"Welcome! 오서오세요!! いらっしゃいませ!!!" As soon as the author and his friends stepped inside the purposely dark-tinted and heavy metal doors of the karaoke lounges surrounding Malate's Remedios Circle, dozens of girls, dressed in various themed costumes for the night (ranging from schoolgirl to maids) surrounded them, putting on their best smiles in front of the potential customers lazily scanning each girl up and down before deciding to stay or go. Outside, male representatives of each competing lounge shove pictures of their best girls in front of passersby, hoping to get more customers.
In a market where decor is increasingly similar across different places (same soft sofas, same HDTVs, same expensive drinks, and even same costumes) The girls are really the only distinctive factor that make or break a lounge's brand name. The lounges, with their human-wave tactics of throwing more and more girls in the face of clients to choose, just need one girl, whose looks, service, and talking skills can hook the client and get him to become a repeat customer. In such expensive companionship paid by the hour, first and superficial impressions is everything, for the lounge and for the girl.
Finally deciding upon one place after checking on the "line-up" in three or four others, the group of three sat down in a corner sofa, waiting for the start of the session. What seems to be the floor manager quickly came over with pen and paper ready to take orders, and all the girls not currently serving customers at other sofas quickly followed. Before long, some two dozen girls lined up in front of the sofa, putting on their best smiles again, staring directly into these new clients' eyes, and hoping for some incomes for tonight.
The author's companion of choosing for the night was one dressed as a schoolgirl, a petite but voluptuous self-professed 20-year-old native of Pasay, apparently the youngest of three siblings (at least so the author was told). A hard worker who mastered not just English and Japanese languages quite proficiently, but also goes out of her way to come to work before her usual 6pm-3am shift to practice and memorize popular songs from Japan and the States for the sake of entertaining potential guests. as far as distinguishing herself and her lounge from the crowd, she is doing a great job.
But come to think of it, is it that sort of distinctive abilities that the clients are really looking for when they walk down the streets looking for a "suitable" lounge? After all, when the author chose her over twenty others in the line-up, he did not do so because she works hard to improve herself or have great language skills...the author did not even know that. All he knew is that her innocent looks combined with a not-so-innocent-looking body set her apart from the others. The others listed in the preceding paragraph are just some inconsequential trivia gained from first few minutes of polite conversation.
In all frankness, the fact that she speaks English/Japanese and is pretty good at singing/holding a conversation did not really matter after maybe ten minutes into the session. When a few shots of really strong whiskey hits the stomach, there really isn't anything more to talk about. Dancing, hugging, inappropriate touching, and even occasional flirtatious kisses on the shoulders, cheeks, and even lips takes over as the main activities. They became, to put in a bad way, the tools for inducing more expenditure, pushing for more different drinks.
The author does wonder what is the girl thinking while all of these are happening. She is sober (need to pay extra to buy her drinks. Shop rules stipulate that girls cannot drink client's drinks) and perhaps better for it (putting a drunk girl next to the totally drunk client is not a good idea for the shop, or the girl). She is constantly getting hugged, touched, and kissed by a stranger she met half an hour ago for the very first time...and maybe an hour later, she will be repeating the same thing with a different stranger, in a cycle that repeats multiple times daily in her 8-hour shift.
The author does hope that she has become desensitized by this after doing it so many times for 8 months straight (so she said) and who knows for how long more ("no plans for quitting," she said) But in all honesty, thinking in her shoes, it is tough work no matter how much expectations setting she got for herself. It only adds salt to the wound when, at the end, she sees the crazy drunk guys drop down 7000php and walk away like nothing, leaving her with maybe a small cut but nothing emotionally. Well, it is back to zero, for the Nth time.
In a market where decor is increasingly similar across different places (same soft sofas, same HDTVs, same expensive drinks, and even same costumes) The girls are really the only distinctive factor that make or break a lounge's brand name. The lounges, with their human-wave tactics of throwing more and more girls in the face of clients to choose, just need one girl, whose looks, service, and talking skills can hook the client and get him to become a repeat customer. In such expensive companionship paid by the hour, first and superficial impressions is everything, for the lounge and for the girl.
Finally deciding upon one place after checking on the "line-up" in three or four others, the group of three sat down in a corner sofa, waiting for the start of the session. What seems to be the floor manager quickly came over with pen and paper ready to take orders, and all the girls not currently serving customers at other sofas quickly followed. Before long, some two dozen girls lined up in front of the sofa, putting on their best smiles again, staring directly into these new clients' eyes, and hoping for some incomes for tonight.
The author's companion of choosing for the night was one dressed as a schoolgirl, a petite but voluptuous self-professed 20-year-old native of Pasay, apparently the youngest of three siblings (at least so the author was told). A hard worker who mastered not just English and Japanese languages quite proficiently, but also goes out of her way to come to work before her usual 6pm-3am shift to practice and memorize popular songs from Japan and the States for the sake of entertaining potential guests. as far as distinguishing herself and her lounge from the crowd, she is doing a great job.
But come to think of it, is it that sort of distinctive abilities that the clients are really looking for when they walk down the streets looking for a "suitable" lounge? After all, when the author chose her over twenty others in the line-up, he did not do so because she works hard to improve herself or have great language skills...the author did not even know that. All he knew is that her innocent looks combined with a not-so-innocent-looking body set her apart from the others. The others listed in the preceding paragraph are just some inconsequential trivia gained from first few minutes of polite conversation.
In all frankness, the fact that she speaks English/Japanese and is pretty good at singing/holding a conversation did not really matter after maybe ten minutes into the session. When a few shots of really strong whiskey hits the stomach, there really isn't anything more to talk about. Dancing, hugging, inappropriate touching, and even occasional flirtatious kisses on the shoulders, cheeks, and even lips takes over as the main activities. They became, to put in a bad way, the tools for inducing more expenditure, pushing for more different drinks.
The author does wonder what is the girl thinking while all of these are happening. She is sober (need to pay extra to buy her drinks. Shop rules stipulate that girls cannot drink client's drinks) and perhaps better for it (putting a drunk girl next to the totally drunk client is not a good idea for the shop, or the girl). She is constantly getting hugged, touched, and kissed by a stranger she met half an hour ago for the very first time...and maybe an hour later, she will be repeating the same thing with a different stranger, in a cycle that repeats multiple times daily in her 8-hour shift.
The author does hope that she has become desensitized by this after doing it so many times for 8 months straight (so she said) and who knows for how long more ("no plans for quitting," she said) But in all honesty, thinking in her shoes, it is tough work no matter how much expectations setting she got for herself. It only adds salt to the wound when, at the end, she sees the crazy drunk guys drop down 7000php and walk away like nothing, leaving her with maybe a small cut but nothing emotionally. Well, it is back to zero, for the Nth time.
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