Customer Reviews

Bar Flower: My Decadently Destructive Days and Nights as a Tokyo Nightclub Hostess

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As someone who has lived in central Tokyo for almost eight years, I was hoping to find an interesting insider's tale of hostessing in Japan. Unfortunately, there was nothing particularly unique in this book that I couldn't have learned from anyone in a local bar. And by no means are her anecdotes decadent in a truly Tokyo way; the combo hostess/strip clubs in Roppongi are much wilder and much more self-destructive for the women working there, not to mention the s&m bars or the private naked/partner swap parties. Her wild nights were not nearly as wild as an ordinary night out in Roppongi for a drunken expat banker. She also has a poor geographical memory as she misplaces numerous bars that she frequented. Can't understand why she is perpetually broke if she's making such big money hostessing--including three dohans per week versus the quota of two per month--pays only about $500 per month in rent (roughly half the cost of one of her regular's nightly tabs) and never has to buy her own dinner or drinks as she is an expert in getting those for free, yet can't afford the cost of a moving van, which from personal experience runs about $300 for a one-day in-town move. Everything regarding her hostessing career seems greatly exaggerated, as if she were writing a memoir based on other people's stories. While I trust she was a hostess, her story nonetheless reads like a revisionist diary. The most interesting part was her relationship with little Ayu, a story line which was completely abandoned once her hostessing began. Lots of sloppy errors with dates and geography. While she has a moving story with regards to the August 2005 anniversary of the WWII A-bombing, her interpretation of the somber mood over all of Japan is simply wrong. On the contrary, Japanese news shows, as well as CNN, ran numerous interviews with Japanese citizens on the street who had no idea why August 6 and 9 were significant in Japanese history. Ultimately, the book is disappointing for old Tokyo hands as her attempt to prove her immersion into Japanese culture are revealed as exaggerated by numerous mistakes and failure to experience many of the more decadent floating world. Though obviously cathartic for the author, the book is rather sophomoric.

In this book, Jacobson reveals a side of Japan that hardly gets any attention. An educated Japanophile with a keen eye for detail, she travels through the seedy and fascinating night time world of Tokyo, and takes us along for the ride. She shows us a dream world where beautiful girls in slinky dresses entertain red-faced, drunk business men. And she doesn't flinch when the dream shatters into a million ugly pieces.

Jacobson becomes an expert at flirting and coddling men for her benefit. However, as an educated woman from the land of opportunity, she ultimately realizes that she really should know better. Luckily for us, she gets up to a lot of adventures before she does. Fun, then devastating, and finally inspiring, you will not regret buying this book.

I enjoyed the mini-lessons about Japanese language and culture, however, I found this book to be written simplistically and with a lot of excessive detail that was unrelated to the storyline itself. I felt like there were a lot of unnecessary "fluffy anecdotes" that left me wondering about their significance, instead of relevant details.

Additionally, the beginning of the book was lacking in character development. As I read the good and bad things that happened to Lea, I was not invested enough in her character to really care. I felt no emotion throughout the entire book, but I finished it anyway because it was a fast read.

I do not recommend this book.

Survivor first aired in on May 31, 2000. Lea Jacobson first went to Japan in 2003. Why is this significant? In the book, Lea's mom tells her that life is not an episode of Survivor. Lea claims to not know what she's talking about. I have a hard time believing that she really hadn't heard of Survivor since at least two seasons had aired on North American television before she even set foot in Japan and it was a huge phenomenon. Having been in Japan at that time, even I had heard of Survivor. If you picked up a newspaper or magazine there was something about Survivor in it. You had to have been living under a rock to not have at least known what it was - even someone living in Montreal. She claims that upon returning to the States, she had to be told what C.S.I. stood for. That show first aired on October 6th, 2000, nearly three years before Lea set foot in Japan. These may be minor errors and maybe she was just never a big television fan. More likely she tried using her supposed lack of knowledge about those shows to emphasize how immersed in Japan and how out of touch with America she'd been but the devil is in the details and if she'd "misrepresent the truth" about television shows it made me wonder what else she'd "misrepresent". The club she mentions early on is actually called One-Eyed Jacks not One-Eyed Zacks. It's a big club and advertises in a free, English magazine popular among foreigners living in Tokyo. Additionally, there is no shinkansen (bullet train) to Kamakura station. Ms. Jacobson could have used a better editor and fact checker. The book itself is passably interesting but doesn't add much to the "misspent youth" type memoir of which there are many and many better ones. If you have an interest in the world Japanese floating world you may find some appeal in this book but otherwise I'd recommend something by Liza Dalby who trained as a geisha and writes with far more skill and without sensationalizing things.

Like Lea Jacobsen, I also went to Japan to teach English and spent nearly 6 years in the country. Unlike her, I never strayed from the straight economy into the `mizu shobai' though I was equally fascinated and repelled by this `floating world--in which men trade money for sexual favors both real and imaginary. Even in my relatively provincial town, I encountered quite a few Western girls like Jacobsen, though--young, blonde & pretty--who, as the Japanese fantasy ideal of Western beauty were in great demand at all levels of the entertainment industry. Jacobsen's background in Japanese studies gives her a bit more heft than the typical bar hostess, who rarely possess her combination of linguistic ability and education, because they are strictly unnecessary; plying youthful looks into quick cash is the stock in trade of a `floating girl', and the less complicated she seems, the better. At the start, I had high hopes that Jacobsen could do for the world of hostessing what Liza Dalby did for the geisha world in her ground-breaking book, "Geisha". Unfortunately as she goes on, Jacobsen loses most of her credibility as a student of culture and becomes one more of the legion of young, unfocused women who have traded on their looks for money so long that they become addicted to the fatuous lifestyle doing so offers, even as it does great damage to them. She displays a bit more capacity for self-reflection than the average party girl, but the tone is much more Elizabeth Wurtzel than Liza Dalby. The bar hostess has no equivalent in America, so insofar as Jacobsen has demystified for a Western audience what goes on in an upscale Ginza hostess club, she has succeeded, though there is little pleasure here. The author is a self-admitted alcoholic, recovering anorexic and cutter; as such she could have hardly chosen a country or a profession that would end up making her more vulnerable to her demons. "Bar Flower" should be read as a cautionary tale: Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be hostesses! Anyone who's experienced Japan firsthand will be able to put Jacobsen's experiences in context; those who have not will get an eye-opening lesson that modern Japan is not all cherry blossoms and pretty views. 3.5 stars.

As an American who has been to hostess bars in Tokyo, this was a very interesting account that helped me understand the hostess bar experience I had, which completely baffled me at the time. Hostess bars are a Japanese phenomenon, and experiencing one for the first time may leave the foreign patron quite drunk, pennyless, smitten, and confused. Although this book didn't go into as many details as I would have liked concerning the inside workings of the bar, it brought many hostess bar mysteries to light for me. I'd also like to congratulate the author on reaching her goal of sobriety, as I was absolutely amazed at the amount of alcohol these women are constantly required to imbibe.

This book lets you into "the floating world" of Japan's business of ephemeral pleasures, aka "the water trade." The narrator takes us with her into the rabbit hole as she becomes a hostess, whose job is to flirt with and compliment the men who come in, and get them to spend money on booze. She had to learn how to be a human work of art, who pours beer into a glass perfectly, who can sing karaoke, who refrains herself from making the types of challenging comments this particular young American is inclined to make. When i put it down for awhile, i looked forward to getting back into it. The writer is also pretty forthcoming about some of her own shortcomings and more regrettable moments, which to me gives the book more street cred and validity. Definitely entertaining and as someone else said, the writer does search for and find some interesting insights along the way, and I think the decision she says she has made in the epilogue is definitely the right one! Thanks to the author for the fun read!

I didn't expect a Pulitzer Prize winning memoir, so I wasn't as disappointed as some are here.

Overall, it's an OK read. It kept my interest the entire two days of reading. The style is simple, which was expected as well. The one thing that irritated me was the constant mistake between woman and women. I don't think she's ever used 'woman' in the entire book. I couldn't tell if it was intentional either.

I would suggest it to anyone.

Lea Jacobson's memoir is subtitled " My Decadently Destructive Days and Nights as a Tokyo Nightclub Hostess."


I'm a sucker for a good memoir and this one sounded really interesting.
Jacobson is an American fascinated with Japanese culture and language. Her studies have made her quite proficient in the language, so she accepts a teaching position in Japan. Her visa is good for two years.
Learning the culture through a book and experiencing it firsthand are two different things though. Jacobson has difficulty accepting the rigid standards and structures of Japanese society. She is fired from her teaching position and begins to drift.


She ends up hostessing in a Tokyo nightclub. I think like most people I had some preconceived notions as to what hostessing entailed. Jacobson gives a detailed account of this profession. In fact her memoir reads as a diary, detailing friends, encounters and thoughts. We are offered a fascinating glimpse into Japan from someone living fully immersed in the culture.

This immersion begins to take it's toll on Jacobson. She descends into alcoholism and self harm in many forms. She realizes she needs out and returns to the US, but is just as disillusioned there, and returns to Japan.


Jacobson ends her book with the Japanese saying" Fall over seven times, wake up eight." She manages to pull it together. I found myself wanting a bit more concrete detail from the epilogue, but found her blog which ties up things a bit more.

As a recovering Japan addict, former wife of a Japanese lolikon (a man with a Lolita complex), and technical translator, I was glad to read a book that described Japan in less than glowing terms. Too often we see only the cool side of Japan in the news. This is raw...and for this reason I recommend it.

The writing is casual and it fits the addict. Some sections might be unnecessary...true, but overall the description of Japanese men and the floating world held my attention and I'm going to pass the book along to American family and friends so they better understand what I dealt with as an American living in the culture.