[Nyororin]

You don`t HAVE to stay for a long time or spend a lot of money. You can get away with spending very little (in terms of host clubs).

A pretty standard run down on cost -
5000 - 6000yen cover charge
2000 or so to choose the guy you want to be entertained by (sometimes you can just ask for whoever is free and not pay this or only pay half)
Drinks - get to those in a minute
And a 30% service tax

Drinks tend to go anywhere from 1000yen for a beer, to pretty extreme bottles that can hit 500,000yen.

Cocktails tend to be 1000 to 1500.

There will also usually be a menu of snacks / food, usually below 2000 for anything.

You could technically do something like this;
10000 cover charge (2 of you)
2000 for a guy you pick
4500 for cocktails for you two and the guy
1500 for snacks
5400 service tax
---------------------
23400 yen for the two of you

And that is assuming that they don`t have a "new customer" thing going on - most places do, and they`ll halve the cover charge and offer an all-you-can-drink deal for 3000 or so. Some will have a flat rate of 3000~5000yen for 2 hours of all-you-can-drink with no cover charge.

So if you look around and find a place doing this kind of deal (most do, it`s a chance to hook a new customer), you could get by on 10,000 or less for the two of you.

Even if there isn`t that kind of a plan offered, you can sometimes find early hours discounts - even a cheap customer is better than NO customers, so things will be half or more off before prime hours.

Host clubs are a bit of a different culture than hostess bars. You don`t have to spend incredible amounts just to go to one for the experience. Even most of the nicest places will have the new customer deal of 3000~5000yen. (I have yet to see one that doesn`t.)