A restaurant known only to those in the know…What is the “famous mutton restaurant” in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, where hosts and cabaret girls talk frankly and frankly about their experiences?

Hosts, cabaret girls, and sex workers ……. For Kabukicho’s “night shift residents,” who spend every night conversing to please their customers at work, a familiar bar where they can talk about their true feelings is an important existence. Sometimes they visit with their friends, and sometimes alone, to air their grievances about their jobs and concerns about the future.

Seineya, located in a corner of the Shinjuku Center Gai, a “passageway of memories” in Kabukicho lined with seedy stores, is a famous mutton restaurant known only to those in the know. The small restaurant with only counter seats is filled daily with hostesses and cabaret girls. A regular customer, Mica (22), a delicatessen worker, says, “I work like a demon in the sex industry.

I went there for the first time on a day when I had to go to …… because there was no after-hours service, even though I had finally met the host whom I had designated as my favorite host. Since then, I’ve been coming here at least once a week.”

Right in front of Sekineya is the long-established host club TOPDANDY. Mizuki Kuroshiro, a host who works at this club, explains why she fell in love with “Sekineya.

I often become friends with customers who happen to sit next to me. The owner of “Sekineya” is an Edo-kko, which is very rare these days, and he values loyalty and humanity. He connects the customers with each other.

The owner, Terushi Shirataka, 50, was born and raised in Kabukicho. He continues to work at the restaurant because he wants to enliven his hometown. He says, “I’ve been working at a hostess club or a cabaret club for my regular customers.

I sometimes go to the host clubs and cabarets of our regular customers. I want to keep that kind of connection. On the other hand, I don’t like people who are dishonest or don’t have good manners. No matter how successful they are, I will ban them from the club at once. Some people come in while drinking or smoking. Those people are not our customers, so I ask them to leave.

The social networking site of “Sekineya,” run by the amiable Mr. Shirataka, contains many photos of customers, rather than of the food. Among them is a photo of a young mother with her baby.

I love eating good meat while buying sake for the owner,” she said. We appreciate the photos, but from our host’s point of view, we really wish they would be a little more elaborate (laughs).

Shirataka sometimes gives harsh opinions to his customers.

I can tell who is a successful host and who is not when I talk to them. I want all the girls who come to my store to be successful, so sometimes I tell them what I think. If they can’t think about other people’s feelings or take advantage of people like me in the store, they won’t sell, no matter how good they look. The girl I gave that advice to would come back to the shop to report, “I sold it! I’m happy when the girl I gave that advice to comes back to the store to report, “I sold it! It is one of the most enjoyable moments in my job to see the life and growth of my customers.

New restaurants are opening one after another in Kabukicho, but just one alleyway away is filled with long-established izakaya (Japanese-style pubs) and other quirky and interesting restaurants. Finding your favorite restaurant is one of the ways to enjoy this town.

From the May 5, 2023 issue of “FRIDAY