Report dump (Osaka host club again & tiny city cosplay event)
Me? Bored in school? Hahaha, ha.
You might remember this report on a host club visit I had with friends, cabbycabcab, xothermic and XT-chan.
Well, I went back with harumi to a different host club in Osaka, and the experience was completely different, so I thought I'd do a quick write-up about it.
First of all, harumi and I were totally dressed for a night out; thinking back on it, the other group and I might have dressed a little too conservatively the last time. This time, we were actually picked up by a host, who asked where we were going for the night.
Our host club for the night was called: CLUB GENJI.
They had recently renovated the interior, and it was gorgeous, much more sophisticated than the last host club, Club GOLD. I get the feeling CLUB GENJI may have been in this business for long enough to have the money and know-how of what their female clients want.
Anyway!
In Club GOLD, because my friends weren't very fluent in Japanese at the time, we had 4 hosts join us at the table to serve all 4 of us together for an hour.
However, since both harumi and I could speak the language, we were given the regular treatment: out of a book containing the aliases and profiles of all the hosts, we had to pick 3 hosts each. The 3 hosts will then chat with us on a rotation basis - about 15 minutes per host. That leaves the last 15 minutes for us to select the host we want- this is the host who will serve us permanently for our corresponding visits -and have a final conversation with them.
Here's a brief description of the 3 hosts I chose.
Daichi: He's the host who picked us up on the bridge. Talking with him was kind of awkward, because he's a total fanboy of America, so all the questions he asked was about America, even after I told him that I was actually from Singapore. It was kinda like,
AKI: harumi and I are thinking of going to a dance club tomorrow.
DAICHI: Oh yeah? What are clubs like in America?
AKI: ... Singapore has clubs too...
DAICHI: Really?
We're not that backward of a country, kid.
Ryoma: Cute, moe type, complete with a tight black vest and tie. I actually floundered between him and the last host, because he was really, really adorable, and I do have a thing for cute boys (not a pedophile, hush). Also, we could have a semi-intellectual conversation, which is really what I'd look for if I ever wanted to make this a regular visit - not that I would; I don't have the money or time lol.
The only problem is that he couldn't seem to decide what he wanted to talk about. I think he was trying to gauge what I wanted to talk about and steer the conversation in that direction, but because of that, the topics kind of leapt all over the place. He started by saying how tiny my waist was and asked if I was eating properly, moved on to fashion in Japan, then started talking about his background (his parents are both chefs, so he's in the host business to earn enough cash to open a restaurant), then jumped to talking about his favourite food (eringe, a type of mushroom; he even has a cellphone strap of it), then broke the moment by telling me he had an ulcer in his mouth (w-what), and then hopped back to the restaurant idea and asked me how to cook Singaporean dishes...
Yeah, aaaall over.
But he was adorable. No picture though, sorry. XD;
Kyou: I chose Kyou because he was the No. 3 host of CLUB GENJI, and I ultimately picked him in the end, because he gave me the most intellectually stimulating 15-minute conversation out of the three. We talked about the history of Kyoto (his birthplace), he told me about his study abroad in Germany and we compared the difficulty of learning German versus English, then we moved on to Japanese accents...
KYOU: It's weird! When I speak in the Tokyo accent, I absolutely have to use the polite form. It just... it feels weird when I don't. Probably because we only ever switch to the Tokyo accent for business-related matters, you know?
AKI: Yeah, makes sense. I can understand, 'cause... it's not so much an accent switch for me, but it's more like... I was first taught polite desu-masu form when I started learning Japanese, so it's still a habit for me to speak politely. I was told I sounded like a textbook once.
KYOU: Now that you mention it, your grammar is a little too perfect.
AKI: You think so? Okay, let's try to be less polite with each other then.
KYOU: [laughs] I don't think any of my clients have ever said that.
AKI: C'mon, relax, talk to me in the Kansai accent. I actually prefer hearing the Kansai accent to the Tokyo one.
KYOU: Are you sure you want that? If I start speaking in the Kansai accent, you're not just getting an accent, you're getting the real me. And I don't know if you want to see that.
AKI: I won't know until I see it, right?
KYOU: Okay then! You asked for it.
KYOU: [slumps back on the couch] God, finally, this feels much better.
I don't know if he was just playing a different character of himself or if he genuinely loosened up, but wow did he relax. *snrk* It got to the point that, when we exchanged contacts via infra-red in the elevator- I'll, get to that in a minute -he actually scolded me for mishearing what he said. XD;
KYOU: Are you sending?
AKI: OH I thought you asked me to receive!
KYOU: Aw man, and I'm over here receiving too! What's the point of both of us receiving, silly??
So yeah. We exchanged contacts, because I was curious to see what exactly he would write in his texts. Would he try to subtly coax me back to the club with flowery words? Would he actually send me a text regularly, even if I'm not living in Osaka?
And surprisingly, he was awfully sweet in his texts. He just thanked me for my time, asked when I was leaving Osaka, and then wished me a safe trip home. Nothing whatsoever about the club, besides his little random remarks of, "I just got off work :D". He also stopped texting after I stopped replying - in other words, no hounding.
I can totally see why he's no. 3.
Sorry it's dark and [edit: corrected the brightness/contrast a little!] my face looks like it was dowsed in a bucket of oil, b-but. Yeah. Focus on Kyou, who is really quite cute. I only noticed this after looking at the picture again. XD;
Because some of you asked for a photo in the last post, I figured I might as well write up a report. It won't be a good reflection of what cosplay is like in Japan, but you can get an idea of how a pioneer cosplay event went in a rural prefecture! ^^;
The event was organized by the only maid/cosplay cafe in the city called 7CAFE. I was dumb and totally forgot to take pictures of the event space, but essentially it was held on the roof of the only shopping mall in the city (notice a pattern here) and it was a simple affair - food vendors sold yakitori/gyoza/sausages/drinks at their booths, while spectators and cosplayers lounged about on outdoor chairs and tables.
The friend, Amuro (former colleague of harumi's who loves Amuro and does a great impression of him), introduced me to the owner of 7CAFE, Bun-san, who was cosplaying Hayate from Hayate the Combat Butler.
Hayate head with Kagura wig. Amuro thought it looked much better with the wig.
Bun-san then happily suggested that shaans and I cosplay while we were here, so he took us to his box of costumes and asked us to take a pick.
There weren't that many left: Kagura from Gintama, Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier, random pink lolita dress, random white lolita dress, some character from some anime. XD; shaans was all right with anything, so I picked Kagura for her and chose Sheryl Nome for myself, forgetting to ask the key question: which version of Sheryl it was.
Anyway, Bun-san asked a Bleach cosplayer to lead us to the changing room and the guy happily obliged. Although he was decked out in the Bleach shinigami wear, he had never watched the series before and thus had no idea who he was cosplaying.
AKI: Do you know the character name?
BLEACH: He's supposed to be like, a captain or something. Uhhh. Name like a fruit.
AKI: ... Ichigo?
BLEACH: YEAH.
AKI: That's the main character of the series.
BLEACH: Oh. Whoops.
When we arrived at the changing room, Bleach kindly told us a hidden route out to the roof, so we wouldn't run into people along the way. (You have no idea how grateful shaans and I were, eheh.)
A cute girl was changing in the room when we entered into what clearly looked like the Suzumiya Haruhi uniform. XD
So! shaans and I went to the other corner of the room to change into our costumes and that's when I found out that their version of Sheryl Nome was her Iteza Gogo Kuji Don't Be Late performance outfit. Note the giant holes at the thighs. Even worse, the costume was an L-size. I, by the way, am an S-size.
orz orz orz
The hot pants were so large, I had to yank the velcro bit on the waist band all the way to the end, which allowed the shorts to rest on my hips - except the back of the hot pants sank down, down, down my ass, leaving a clear shot of my underwear. If it weren't for the coat tails, I would have flashed so many unfortunate people. The blue pants required lots of velcro-yanking too, but thankfully, they stayed up pretty well. shaans couldn't stop giggling at the large holes asdl;k god those holes are so embarrassing.
Then came the pink wig.
shaans managed to fit Kagura's wig on pretty well, but my real hair kept popping out from under Sheryl's wig so much, it looked terrible.
I went to the mirror to adjust my wig, where Haruhi-chan was fixing her make-up. That girl, sweetest thing I've ever met, immediately came to try and help me. She lent me a hairband to try and tie my hair up as well, but my hair was too short for tying. XD; We talked a little bit: turns out she's a third-year high school student from my city, but she studies in a school in the next city over. She also goes to a cram school which a lot of my students attend, so she actually could list me names of third-year otaku kids. Innteresting. *grin*
Haruhi-chan, who wants to be an elementary school English teacher in the future. We're planning to meet up for lunch sometime. <3
But I digress! Eventually, I just decided to forego the wig, since it looked like I had voluntarily walked into an earthquake with the wig. shaans and I then returned to the roof...
... just in time for a cosplay contest. Sob. I don't know what's worse: standing next to one of my students in an embarrassing costume, or standing on stage in an incomplete cosplay. ><;;
After all the cosplayers had gathered on stage, we were first told to do character-specific poses and actions for the Best Performance award. A Dragonball Piccolo cosplayer was totally into the character so much, he kept shooting out Piccolo lines and flailing around in an attempt to showcase fighting moves. It was obvious who the winner would be. XD
Next was the Best Dresser award.
One by one, we had to introduce our characters and what series we were from. Then, we had to step forward, one by one again, for the audience to show their pick via applause volume. Finally, the judges made the decision at the very end.
There was a bit of confusion, because the judges said, "Sheryl Nome, 4th from the left," but Bleach guy on the left end of the line was helping the MC host the contest, so I thought they weren't counting his presence. I had immediately started congratulating my student next to me, who was cosplaying a different version of Sheryl Nome.
And then the judge went, "I mean the Sheryl in blue," and my student pushed me forward with a grin.
I. What.
><;;
Amuro proudly said he had clapped for me, while Bun-san asked if he could put up pictures of shaans and me in his cafe. I also spoke to a few of the cafe regulars, who were awfully nice people. Oh, the prize? The prize was a bunch of 100 yen vouchers that could only be used at the event. XD;; Because shaans and I weren't that hungry (and Amuro so very kindly used his own vouchers to buy us drinks), I distributed the vouchers to the other cosplayers at the event l-lol.
After the entire event, we had a lion dance performance. A Chinese lion dance performance with two people, not the Japanese version with just one man under the costume. shaans and I were so excited. XD It was also a uniquely interactive performance, thanks to the cheeky lion! It enjoyed running around, head-butting people and chomping on their heads. When it came to our table, I patted its nose, then held out my hand and said, "Shake." It obligingly laid a large paw on my palm - before it bent over and chomped on my head. |D;
The lion eating the head of cosplayer.
The best part came when Amuro offered Hayate's headpiece to the lion, which it promptly grabbed into its mouth- to hilarious shrieks of AAAAAHHHHH IT KNOWS THE TASTE OF BLOOD -seconds before it spat the headpiece out and sniffed at it very cautiously. XDDD Bun-san was quite horrified at the treatment of his precious headpiece. *snrk*
... I can't get away without showing that picture, can I?
From left to right: shaans, me, Amuro, cosplayer whose name I didn't get *sheepish*
The hat was so large, it would flop all the way down until I could see nothing but the vinyl lining of the inside, so I always had to either pose without the hat, or tip it exactly like that, in order to keep the darn thing off my eyes.
Yeah. So.
*crawls into a hole*
You might remember this report on a host club visit I had with friends, cabbycabcab, xothermic and XT-chan.
Well, I went back with harumi to a different host club in Osaka, and the experience was completely different, so I thought I'd do a quick write-up about it.
First of all, harumi and I were totally dressed for a night out; thinking back on it, the other group and I might have dressed a little too conservatively the last time. This time, we were actually picked up by a host, who asked where we were going for the night.
Our host club for the night was called: CLUB GENJI.
They had recently renovated the interior, and it was gorgeous, much more sophisticated than the last host club, Club GOLD. I get the feeling CLUB GENJI may have been in this business for long enough to have the money and know-how of what their female clients want.
Anyway!
In Club GOLD, because my friends weren't very fluent in Japanese at the time, we had 4 hosts join us at the table to serve all 4 of us together for an hour.
However, since both harumi and I could speak the language, we were given the regular treatment: out of a book containing the aliases and profiles of all the hosts, we had to pick 3 hosts each. The 3 hosts will then chat with us on a rotation basis - about 15 minutes per host. That leaves the last 15 minutes for us to select the host we want- this is the host who will serve us permanently for our corresponding visits -and have a final conversation with them.
Here's a brief description of the 3 hosts I chose.
Daichi: He's the host who picked us up on the bridge. Talking with him was kind of awkward, because he's a total fanboy of America, so all the questions he asked was about America, even after I told him that I was actually from Singapore. It was kinda like,
AKI: harumi and I are thinking of going to a dance club tomorrow.
DAICHI: Oh yeah? What are clubs like in America?
AKI: ... Singapore has clubs too...
DAICHI: Really?
We're not that backward of a country, kid.
Ryoma: Cute, moe type, complete with a tight black vest and tie. I actually floundered between him and the last host, because he was really, really adorable, and I do have a thing for cute boys (not a pedophile, hush). Also, we could have a semi-intellectual conversation, which is really what I'd look for if I ever wanted to make this a regular visit - not that I would; I don't have the money or time lol.
The only problem is that he couldn't seem to decide what he wanted to talk about. I think he was trying to gauge what I wanted to talk about and steer the conversation in that direction, but because of that, the topics kind of leapt all over the place. He started by saying how tiny my waist was and asked if I was eating properly, moved on to fashion in Japan, then started talking about his background (his parents are both chefs, so he's in the host business to earn enough cash to open a restaurant), then jumped to talking about his favourite food (eringe, a type of mushroom; he even has a cellphone strap of it), then broke the moment by telling me he had an ulcer in his mouth (w-what), and then hopped back to the restaurant idea and asked me how to cook Singaporean dishes...
Yeah, aaaall over.
But he was adorable. No picture though, sorry. XD;
Kyou: I chose Kyou because he was the No. 3 host of CLUB GENJI, and I ultimately picked him in the end, because he gave me the most intellectually stimulating 15-minute conversation out of the three. We talked about the history of Kyoto (his birthplace), he told me about his study abroad in Germany and we compared the difficulty of learning German versus English, then we moved on to Japanese accents...
KYOU: It's weird! When I speak in the Tokyo accent, I absolutely have to use the polite form. It just... it feels weird when I don't. Probably because we only ever switch to the Tokyo accent for business-related matters, you know?
AKI: Yeah, makes sense. I can understand, 'cause... it's not so much an accent switch for me, but it's more like... I was first taught polite desu-masu form when I started learning Japanese, so it's still a habit for me to speak politely. I was told I sounded like a textbook once.
KYOU: Now that you mention it, your grammar is a little too perfect.
AKI: You think so? Okay, let's try to be less polite with each other then.
KYOU: [laughs] I don't think any of my clients have ever said that.
AKI: C'mon, relax, talk to me in the Kansai accent. I actually prefer hearing the Kansai accent to the Tokyo one.
KYOU: Are you sure you want that? If I start speaking in the Kansai accent, you're not just getting an accent, you're getting the real me. And I don't know if you want to see that.
AKI: I won't know until I see it, right?
KYOU: Okay then! You asked for it.
KYOU: [slumps back on the couch] God, finally, this feels much better.
I don't know if he was just playing a different character of himself or if he genuinely loosened up, but wow did he relax. *snrk* It got to the point that, when we exchanged contacts via infra-red in the elevator- I'll, get to that in a minute -he actually scolded me for mishearing what he said. XD;
KYOU: Are you sending?
AKI: OH I thought you asked me to receive!
KYOU: Aw man, and I'm over here receiving too! What's the point of both of us receiving, silly??
So yeah. We exchanged contacts, because I was curious to see what exactly he would write in his texts. Would he try to subtly coax me back to the club with flowery words? Would he actually send me a text regularly, even if I'm not living in Osaka?
And surprisingly, he was awfully sweet in his texts. He just thanked me for my time, asked when I was leaving Osaka, and then wished me a safe trip home. Nothing whatsoever about the club, besides his little random remarks of, "I just got off work :D". He also stopped texting after I stopped replying - in other words, no hounding.
I can totally see why he's no. 3.
Sorry it's dark and [edit: corrected the brightness/contrast a little!] my face looks like it was dowsed in a bucket of oil, b-but. Yeah. Focus on Kyou, who is really quite cute. I only noticed this after looking at the picture again. XD;
Because some of you asked for a photo in the last post, I figured I might as well write up a report. It won't be a good reflection of what cosplay is like in Japan, but you can get an idea of how a pioneer cosplay event went in a rural prefecture! ^^;
The event was organized by the only maid/cosplay cafe in the city called 7CAFE. I was dumb and totally forgot to take pictures of the event space, but essentially it was held on the roof of the only shopping mall in the city (notice a pattern here) and it was a simple affair - food vendors sold yakitori/gyoza/sausages/drinks at their booths, while spectators and cosplayers lounged about on outdoor chairs and tables.
The friend, Amuro (former colleague of harumi's who loves Amuro and does a great impression of him), introduced me to the owner of 7CAFE, Bun-san, who was cosplaying Hayate from Hayate the Combat Butler.
Hayate head with Kagura wig. Amuro thought it looked much better with the wig.
Bun-san then happily suggested that shaans and I cosplay while we were here, so he took us to his box of costumes and asked us to take a pick.
There weren't that many left: Kagura from Gintama, Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier, random pink lolita dress, random white lolita dress, some character from some anime. XD; shaans was all right with anything, so I picked Kagura for her and chose Sheryl Nome for myself, forgetting to ask the key question: which version of Sheryl it was.
Anyway, Bun-san asked a Bleach cosplayer to lead us to the changing room and the guy happily obliged. Although he was decked out in the Bleach shinigami wear, he had never watched the series before and thus had no idea who he was cosplaying.
AKI: Do you know the character name?
BLEACH: He's supposed to be like, a captain or something. Uhhh. Name like a fruit.
AKI: ... Ichigo?
BLEACH: YEAH.
AKI: That's the main character of the series.
BLEACH: Oh. Whoops.
When we arrived at the changing room, Bleach kindly told us a hidden route out to the roof, so we wouldn't run into people along the way. (You have no idea how grateful shaans and I were, eheh.)
A cute girl was changing in the room when we entered into what clearly looked like the Suzumiya Haruhi uniform. XD
So! shaans and I went to the other corner of the room to change into our costumes and that's when I found out that their version of Sheryl Nome was her Iteza Gogo Kuji Don't Be Late performance outfit. Note the giant holes at the thighs. Even worse, the costume was an L-size. I, by the way, am an S-size.
orz orz orz
The hot pants were so large, I had to yank the velcro bit on the waist band all the way to the end, which allowed the shorts to rest on my hips - except the back of the hot pants sank down, down, down my ass, leaving a clear shot of my underwear. If it weren't for the coat tails, I would have flashed so many unfortunate people. The blue pants required lots of velcro-yanking too, but thankfully, they stayed up pretty well. shaans couldn't stop giggling at the large holes asdl;k god those holes are so embarrassing.
Then came the pink wig.
shaans managed to fit Kagura's wig on pretty well, but my real hair kept popping out from under Sheryl's wig so much, it looked terrible.
I went to the mirror to adjust my wig, where Haruhi-chan was fixing her make-up. That girl, sweetest thing I've ever met, immediately came to try and help me. She lent me a hairband to try and tie my hair up as well, but my hair was too short for tying. XD; We talked a little bit: turns out she's a third-year high school student from my city, but she studies in a school in the next city over. She also goes to a cram school which a lot of my students attend, so she actually could list me names of third-year otaku kids. Innteresting. *grin*
Haruhi-chan, who wants to be an elementary school English teacher in the future. We're planning to meet up for lunch sometime. <3
But I digress! Eventually, I just decided to forego the wig, since it looked like I had voluntarily walked into an earthquake with the wig. shaans and I then returned to the roof...
... just in time for a cosplay contest. Sob. I don't know what's worse: standing next to one of my students in an embarrassing costume, or standing on stage in an incomplete cosplay. ><;;
After all the cosplayers had gathered on stage, we were first told to do character-specific poses and actions for the Best Performance award. A Dragonball Piccolo cosplayer was totally into the character so much, he kept shooting out Piccolo lines and flailing around in an attempt to showcase fighting moves. It was obvious who the winner would be. XD
Next was the Best Dresser award.
One by one, we had to introduce our characters and what series we were from. Then, we had to step forward, one by one again, for the audience to show their pick via applause volume. Finally, the judges made the decision at the very end.
There was a bit of confusion, because the judges said, "Sheryl Nome, 4th from the left," but Bleach guy on the left end of the line was helping the MC host the contest, so I thought they weren't counting his presence. I had immediately started congratulating my student next to me, who was cosplaying a different version of Sheryl Nome.
And then the judge went, "I mean the Sheryl in blue," and my student pushed me forward with a grin.
I. What.
><;;
Amuro proudly said he had clapped for me, while Bun-san asked if he could put up pictures of shaans and me in his cafe. I also spoke to a few of the cafe regulars, who were awfully nice people. Oh, the prize? The prize was a bunch of 100 yen vouchers that could only be used at the event. XD;; Because shaans and I weren't that hungry (and Amuro so very kindly used his own vouchers to buy us drinks), I distributed the vouchers to the other cosplayers at the event l-lol.
After the entire event, we had a lion dance performance. A Chinese lion dance performance with two people, not the Japanese version with just one man under the costume. shaans and I were so excited. XD It was also a uniquely interactive performance, thanks to the cheeky lion! It enjoyed running around, head-butting people and chomping on their heads. When it came to our table, I patted its nose, then held out my hand and said, "Shake." It obligingly laid a large paw on my palm - before it bent over and chomped on my head. |D;
The lion eating the head of cosplayer.
The best part came when Amuro offered Hayate's headpiece to the lion, which it promptly grabbed into its mouth- to hilarious shrieks of AAAAAHHHHH IT KNOWS THE TASTE OF BLOOD -seconds before it spat the headpiece out and sniffed at it very cautiously. XDDD Bun-san was quite horrified at the treatment of his precious headpiece. *snrk*
... I can't get away without showing that picture, can I?
From left to right: shaans, me, Amuro, cosplayer whose name I didn't get *sheepish*
The hat was so large, it would flop all the way down until I could see nothing but the vinyl lining of the inside, so I always had to either pose without the hat, or tip it exactly like that, in order to keep the darn thing off my eyes.
Yeah. So.
*crawls into a hole*