Sitting Around” as Kabukicho Expands Standing Areas a Report from Okubo Park

After passing through a quiet alley lined with small buildings and private diners, one comes to a desolate hotel district. Even deeper than Okubo Park, this street is also lined with stand-ups, sometimes with women sitting in the gaps between buildings. Even in this environment, where people have to flee from police officers who patrol the area on a daily basis, there are no signs of the disappearance of the stand-up dummies.

Why Hosts Can No Longer Force Their Customers to Stand on Their Feet

The hosts are becoming more and more cautious about their customers, because if a host sends a text to a girl asking her to play stand-up, it could lead to the host’s establishment being busted. There are quite a few girls who hide the fact that they are playing stand-up because they don’t want the hosts to think they are a nuisance.

However, the tricky part is that even if you warn the hosts, there is an unspoken understanding between them. A boy who left a host club at the same time as me before headed straight for Okubo Park. The host in charge of that girl also said in a knowing and muddled way, ‘You’ll come back when you make more money, right? It’s a 10-second walk to work, and the love hotel is close by. It is also a short walk to the host club where he spends his money. The economy revolves within a radius of 200 meters.

The police and the host clubs, the standing pigs being chased by the police, and the male buyers observing them from a delicate distance. The loop of strange weasel words that is unfolding within a 200-meter radius of Kabukicho does not seem to be ending.