to be of the utmost importance in Japanese society and is protected at all times. Thinking on this subject really made me wonder, then, what it is like to be in the shoes of our hosts and performers, to see what it means to face the world as they do. I sincerely hope that they have their source of support and guidance much like I do for those individuals in America because, at the end of the day, love is love not matter who it is directed at.
So yeah, fun and culture and ideology all wrapped into one activity! Well, じゃまた！
Nana would be so proud to read that last bit. Fun fun!
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