WIT Life #143: SoHo Host Club
Food & Drink, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers 
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
I knew that there were a few hostess clubs floating around the city, but I was not aware of the existence of any host clubs. That is until I attended the Winter Solstice Wonderland event last night hosted by none other than New York’s very own SoHo Host Club! I have never visited a host club in Japan, so was not sure what to expect, but this group is inspired by the Japanese anime Ouran High School Host Club. The six hosts present ranged in age from 18-31, and all were dressed in suits and looked quite dapper.
The host taking care of our table was 25-year old Salvatore Torres, and he impressively remembered all of our individual tea selections and kept our cups filled. Evidently in the original anime most social events revolve around tea and sweets, but the event last night was catered so there was a delicious dinner as well as homemade desserts. Like most of the hosts, Sal had come to be acquainted with the club by word of mouth, and most of the hosts themselv
es are picked based on recommendations.
Although interest in anime and manga is not a must it is highly encouraged, but more than anything the hosts must be “chivalrous, refined, and attentive [and] genuinely enjoy interacting with their guests.” Sal’s day job is in IT at Fresh Direct, and the youngest member of the group is currently a pre-med student who is also a dancer, a veritable modern-day Renaissance man.
This group is fairly new (their birthday is listed as July 30th on their Facebook page), so it remains to be seen how far this concept will go. They are available not only for special events but anytime their services are needed, and they promise to be gentlemenly 24/7.
Indeed they were. My three female friends and I interacted with almost all of the hosts, and they all had their own unique charm but shared the quality of being perfectly gentlemenly. Friendly but not overly so. Inquisitive but not prying. One friend said they made the general dating pool look really bad.
However, there were slight drawbacks of having hosts’ attention being lavished upon you. The intensity of one host’s gaze got to be too much for one friend. Another declared that she had more fun just hanging out with her girlfriends. While it is nice to be the sole focus of a man’s attention (and to be served by one), it does get a bit tiring after a while.
Unbelievably, the hosts showed no sign of fatigue. On the contrary, they seemed to get genkier throughout the night! Before the event came to a close they presented all guests with personalized Christmas cards, and saw each one off (holding the door for them of course). Even though they are playing the parts of hosts, they seem to genuinely be enjoying themselves and this made it a fun night of fantasy for all of us.
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