My travel experience Archives - Page 3 of 9

How I met my yakuza friend

Someone asked me what was the most unexpected thing for me during my stay in Japan. Well, I never thought I became a friend of a yakuza. We all hear the stories about them but get close to them is a different story. Even Japan is more and more open, their world is still closed from Westerners.

But let’s start at the beginning. I was in Japan a year ago, in Yokohama. (There are other posts about the work there, here I don’t want to repeat myself.) He arrived at the club as a normal looking customer with a friend of his. He requested me and I didn’t suspect anything besides he was a tough looking guy. We were chatting, joking and I was impressed because he spoke quite good English and we could hold an interesting conversation about Japanese culture, not the usual “Kiss me!” or “What colour is your panties?” We were talking about samurais and the old days of Japan.

On his shirt, it was the top button open and I spotted the tattoo on his chest. That moment I knew he’s a yakuza. Of course, little curious me, I asked him to show it! He showed me the photos of his fully tattooed back and sleeves on his phone, actually, he didn’t even try to hide his identity. Doesn’t it exciting to hear all those stories and now I’m sitting with someone who holds the key to that secret world? As he told me, he doesn’t give as*** about foreigners’ opinion, but of course, he’s not that open amongst Japanese people. I didn’t want to interview him but I had lots of questions in my head. But after that night we didn’t see each other soon.

I almost forget about him as the Sakura arrived at Yokohama and I was keen to arrange a photo shooting with the cherry blossoms. It’s a very exciting time in Japan, everyone goes to the parks watching the flowers. I was lucky to find a talented young photographer and we went to a park one afternoon to take the photos. We finished quite late and I asked him to escort me back to the club because I was still not familiar with the place and I didn’t want to get lost and be late for work. It was everything fine, I arrived on time and I was still buzzing because I was sure the photos we took are excellent. But as it was expected, later my friend who was also my promoter in the club asked me:

“Mama-san asks if you have a boyfriend!”

“Boyfriend?”

“Because one of your customers saw you with a guy afternoon. He called the manager (who was on her holiday in Thailand), she called Mama-san and Mama-san asked me and now I’m asking you who was that guy?”

Yeah, a guy with a suitcase, a camera and a huge tripod! I told her he’s a photographer and we had a photo shoot. Of course, I got a lesson that I shouldn’t meet with young handsome Latino guys because my old Japanese customers don’t want to request me after. But I had no idea who could have been the customer who saw me, or to be totally honest, I didn’t care that much. (I think they knew but didn’t want to tell.) Later on that night my yakuza friend came to the club and requested me. I immediately knew it was him. Such a coincidence, I haven’t seen him maybe 2 weeks and all of a sudden he shows interest in me! Ah, some men are so simple! I told him the story about the photographer and a crazy customer who disturbed my manager on her holiday with such stupid questions and I pretended to be upset about it. Until today he’s saying it was not him but his friend 🙂 Whatsoever, I was laughing on it.

After work, he and his friend invited us for breakfast. We went to a traditional Japanese place where you must sit on the floor. I was wearing a dress so I didn’t really feel good about it. He noticed and took off his jacket, and covered my legs with it.

“Now you can sit comfortably!”

During breakfast, I was secretly watching him. He’s a yakuza but he behaves like a perfect gentleman! I was impressed. Another day after work he took me to a park. We were sitting under hundreds of cherry trees (the whole scene felt like we’re sitting in a huge cloud of pink flowers) and he talked about what the cherry blossoms mean to the samurai spirit. It was so dreamy and I felt safe with him. I started to see him after on a regular base and I spent my days at his place. Obviously, at work they didn’t like it, long story short, they asked me to choose between him and my job. At work I was already stressed so without hesitating I told them:

“Ok, no problem, I book my ticket home.”

Not because I was in love or I planned my future life with a yakuza (Well, I must think twice if I want to be with a guy who keeps a gun in his wardrobe..) but more about the principal they pushed me to the wall to decide. But I didn’t regret my choice. After he offered me that I can stay in his place, so I stayed 2 more weeks in Japan and we visited several places around Yokohama. I think I’ve seen all the shrines of Kamakura, and trust me, there are a few there! (We were together 24/7 and two strong but different characters under the same roof, of course, it led us to some fight. I told him it’s like I got a ticket to an emotional roller coaster with him and it never stops. But about that, I will write later.)

But most importantly we understood each other perfectly. I felt we’re both on the periphery of the community, he’s a yakuza, I’m a stripper, we’re wearing the same kind of social stigmas. Until today we talk a lot on the phone. And every time I complain about my current job or the girls I work with, he always offers his gun sent by DLR to me! 🙂

‘Cause I’m a gipsy

No, not being racist here against gipsies, but if Shakira can sing a song about being a gipsy so I can write about it, right? Someone told me that we, strippers, are the gipsies of the modern world. And I must say I agree with that person. If you hear the word “gipsy” what other words come to your mind straight away? Let me help. Entertaining. Music. Dance. Thief. Magician. Travel. Bags. Free. Wild. Nomad. No agreement, no commitments. No rules.

Dancing and entertaining don’t require further explanation, I guess. As a negative aspect, some might think we also have a dark, criminal side and the dancing business linked to the underworld. I don’t think I tell a big secret that you can’t open a strip club without knowing the local mafia or if not, sooner or later they will appear and introduce themselves to you. Once I worked in a club when the manager asked me to steal my drunk customer’s credit card, and then he can charge him more bottles of champagne – of course, the most expensive one. He was very generous, and he reminded me I also could get more money after this action. Luckily it happened my last days in that club, so I refused to help him do more business in that way, and I left with no trouble. But I can understand where this negative stigma is coming from.

Sometimes we also need to develop some magic skills to disappear after our shift. Just like Houdini! I remember once I had a customer, a lovely man from Belgium. He was a nice guy until he started to get drunk and became aggressive and abusive. By the time when we finished work, he was screaming outside of the club, kicking the rubbish bins and making the possibly biggest noise around 4 am in a residential area. Because he thought I would go home with him. (That time I’ve already learned the lesson not to promise such a thing like “I see you after work if you buy me a bottle of champagne”, but in his mind somehow it was a different case.) He was angry, and nobody could make him calm. My manager tried to talk to him, no success. So one of my friends called a taxi for herself and for my safety she offered me to take me to the bus stop. It was like in an action movie. My friend went ahead, talked to the taxi driver, who drove the car to the entrance as close as he could. Then my friend opened the door and when my manager waved with his hand that the guy doesn’t pay attention – probably he was busy kicking the metal bins – I covered my head with my jacket, jumped into the car and we left. OK, Houdini could do better tricks, but I wished I could disappear and get out of the situation just as he could. So magic, yes, we also use it sometimes.

And my favourite part is the travel. Sometimes I even leave my clothes in the suitcase. I don’t see the point to put them in a wardrobe, and I get dressed straight from my bag. I use to say that I don’t have a home, but I’m home everywhere I go. And it’s true. After the second week, I got used to the new place, the new environment and I start to feel I could stay even longer. But I don’t stay. There is always a new place waiting for me to discover. And once you got the taste of this lifestyle, this kind of freedom, it’s hard to give it up. So yes, I feel like a gipsy travelling from town to town, from country to country to entertain with my dance. Never stay long for one place, never settled down. And I make my own rules.

I remember when my yakuza friend asked me:

“When do you stop this lifestyle? Taking risks?”

“You know I think we are very similar in that. Probably never. Being free and taking risks is in our blood.”

Also, the common belief is that gipsies were mining the gold just like strippers are golddiggers — another common social stigma. And we trust no one. I could tell you stories about having trust issues mainly towards men. But that would be a whole new post here.

The German Experience – Osnabrück

Here I am. Germany. Again. I chose it because it’s time to refresh my German a bit, I haven’t used it for maybe 14 years. Right now I’m in a small town in Northwest Germany, called Osnabruck. I arrived on Friday and started to work. I made a joke that I came from the airport straight to the stage but actually, it’s true. When I told the manager I’d like to take a shower before work she just looked at me like I am an alien. Shower? What for? But I convinced her so she let me take a quick shower and I made a 5 mins make-up and let’s the show start!

The system here is I get €40 fix salary per day, after 10 mins private dance I get €20, coctail €5, piccolo €10 (that’s a small bottle of prosecco) and the dancers make an american tour after each dance on stage to collect the house dollars which is €0.5. And then the bottles from €100 to €400, the dancer get 20% commission. Pretty much the same system in Germany almost everywhere. Friday was not so busy as I thought. I had some drinks and dances but some girls made zero. On a Friday night! Saturday didn’t seem to be promising either. We open at 9pm (until 5am) and the people started to come only after midnight. That’s the most boring couple of hours waiting! You don’t have anybody to talk to, the other girls still look at you like stranger, no customer to entertain, and you are not allowed to use your phone for passing the time (which I never understand, what’s the point of it when there is no customers?!) But luckily after midnight the club got busy and everyone made some money. I had 5 private dances with the same group of guys. They were quite funny and entertaining. One of them paid a private dance but he made a topless show for me in the cabin. I was full laughing and giggling, if someone heard me from outside I’m sure he questioned what the hell’s going on in there. But I didn’t care, I had fun. It was not the “I got naked and he tries to touch me everywhere” kind of dance. Sometimes it’s good to play stupid, it can be very refreshing.

But then we had some weirdos. A guy who constantly were using the ladies toilet until a girl find out he was jerking there and he left every bits of his sperm on the toilet seat. Such a nice gesture! Well, there are intelligent and not so intelligent people here in Germany too…

But the funniest thing: I met a girl here again that I worked with in another club. Let’s say we didn’t become friends there. Here I didn’t recognised her (which is strange from me because usually, I’m the one who saying first “I know you, we were working together here and here.” But with this girl, we even introduced ourselves in the changing room and none of us recognised the other! Then later she came to me:

“Have you worked in Luxembourg?”

Shit, it came to my mind immediately and I remember all! She was a proper bitch to me! Once we were sitting at the same table with customers and a bottle of champagne and she told the guy I poured the champagne on the carpet. It was obvious that she told him because he sat showing his back to me, he couldn’t see it unless he has eyes on the back too. And then he told the manager “Why I should pay another bottle if she just wasting it?” (I see his point but we are talking about 4 or 5 bottles divide between 2 girls because they didn’t drink champagne, so it’s 2 or 2.5 bottle each just at that table, you really can’t think we can drink that much! But I always make sure nobody sees when I get rid of some.) So I left the table and they paid another bottle to another girl. I was very pissed and pissed off.

For some reason, she didn’t like me, even when she came to the club on her day off with one of her friends and they bought dollars to the girls, they gave to everyone except me. Another story I remember about her is one girl had some alcohol in her bag in the changing room and she was 100% sure that this girl told the manager about it. That girl almost got fired. I don’t like this kind of mentality, we are in the same boat, we should help each other not making the work more difficult for the others.

But now we work together again! Not to mention we share the same room (2 girls per room)! I try to treat it like we just met first time here and it seems she also. On the first days, I’m so depend on the other girls and it wouldn’t be a good idea to start a new job fighting with someone. We won’t be friends for sure, but I don’t want to continue when we left in Luxembourg. And we found a mutual habit! We went to the store together to buy food and she just told me she’s going to buy some wine. Lately, it became my habit too to keep some in my fridge and drink when I feel to so I got bright sparks in my eyes at work. A drink buddy! Specially when I saw the prices here. I can’t understand why is so cheap here. I like the Pinot Grigio which is in England around £6, here only €3 (£2.5) So we bought not one but 2 bottles. I’m not a typical dancer who needs a little boost before work but I can’t say no to a good wine. And maybe the saying is right as a bottle of wine makes good friendship (or at least makes a bad one normal) We drank one bottle at home and as a good alcoholic dancer would do, we put the other one in a plastic bottle and we took it to work. But after the boring start, I had no mood to carry on drinking, and after I had no time to do so. Here is stage show all night, that means I have to dance maybe 7-8 times on stage. After 2 days I don’t feel my feet. Lately, I worked in clubs where I didn’t dance, I even made a joke that I’m an exotic talker instead of an exotic dancer. But I have a feeling this would be the place where I need to purchase a new pair of dancer shoes, refering to the name of the blog.

But my new friend finished the wine plus she had drinks with customers and after work, she tried to convince me to go with her to a bar for some beer when my only wishes are a shower, a foot massage and my bed. And of course after that amount of alcohol she showed the side of her that I had that much problems with in Luxembourg but this time she wasn’t complaining about me and called me a bitch but she was complaining about other girls to me. Oh well…

Andiamo, prego, tutti frutti, macaroni

After 1 week of working in Pescara, I still haven’t decided if I like it here or not. I’m wondering how other clubs work in Italy because this one has a strange system for me. When I think I’ve seen every type of clubs I always must realise I haven’t and some places still can hold some surprise.

Why Pescara? Simply because one of my agency has contact with the club here and they offered a higher salary if I start between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. That’s why. Some men suggested me to work in Milan as it is a wealthy city, but I don’t know any clubs there or even an agency that works with any clubs there.

Here I have free accommodation in the hotel above the club and €80 daily salary in the holiday season instead of the regular €60. I thought if I do some private dances, I’ll be fine. The first surprise that there is no private dance here. That my agency forgot to tell, they even mentioned the private dances when they sent me the club details. I feel a little bit cheated, so the other 3 dancers from the Chech Republic (they work with the same agency) The dear girl from the agency also forgot to tell us to bring normal cocktail dresses for work as the Russian girls dress up so. She told me to bring long dresses but a long stripper seethrough dress with a high cut on the side and lots of glitters is so different from an elegant pencil dress. The Russians would give me an evil eye if I wear that dress at work! Fortunately I have corsets and a pencil skirt just in case to go out, they perfectly do the job at work, but still, I show much more skin than the other girls. Not to mention that it’s so cold in the club! You think it’s just a big fuss about clothes. But like now I carry lots of unnecessary clothes in my luggage when I have to be careful with the weight limit, it doesn’t help to build up a good relationship with my colleagues when I’m more underdressed than most of them and I have to apologise and find excuses when the boss asks with a not so nice tone in his voice: “Where is your dress?”

The money is also not so good here. The customers pay my time. 20 minutes booking cost €20 for them and I got €3. (Not even the 20% drink commission as in other clubs.) It means I can make €9 per hour if I work 6 hours that 6x€9 plus the average €60 daily salary is €114 per night. But in that case, I work from opening until closing what never happens as I got booked by the customers’ choice. And I have to stay until 4 am, there is no way to leave the club at 3.55 if there is no customer. So maximum €114 a night. Do you still think strippers are super rich???

I still don’t know what is the business here for the Russian girls. They work here years, no dancing, only consummation, and as far as I know they only get the €60 fix salary, no commission. Yeah, the same thing crossed my mind too! I feel we dancers just the decoration, doing 1-2 showtime a night, and bring more customers because there are always new girls in the club as we don’t stay long in one place. Or even what is the business for the club? I just made a quick calculation that if I work all night, they got €60 from my customers in each hour, that’s €360 in 6 hours minus my salary and commission, I make €246 for the club. This is the maximum they can get after me a night. And they work with maximum 8-10 girls. No dances, no entrance fee, no bottles of champagne sold and the drinks for customers can’t be so expensive. This money in the night club business is peanuts. A club has such high expenses like licence, a stock of alcohol, music, staff etc. I wonder how they manage to keep open.

But I stay for 2 weeks only. And the club is very pretty, the staff is friendly and helpful, the accommodation is okay so I won’t complain more. And for sure on the summertime, it’s much better as the beach is only 100 meters from the hotel. Daytime you’re on the beach, at night you have a party, free accommodation and even you don’t make lots of money it can cover your flight tickets and all your expenses here, it could be a nice summer holiday.

Goodbye 2014

After some issues with my flight – 4 hours delay and because of that I missed the last bus so I had to spend the night at the airport again and take the first bus next day – finally, I’ve arrived in Pescara, Italy. Sleeping at airports seems became my habit this year though. The landing was also awful, the wing almost touched the ground before the plane. I can say the worst landing in my life when you believe in God or not, but start to pray suddenly. But I don’t complain as I’ve safely arrived in one piece.

I just started to work, I don’t want to say anything about the job yet. I don’t make my conclusion after 1-day work, all I can say now I’m lucky enough to share the room with a nice girl I’ve met before in Corsica so I don’t feel lonely. She just asked me yesterday: “Have you ever thought that once you will celebrate the New Year’s Eve with me?” Of course not!

I must say I’m happy to say Goodbye to this year as it was not a lucky one for me. It wasn’t fruitful, all my success was about this blog. I was disappointed in friends (even close ones) but the same time I’ve found new ones. My dates were not lucky at all, but I learned a lot about men. I was also not lucky with travel (cancelled flights, sleeping at airports, going to a wrong airport – the latest I still can’t understand how I could manage) but my biggest dream to go to Japan came true in this year. Financially I used all my saving by the end of the year because the almost 2 months break I took, but I realised I have people around me I can count in crisis. So this year I got hot and cold, almost like in a love and hate relationship. But these kinds of relationships always come with lots of stress and I usually quit as soon as I can from them, same reason I’m happy to this year came to the end.

And I made the same New Year Resolution as I do in every year. I promised myself that in the new year I will try to do something new. It can be to visit a place where I’ve never been before, tasting food that I’ve never tried or it can be just to see something in a totally different way than I did before. And when I look back at the end of the year, I always realise that it was more than one new thing, actually, it’s always a big bunch of new things each year to be grateful for. I’m still busy counting them.

So now a new day, a new year and a fresh start. I’m ready to take new adventures and accept the challenges that 2015 will bring in my way.