{"id":613377,"date":"2009-12-23T17:33:55","date_gmt":"2009-12-23T22:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"1620 at http:\/\/atlasobscura.com"},"modified":"2009-12-23T17:33:55","modified_gmt":"2009-12-23T22:33:55","slug":"akeno-gekijo-ruined-japanese-stripclub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/613377","title":{"rendered":"Akeno Gekijo: Ruined Japanese Stripclub"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/atlasobscura.com\/globe\/asia\/japan\">Japan<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/atlasobscura.com\/globe\/asia\">Asia<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/atlasobscura.com\/categories\/architectural-oddities\/incredible-ruins\">Incredible Ruins<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In Japan, &#8216;Hostess Bars&#8217; are bars where men pay to be flirted with. Attractive women sit by them, pour them drinks, stroke their thighs, pay them compliments, and these girls can make a fortune from big-spenders seeking to impress them with the most expensive champagne and caviar. Of course, not all Hostess Bars make the grade and the ones that don&#8217;t pull in the businessmen by the bucket-full end up as &#8216;Haikyo,&#8217; a Japanese term for ruins.  <\/p>\n<p>The Akeno Gekijo haikyo in Ibaraki is something of an oddity in Japan, as one of only a few actual strip clubs. Of course there are similar venues; hostess bars, soaplands, love hotels, but they each cater to a slightly different crowd and provide a slightly different flavor of tawdry service. To find a straight-up strip club complete with central podium, viewing seats, and dancing poles seems a feat beyond expectation. But there it is, on a small back-road in a quiet rural area surrounded by bamboo, half-burnt to the ground and buzzing with mosquitoes. <\/p>\n<p>The stripper poles still stand though it has been some time since anyone has taken a swing on them.<\/p>\n<p>Written by Japanese Haikyo expert and explorer Michael John Grist. More about this place and other Haikyo  can be found on his site here.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.atlasobscura.com\/files\/imagecache\/place_main\/place_images\/akeno-9001.jpg?resize=280%2C186\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"  width=\"280\" height=\"186\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japan, Asia | Incredible Ruins In Japan, &#8216;Hostess Bars&#8217; are bars where men pay to be flirted with. Attractive women sit by them, pour them drinks, stroke their thighs, pay them compliments, and these girls can make a fortune from big-spenders seeking to impress them with the most expensive champagne and caviar. Of course, not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":639,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4821],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-613377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-2zzb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/639"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}