We were then ushered to the ‘waiting area’ until the customers arrived. Whilst in the waiting area we were not allowed to smoke or drink, and sometimes if you were an unpopular hostess (as I was to be), you could end up sitting there alone for hours. It was miserable to sit alone and watch everyone else laughing and drinking. That night, I was taken to every table and introduced as ‘Vicky’, my hostess name. I have a tattoo on my left arm, and this seemed to bother the men greatly. ‘H’ explained that tattoo’s are associated with the Yakusa and prostitutes. He thought this was quite funny. I didn’t spend very long with any table, as the men always made a gesture with their arms, which meant ‘move her along’. By then end of the evening I felt very ugly and unwanted. John told us to go home, and said he would be checking that we were all there later.

We didn’t go home. Me and 6 of the girls hit Roppongi town. We all re-applied our make up, they smoked a bit of ‘Ice’ and off we went to a bar called Harvey’s. It was here that I found out a bit about Roppongi life. As a Hostess we were entitled to free entry to all clubs, and free drinks in some. Apparently we were entitled to lots of free drugs too from what I saw that night. We ended up with a group of Iranian guys, one called Tom. They kept inviting me to go for a line, and putting pills in my hands. I kept saying no, which they didn’t like. One of them sat with his arm around me, and I found him quite menacing. It was as though he had claimed me as his. We went to a few bars with them, and then eventually went home around 5am. I was shattered and slept all day.

Over the next few weeks I learnt that City Lights was run by the Yakuza, and the main guy was called JJ. John was quite important too, and ‘H’ was a trainee. On Thursday evenings they would have meetings there, where 20 or so Yakuza men would come in and party with the girls. We would all sit with one of them, and drink and sing. They were quite nice to us, so I actually preferred Thursday evenings. They didn’t grope us like the business men did, and most of them spoke English so it was easier than trying to entertain somebody that couldn’t understand a word you said.

I also found out that we were to be weighed fortnightly, and fined if we put on more than 2 kilos. The other girls smoked a lot of Ice (Crystal Meths) because of this, as it meant you had no appetite and couldn’t sleep, so it made you thin. I was feeling so fat, ugly and useless by the second week. None of the customers liked me, and John was picking on me constantly. One night a big American guy called Big Dave came in with some businessmen, and asked me to sit with them. We all drank Champagne and Tequila, and everyone was very drunk. The man sitting next to me had been pulling a face at me, and poking my Tattoo all evening, and then suddenly he grabbed my arm, and bit the tattoo really hard. I screamed, and pushed him off. I think I must have sworn at him too, and then suddenly I was being dragged out to the kitchen by ‘H’. The waiters were both screaming at me in Japanese, and I realised they were angry with me for pushing and swearing at a customer. John came out and told me to never behave like that again, or I would be sent home. Nobody cared that I had teeth marks in my arm. I was so scared! That night I tried Ice for the first time.

I asked the other girls for advice on how to be a ‘good’ hostess. They all advised me to choose one customer that I liked and sleep with them. The way that we made the club money was by going out on a Dohan (Romantic date) with customers, as they had to pay the club money for the time we were with them, and then pay an extortionate fee to get into the club and sit with us afterwards. The other way we could make money for ourselves was to be an ‘A’ request, which basically means that a regular customer comes in and asks for you by name. Then we would get money for the actual request, and a percentage of the takings for that table. The more champagne they bought, the more we made. A ‘B’ request was when an ‘A’ request girl asked for other girls to join her at the table. These girls would then get money for the ‘B’ request, and a smaller percentage of the takings. The girls would only ‘B’ request you if you were going to help to make them money. I decided to collect business cards the next night, and call some of the men the next day to try and arrange a Dohan. We were encouraged to do this anyway, so maybe it would win me some brownie points with John, who was picking one me more and more.

That night the Iranian guys invited us to a friend’s bar at around 5am. I had recently discovered that everyone had a job in Roppongi, and that all Iranian guys were drug dealers. They were all in their own form of Mafia, and would often fight with the Nigerians (who were all club owners), and the Israeli’s (who were jewellery sellers). All Western and Thai women were hostesses, strippers or prostitutes, and all non-Iranian, Nigerian or Israeli guys were bar workers. A group of girls, bar workers and Iranians all went to this bar, which the owner opened up for us. Once inside huge amounts of cocaine were tipped out on the tables, and one of the Iranian guys called Bobby started to rack up lines for everybody. Tom, the guy I’d met the first night was in charge of all of the Iranian guys, and Bobby was his right hand man. We were all given drinks, and people started dancing. We were there for about 6 hours, and I tumbled into bed at about midday. I was a mess, and had to work at 7pm that evening. I asked one of the girls for a hit of Ice, and felt much better. I didn’t need any food either, and as I hadn’t been paid any money yet, this was a good thing!

That night we were weighed for the first time since I had arrived. I’d lost weight, so John seemed quite pleased. Then I broke an ashtray, and he went mad at me! He said I would have to pay for it. Another girl B requested me that night, which was great! I sat with a nice guy, and we arranged to go out the next day. I was really nervous, so I was guzzling Champagne far too quickly, and ended up quite drunk and lairy. At one point I turned up the Karaoke machine, and John screamed at me. He said I would be fined, and told me to go home. I went to Harvey’s instead, and met up with some of the Iranian guys. I ended up staying out until 2pm the following day, and had to call my customer from the night before to cancel our ‘Date’. I felt sick because I knew this would only infuriate John even more. I’d hardly slept for days, and hadn’t eaten either. I was lonely, homesick and paranoid. I’d been doing quite a lot of Ice, and drinking so much alcohol that my nerves were in shreds. I had no money, and my only friends were some really tough Australian girls from City Lights, and a few Iranian drug dealers. We were to get paid that Thursday though, so I decided I would sort myself out then. No more partying, and definitely no more Ice.

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