3-24-12 Bar Flower by Lea Jacobson - Non-Fiction

4 - Lea Jacobson gives the reader a look inside ukiyo, "the floating world" of Japan. Ukiyo is the entertainment industry mainly focused around sex and Jacobson was part of the highest rungs of that society, a bar hostess. Ironically, a bar hostess, even though the occupation is considered part of the sex trade, involves no sex and barely even any touching. The modern equivalent of a geisha, a hostess is meant to fawn over men. make them feel important, and convince them to part with the better part of their bank account to purchase drinks from the establishment they are patronizing. In Japan, many of the hostesses are foreign born and don't necessarily even have to speak Japanese. In this, the reader is lucky because Jacobson speaks Japanese fluently and studied Japanese culture before travelling to Japan to begin her work as an English teacher. This book is her memoir of her time in Japan and introduces the reader to how an American English teacher becomes a bar hostess and explains many of the cultural differences and beliefs of the Japanese people. A really good read and very entertaining.