A LARGE META ON THE WATER TRADE OF JAPAN with details specified heavily towards hosting, mentions of hina and goro, details of shining!, and other applicable information regarding ren and his career as a ‘working man’.
HOST STUFF / REN’S MANAGEMENT OF THE CLUB:
hina and ren have a small age difference of just two years, both having gotten into the industry at a young age. hina entered when she was 15. ren started when he turned 18.
as a host, ren is pretty strict in the day-to-day about hosting. he tries to keep the illusion that shining! is providing while also following the rules as both a host and manager.
it should be noted that: ren tries to discourage his hosts from having sex with clients, though this isn’t a guarantee that it won’t happen. he himself does not abide by this rule, and while he is escorting on the side before leaving hosting to escort full-time, he will sleep with clients he is particularly fond of or pay him well / have chosen him as their “named host”.
he will mail, text, and call them (or they will text or call him), and he will go on dates with clients to ensure they continue coming to the club. shining! is supposed to emulate a classic experience and tends to cater to fantasy over actual sex, sex being the illusion of the “end goal” of being hosted, but never actually crossing the line. this generally keeps regulars coming back, on top of tourism. ren is not opposed to sleeping with foreigners.
his “moonlighting” and his hosting can become muddled easily, and while he tries to keep his “hosted” clientele and his “personal” clientele separate, they can crossover -- clients from shining! have begun to employ him privately for sex / intimacy, while some of his clients have come to be hosted to get the “full experience” of being romanced and bedded.
a host can touch the patron, but usually not the other way around. ren is a little less strict to this in his own management of shining!, so long as it falls under the guise of socially appropriate (returning a gesture from a host for instance, or a hand on the shoulder).
hosts are allowed to give their numbers and often take their clients on dates, which in turn leads them back to the host club to make more money. the goal is to keep revenue coming in. shining! is aimed to the ‘classic’ experience, what many would think of about ouran aesthetically speaking (and not much else) .
as much as i keep ren at a dissonance from ouran overall so as to not be confused, it no doubt drew that crowd in because of the popularity of ouran. this is partially purposeful given that both foreigners and locals alike were allowed from the get-go, which is not completely common to most clubs.
** foreigners are generally not allowed to access host clubs and other business involved in the water trade, though this is not always the case. it’s supposed to be a diamond in the rough; a place for affordable class.
ren was part of the original set of boys during his early days at shining!, and is the last of them to have not moved to another club / part of the industry.
he went by the moniker umi (name is unisex, and means ocean) from ages 18-21 before changing his alias to ren.
WHO RUNS SHINING! BEHIND THE SCENES?
watanabe goro, though ren doubts this to be his real name, and is suspected to be either a member of or affiliated with the yakuza and/or local mafia(s). he utilizes shining! for purposes mostly beneath ren’s nose.
he started the location, hired ren, and got the business off the ground while entrusting ren to manage it. ren was known as umi then, and shining! was a smaller investment.
goro was the one to suggest the now permanent alias ‘ren’, finding it fitting.
he has been involved in ren’s life for roughly eight years based on where ren’s main verse picks up, and has been a formative figure in ren’s life where one was lacking. there is currently not sexual aspect or development in their relationship. they met when ren was 19, and he began working for goro shortly before turning 20, where he then begins to work for goro full-time. he is still escorting.
ren will do work for goro when asked acting as a messenger / errand boy, or to entertain business affiliates when goro is running late. not all meetings take place at shining!, but many do. ren is always just an arm’s length away from the action.
he comes off as pretty cool, collected, and in control. he has all the chips in his favor; the deck is stacked, the game is rigged. he tends to give the illusion that power is shared, or that he’s out for everyone’s best interest, but he typically has his own interests at heart. he will do whatever fits his agenda. if helping benefits him, he’ll help. if not, he typically won’t intervene. he finds reasons to do things that might not directly benefit him but are solely motivated by personal interest. he has a soft spot for children and tends to be aggressive with offenders who are dangerous to children.
goro is that man / the faceless man. he is always changing identities. his power seems limitless (and maybe it is?).
WHAT DID REN DO BEFORE HE WAS WORKING FOR SHINING! / GORO?
when hosting alone wasn’t cutting it, ren definitely learned early to work around the law to make money fast. japan’s prostitution laws allow for a lot of loopholes --> read about japan’s laws on prostitution and what sex workers do / where they work to get around these laws. ren officially starts escorting at 19.
“ Prostitution in modern Japan, as defined under Japanese law, is the illegal practice of sexual intercourse with an 'unspecified' (unacquainted) person in exchange for monetary compensation,[1][2][3] which was criminalized in 1965 by the introduction of article 3 of the Anti-Prostitution Law (売春防止法, Baishun Bōshi Hō). ”
what this means: this leaves the door open to other acts that sex workers can engage in outside of ‘sexual intercourse with an unspecified person’. that basically means they can’t engage in vaginal penetration with strangers for money, but could have paid vaginal penetration with an acquaintance. unspecified persons can pay for non-vaginal penetrating sex acts such as oral sex, anal sex, etc. the two collective terms i’ve come to understand that label the sex industry in japan are the ‘water trade’ and the ‘health industry’. in ren’s case, he’s used this as a strong argument for having paid sex with clients as they are ‘in his realm of acquaintances’. he meets his private connections via the locations he’s worked at, primarily shining!.
ren kept a small string of locals that came to the location(s) he was working pre-shining! in his black book to keep a small revenue coming in, eventually making other connections primarily through current clients and suggesting his services to strangers, as well as various patrons that have been willing to pay for his services or have had him as their ‘named host’. he tries to keep hosting and escorting separate.
SO WHERE DOES HINA FIT INTO THIS? SHE’S A HOSTESS, RIGHT?
she is! hina met ren as a guest at shining!, coming to be hosted after constantly having to host. ren understands, as he’s done the same. their connection was immediate, quickly becoming unprofessional and heavily personal.
she is still hosting, currently the #1 hostess at the white lotus.
where she used to moonlight for $$$, she now gaslights ren for cash due to their connection as mother / father to their son. he always obliges. there is love in that love-hate.
the point is: both hina and ren are sex workers, though ren is more into the realm of prostitution than hina is. she started and stopped. he never stopped. ren is the primary caretaker for their son, and his mother, and thus his financial burden is far greater.
several reasons he leaves his manager position in his secondary verse is because a) it’s not going anywhere, b) kyosuke has started school and the schedule no longer fits, and c) he can’t let sho leave without him.
now that he has a clientele that’s more than a handful of individuals, he can work effectively as a “man on call” and get a larger pool from there. his services are more open, more direct, and not under the guise of ‘hosting’ anymore. they still fall into being advertised within the legal confines, but he’s still in the red-light district: at the end of the day, ren is (and has always been) a prostitute. there’s nothing wrong with that, and in reality he really is the one that has the hardest time coming face-to-face with the legitimate terms for his career.
the reason ren got into this wasn’t originally to go full-in, more needing some quick cash after he had to drop out of university and take care of his mom. from there, it sort of just spiraled, and he was in situations he was either too young or naïve to understand, or was just making bad decisions. by the time he met hina and got her pregnant, there was no way ren was going to get out.
he traditionally hosts women more than men, though he sleeps with men and women rather equally with men being a slightly larger margin. he prefers catering to women, as they are typically more kind and benevolent.
** there is a stigma of gay men living openly, and he provides comfort as a temporary lover. men who insist they are straight, or bisexual / pansexual men who can only publicly indulge with female-aligned lovers.
while most of his female and male partners, for their own reasons, seek him for comfort and sex, others have been more violent. it’s no shock or secret that, especially acting independently without shining! to back him, ren has found himself in trouble, as well as some extreme sexual situations he was not prepared for.
he’s been hit and choked, which is not uncommon, to full-on beaten. he takes it as some clients just like it rough, and he’s there to provide them with whatever kink they pay him to indulge in. if they want to hit him, then they can hit him. there are few things ren will not come back to, and they are usually very specific things that would have him ghost a client. he will go back to a client who has been rough with him or has beaten him, but he will not go back to clients he thinks might actually kill him. he has had one close encounter where a customer got too violent, to which ren ceased all contact and blocked him.
his motto is: i like what you like. a few husbands have walked in on him, some surprised and others not. he’s been with couples, has been passed around, and basically is keen to do whatever he has to in order to leave the still able to go to the work the next day as ren / come home at night as yori (kyosuke’s father) .
ren meets some of his clients at “snack bars”.
ren’s options, in comparison to hina’s, are a bit more limited in being hired in what one could consider a “legal establishment”. a lot of his work is reliant on his customer base from shining! and other connections.
**this host, sho, is a major connection in ren’s life. ren hired sho at shining! to be the genki type. despite their initial differences, ren and sho realized quickly their opposing appearances and personalities could make them more money together than apart. they’ll host together or bounce off each other (“see how mean ren is to me!” or “see how difficult sho makes my job” to play sympathy), which quickly moved to them hosting after-hours together. individually they do well, but together there is more profit. they also have an affair together on and off. **
ren has done several adult films. these were semi-amateur and paid in cash on the spot. he did two films before kyosuke was born and one after he found out hina was pregnant. these films were done out of a need for fast money, not out of interest in pursuing pornography.
in leaving shining!, many of his clients chose to follow him to his rentable services.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HOSTING:
host clubs clientele is generally women -- either rich wives or hostesses. shining! makes its money off locals, tourists*, and anyone willing to visit though they have their bulk regulars. primarily women, though anyone is technically welcome. however, they primarily cater to a female-heavy client base.
*many clubs do not accept tourists or will take advantage of tourists depending on the establishment. ren’s club allows tourists, especially during heavier seasons.
hosting is considered part of the "water trade". Clubs used to open at midnight and go through midday though hours are typically 4PM through 12AM to 2AM.
a common look for a host is a dark suit, collared shirt, silver jewelry, a dark tan, and bleached hair.
hostess bars have men designated to pick clients off the street whereas host clubs tend to have a "catch" or a young host that is inexperienced that go out to encourage customers to come to the club.
also: being hosted doesn’t mean just buying drinks, though aside from a cover charge and a few small fees, that is where the hosts make their money. there are games, karaoke in the back rooms, events, some foods, dancing, and other things to keep guests entertained aside from talking and flirting. ren in particular actually rather enjoys hosting and doesn’t mind talking to guests, finding some reprieve in listening to their lives over dealing with his. a lot of customers come to get a load off their mind and escape for a bit, letting their problems become someone else’s, or just non-existent.
additionally: hosts will often exchange numbers with clients to talk and go out on dates, ultimately going back to the club(s) to make more money off the customer. while there is a no stalking / no touching policy, the touching is a bit dependent. it’s more than the host can touch you, but you can’t really touch them. ren is a little more lenient so long as the touching remains appropriate, but hosts will often lay their heads on laps, flirt via touch, etc, all within the realms of not going too far. shining! is supposed to be a more classic experience despite its location, and while ren gets many “personal” clients when he’s moonlighting via shining! to avoid the “unspecified” persons' law, he definitely keeps his hosting as hosting. he’s charming, flirty, suave, and encouraging.
"Usually, hosts try to make the clients feel loved without having sex with them, as it takes up their time and energy. Sometimes, for instance, if a customer pays a large amount of money and/or if the host likes them in return, the host can have sex with the client. If the same host meets the same client, they have a higher chance of having sex than the host having sex with another client. The clients attempt to make the individuals very comfortable, thus they will feel compelled to provide for the businessmen in the future by some means. This exchange may be by political or economic means. There are other various methods of business. For example, "mail business" (メール営業) is the practice of a host emailing his customer regularly to ensure their return. Similarly, a host may call their customer, but this is fading in popularity now with the rise in popularity of mail business. Hosts will usually carry a business phone and a private phone."
"The conversations are generally light-hearted; hosts may have a variety of entertainment skills, be it simple magic tricks or charisma with which to tell a story. Some host clubs have a dedicated stage for a performance, usually a dance, comedy sketch, etc. Hosts' ages usually range between 18 and the mid-20s. They will take a stage name, usually taken from a favourite manga, film, or historical figure, that will often describe their character. Men who become hosts are often those who either cannot find a white-collar job, or are enticed by the prospect of high earnings through commission."
The money is made primarily through drink commissions, and hosts are known to push their limits. "Pay is usually determined by commission on drink sales with hosts often drinking far past a healthy limit, usually while trying to hide their drunkenness. Because the base hourly wage is usually extremely low, almost any man can become a host regardless of looks or charisma (depending on the bar). However, hosts who cannot increase their sales usually drop out very soon, because of the minimal wage. The environment in a host bar is usually very competitive, with tens of thousands of dollars sometimes offered to the host who can achieve the highest sales."
FIRST-TIME CUSTOMERS, INCLUDING BASIC ETIQUETTE:
"On the first visit to a host club, the customer is presented with a menu of the hosts available, and decides which host to meet first, but throughout the night, the customer will meet most of the hosts. The customer then decides which host they like most, and can make him their named host (指名, shimei). This can be done by buying a "bottle keep" (a bottle of liquor that can be saved for next time), stating interest in a host. The named host will receive a percentage of the future sales generated by that customer. Most clubs operate on a "permanent nomination" (永久指名, eikyu shimei) system: once the named host has been nominated, a customer cannot change hosts at that club.
Sometimes a host will go with a customer for a meal or karaoke after-hours. This is called "after" (アフター, afutā). Staying longer at the host club is considered the proper way to treat a host. It is possible to go on day trips or travel with a host, but a host can only go with their own customer. A host interacting with another host's customer is liable to be fined or fired from the club. Drinks can be purchased on tab, but contact information is taken, and the customer must pay later. If the customer does not pay, the host must. It is considered rude to leave a customer alone, called "only" (オンリー, onrī)."
"A customer who is abusive and troublesome is called a "painful customer" (痛客, itakyaku) and may be expelled from a club."
while a majority of the action is at the club, there are a lot of options outside the club to spend time with your preferred host. this ensures regulars coming in, profitability, and longevity. this is how ren meets his clients that he ends up having sex with, and tends to try and keep his customers privy to being hosted by him so that they then "buy" him for after-hours. he goes on a lot of dates, has an active mail list / list of phone contacts, and otherwise does as is expected of him and more to make $$$.
