Quote:
Originally Posted by yukiya
Thanks for the advice. I'm Asian, so probably they wouldn't be interested in me  I do want it for the experience (not at all a habit - i don't have that kind of money !!).
I'll make sure I request for the price tag first =_= |
Bottom line, don't enter a place without some sort of introduction or with friend who knows the place. Just because of the nature of pricing, and now with the economy as it is, people don't just walk in. Japanese are embarrassed to ask the price up front sometimes, and these places can sometimes take advantage of that, especially if they think you are never coming back again.
I went to one place with a few Japanese friends and one other gaijin. We lived in the neighborhood and were looking for a new bar. We weren't so shy as to ask the price before we sat down. This bar had 5 or 6 girls, and was empty when we walked in (there were 5 of us, i think). Anyway, the mama said it was 2000 yen a head, and 800 yen for a large bottle of beer. We sat down and probably shared 10 bottles of beer with the hostesses, and then our bill was like 30,000 yen. We said to the mama "Hey, 10,000 yen for five guys to sit down, and 10 bottles of beer is 18,000 yen!" She said "Yeah, but you took up all our girls at your table." We responded that there were no other customers, so what were we supposed to do? She finally reduced the bill to the proper price. The point is, a Japanese person wouldn't have complained. So I wouldn't go into a place unless you go with someone who is a regular customer there, that way you don't get hosed. That's if you REALLY want to go to a hostess bar.