Before I turned 18, I moved to Japan to study Japanese. It sounds glamorous, but honestly, it was just another way to escape.
Back home, I had a wild childhood drinking too young, sneaking into clubs, hooking up with random guys.
When I landed in Tokyo, I didn’t have much. A small apartment, student debt, a terrible part-time job. Someone mentioned pink salons, and honestly, it didn’t sound shocking to me at all. (For those who don’t know: pink salons are semi-legal places in Japan where men pay for oral sex, kissing, and sometimes some light touching. No intercourse. No real “sex.” Because of that technicality, they exist right out in the open.)
I got hired immediately.
Because I was young, white, foreign, pale skin, blonde hair.. I was basically a rare item on the menu.
It was a higher-end salon clean, private, quiet, not some sleazy back alley place.
The clients were mostly businessmen, managers, mid-level execs in suits, the kind of men who lived in two worlds: formal by day, desperate by night.
A normal shift would be something like this:
• Greet the client politely.
• Bring him to a semi-private booth or karaoke room.
• Oral sex. Japanese-style kissing.
• Light petting — and any extra touching was only if I agreed to it.
• No sex. No full service. That was the iron rule.
Sometimes, a client would whisper offers in my ear.
“Let’s go somewhere after. I’ll pay you.”
Big numbers with more money than I made in a week.
We would sneak out after hours or pretend to “end” the session normally, then meet discreetly somewhere else such as a hotel, or their apartments, or sometimes high-end hotels.
Some of the men were married with kids. Some were lonely bachelors who never knew how to be loved.
I’m not proud of it.
But I don’t hate myself for it either.
Eventually, I left that life behind.
Thanks for letting me finally get this off my chest.
Comments
What’s the pay like?
what is Japanese style kissing?
i always found it weird that in japan is quite common for men to “cheat”, as far as im aware what we consider cheating in the west is not really frowned upon by alot of japanese women, under certain circumstances like they cant fall in love and have long term relationships, but just for that release thwy can do it. atleast from what ive seen on some videos etc, always loved the japanese culture from old traditional to modern day.
EDIT: to clarify i didnt mean cheat at random, its more with regard to prostitutes
is this an ama?
What is Japanese style kissing?
Oral sex isn’t “intercourse”?
Moving to Japan for school when you’re 18 sounds like it would be expensive, that’s not an opportunity available to most kids, much less those with troubled backgrounds. Did your family help with the move/tuition/living expenses?
You are telling your romantic partners about this period of your life or prefer not?
Can foreign men be customers
What is “Japanese style kissing”?
So, like, didn’t you also have to suck some really nasty dicks?
Is this AI
We all do what we gotta do. You’ve moved on and have zero to apologize for
How proficient were you in Japanese after this period? Are you still at that level of proficiency today?
Would you have a cleaning routine after every guy since it’s heavily focused on your mouth?
Way to go OP, I imagine it might not have been an easy decision to share this.
If I may ask – you say that you are not proud of it but also don’t hate yourself for it – what was your mental/emotional state about this back when you were working?
Did you hate it and/or find it disgusting? Or did your mind just “brush it aside” in a sort of “Gotta do what I gotta do to survive”?
How much did you enjoy that work (if at all)?
Hey OP how is your life now,? I assume since you left the job you are doing good .
Are u still in Japan or did u head back?
Did you ever meet clients that you were attracted to and enjoyed being intimate with?
Since you’ve mentioned no sex and that was an iron rule.
You said sometimes u met clients later in hotels etc., so i’m guessing you had sex later with few of them. How did they regulate the no sex rule in the salon? I guess there was no cctv in the rooms, so how would they find out if you actually had sex?
Did the clients paid for you directly or was semi-organized, so you got your pay by company or something?
You went straight to pink salon? That seems crazy for a start. If I was desperate enough I might have started out as a cafe maid (don’t know how well they pay but they certainly charge an arm and a leg) or even work at a hostess club. I assume you are a middle class normal person. It just boggles my mind that people can jump into that. I’d worry about my mental health too much.
not trying to be rude or anything, but i would like to know how it ACTUALLY feels, don’t you feel used??
Why did you block that one person for calling you out that your story is fake? Maybe stop watching so much hentai
Huh, I’m glad the comments have largely been positive, go Reddit! Sex work is a massive market with a clear demand, and I’m tired of the Puritan ideals trying to shame it, as if it’s not the world’s oldest profession. So long as EVERYTHING is done above board and safely, then there’s no reason for the fear mongering.
Would the salon have fired you if they found out you were sleeping with clients? Or did they kind of turn a blind eye to it, so long as you kept bringing in clientele?
What’s light touching in this context? As oral sex seems a bit beyond that to be on the menu
You mentioned that you were quite the rebel, has that changed after working at a pink-salon?
It doesn’t feel like japan is as much of a prude as western societies, what is condom/contraceptive usage like? Do the men take more responsibility for wearing a condom?
Were the blowjobs with condoms?
As I grow into my lonely bachelorhood…I don’t think I was comforted by this tale :/
I read the book about Lucie Blackman, and I’m very glad you made it out of there alive! The book shines a light on the dangers of this industry. Not sure anything will be done about it, given how lucrative of a business it is, and government corruption (and by extension, police corruption).
oh nooo idek what a pink salon was till this wdf
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Whats japanese style kissing?
How did they ensure the clients are “clean” and free from STD, or was that part of the risk?
Were the dicks pixelated?
How did you find Japanese men in bed?
Wait, isn’t oral sex considered sex? It’s how Clinton got his ass impeached.
You mention that some of the men were married. Did you ever feel any guilt servicing those men knowing they were cheating on their spouse?
If you were safe and in control of what you were doing then kudos to you for making ends meet. No judgement.
The real fucked up thing about this is that young people are allowed to have student debt at 18 or possibly even earlier. Curious how that came to be.
> japanese style kissing
what now
As compared to the US, how prevalent are STDs in Japan? Do people discuss those things or safe sex?
As a woman who grew up doing risky things and is now a mother, I’m relieved that you weren’t trafficked or trapped by some other means. Go forth and do great things 😊
Japanese marriages have an extremely high level of infidelity in them. You wonder why? This is it.
Also, typically the women engage in a higher rate of infidelity than the men.
One of my best friends from university said he went to Japan for about the same reason, in grade eleven. He so desperately wanted a break from his parents and their constant fighting that he signed up for an exchange program without even asking where he would be going.
What is Japanese style kissing?
How did you keep yourself safe from STDs for oral?
I knew someone who did something like this a few decades back. Her brother opened a club in Japan and she was one of the showgirls…and yes, they also offered other services but it was up to the girls to choose, some didn’t do anything, just danced.
Unfortunately they came under the eye of the Yakuza and they wound up losing the club and having to leave Japan pretty quickly. (I know it sounds dramatic but that’s what she told me. She did seem upset abut it still)
She too was a very pretty tall slender blonde. But my god she had the worst judgement ever. I met her in China when I was working there as a teacher; she was an aussie girl in her 20’s. After a few months she told me excitedly that a couple of russian guys she had met (very common where we were in China, around Heilongjiang) had made her an offer: They wanted her to travel to russia with them, meet a guy and marry him temporarily then divorce him later. In return they would pay her a lot of money…I managed to talk her out of this “amazing deal”
I haven’t seen or heard of her for about 25 years. I hope she’s doing ok, but I suspect she is not.
I know this may be TMI but I’m wondering how much you thought or worried about getting the herpes virus from their mouth or their genitals and if you did get it I would imagine you’d have to not work the times you were healing from it
i couldn’t do it, but i totally get why a person would. i honestly wish i did have it in me to trade off sex. regular jobs feel plenty demeaning to me as it is.
I don’t see how on Earth people consider oral sex to not be “real sex”. It’s ridiculous.
What is Japanese style kissing?
OP if you read this, if you could think objectively about yourself, do you think the experience of that job affected your sexuality? Your understanding of your own preferences? Thank you.
OP, how about STD’s? How safe was that job?