Girls, Girls, Girls

Tonight, I met up with some girls who work in a hostess bar in a business district in Tokyo. We met at a coffee shop near their club right before they had to start work. I was feeling nervous about meeting them, because I had already assumed that they would be the stereotypical hostess; catty, mean and threateningly gorgeous. It turns out that they'd just gotten out of bed, and was getting ready for a busy night ahead. They were nice girls, very polite and friendly. The two girls chatted about their crazy schedule (going to bed at 7am and waking up at 5pm) and why they live this way. Being a hostess is nothing to be ashamed of in Japanese culture. For these girls, working at the club only consists of drinking with their "customers", making jokes and generally being loud and fun. It has none of the negative associations that one would imagine.
The girls at the club also have fake names, and they said that it helps them to seperate their work from their personal life. However, all the girls were friends at the club, and some of them even lived together. I was allowed to meet the manager and the bartender of the club before it opened, and I was again surprised at how nice they all were. They greeted me, made jokes with the girls, and willingly talked to the camera.
The girls at the club who were already working were also very nice, and shy to the camera. I thought this was kind of funny because they were wearing such short dresses with a beer logo on them. I shudder to think that in a week, I will be in that same costume actually experiencing what it is like to be one of the "girls".
Apart from the dress-code, I thought the club was very different to what I expected. In Japan, these clubs are generally accepted and men, young and old go to get love advice, advice on raising their children (this is true, it turns out many fathers come to ask how to be liked by their children) and generally complain about their jobs.
So, all in all, my first experience at a hostess club was not as bad as I feared. However, it's the thing that awaits me next week that scares me the most......