hornythumb wrote: ↑Mon Dec 12, 2022 3:20 pm...Have you read Tokyo Vice, a delightful account of Japan's unusual (in our view) restrictions.
Many thanks for the referral to Jake Adelstein's Tokyo Vice. I 'm most of the way through it, and TBH, I don't know if I find it delightful. I find it eye-opening, and also very sobering, for a number of reasons. I also love his writing style.
I am addicted to this Japanese all-girl hard-rock band, Band-Maid, especially their earlier stuff. The founding member, Miku Kobato, worked in a Maid Cafe (or some such name), and one of the premises of the band is that they all wear maids costumes on stage, her idea.
I never put two and two together, to think that she worked in a "hostess" capacity, and that the whole maids thing (including addressing their fans as Masters and Princesses) is a part of kinky Japanese society. I figured, ya know... house-cleaning maid, ya know? The dark joke's on me and my naivete. I wonder if their fanbase are aware of this fact...
I am so glad she escaped that world. She writes most of the lyrics, or comes up with most of the ideas for them, anyway. Some of them are pretty "provocative", not in a vapid, "cruise the boulevard for hot encounters" way, but in a fantastical, sometimes sexual way.
All of them are fantastic musicians, and also very pretty. They just had their first big tour since Covid, in the U.S. and Europe, this year. From all the reports and videos, they were fantastic, and were received very well by their legion of fans. I would have tried to get tix, but I don't get around like I used to, so I had to give it a pass.
But anyway, thank you again for turning me on to that book. More on Japanese kink later.
l-r Misa (bass), Akane (drums), Miku (guitar/voc), Saiki (voc), Kanami (lead gtr, voc)
Band-Maid onstage, instrumental, San Diego, CA 2022
Saiki, onstage Silver Springs, MD (?) 2022