But these jobs at least pay well and carry a semblance of glamour, albeit
sleazy glamour. On the other hand, there's a family down on its fortunes in a
certain city in Saitama Prefecture, waiting for phone calls from Johns. Dad
takes the calls, mother and daughter - mom's in her mid-40s and the daughter in
her mid-20s - provide sexual services in a "play room" inside the family's
beat-up van. The price for this "oyako domburi" (a reference to a
chicken-and-egg dish over rice that means "parent and child") is a
price-busting 1,980 yen for 10 minutes.
The family's problems began when the father was forced to borrow to support his
gambling habit. Such a loyal wife and filial daughter - to stand, or in this
case lie, by their man by supporting him with cheap quickies - Tokusatsu
Shinsengumi marvels.
Then there's 28-year-old Erina (a pseudonym) who established a "sensual
massage" business in Ikebukuro two years ago.
"What else could I do?" she asks. "My husband had lost his job and to make
matters worse was hooked on pachinko. We have kids to raise too. I'd been asked
to work at this kind of job before by a former 'Yakult Lady' (selling healthy
soft drinks in offices) I knew. I talked things over with my husband, and he
said, 'Ganbare' (go for it)."
Initially Erina and her husband agreed she would only do the work until he
could find new employment, but by the end of 2004 her business failed and she
moved back to her parents, bringing her husband and two children along.
As her family's main means of support, Erina now works at the sensual massage
shop from 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and then moonlights at a "delivery health" call
girl, visiting customers' homes or hotel rooms.
It was mad cow disease that brought down the Kawai family. They didn't catch
it, but it drove away business from their Korean-style barbecue restaurant.
That left them with their fairly large two-story house in the upscale Yoyogi
neighborhood, a portion of which they now put to use renting out to couples for
group orgies.
"There was another place hosting adult parties around here that went out of
business," says Kawai. "Our house was big enough to accommodate the parties and
still let us reside in the other section, so we can remain here and earn income
from it. It's been a real silver lining."
Naturally Kawai's children are banned from the other section of the house while
it's in use for such nefarious purposes. And they have hired a maid with love
hotel janitorial experience to go through and clean up the sticky discarded
tissues, used condoms and items of underwear sometimes left behind by guests.
"All the earnings from rentals go toward paying back the money I've borrowed,"
sighs Kawai. "I don't know how long we can go on like this. The walls are thin
and some of the guests are a bit noisy when they get it on."
The final persona introduced in this heartwarming account of sexual family
values concerns a certain Miss Kondo, whose parents, fleeing debts, began a
life on the street. At the time she was three.
"When I was in the third year of middle school, a friend of my brother raped
me," she relates. "When my brother found out about it, he beat the guy to a
pulp and collected 200,000 yen in compensation."
Since that point Ms. Kondo was open for business, so to speak, she took on
several jobs in the sex business but eventually formed a partnership with her
brother involving blackmail and extortion.
"Doctors are flaky," Kondo relates. "Some of them carry SM paraphernalia in
their medical bags. I'd let them take me to a hotel and just when they had me
all tied up, my brother would storm in the room and scare the crap out of them.
I'd pretend to break out in tears and he would put the squeeze on them for big
bucks."
The siblings' dream is to get enough money to open a snack bar. Isn't it just
great, winks Tokusatsu Shinsengumi, to see young people with this kind of drive
and ambition?
Copyright 1999-2005, Mainchi Daily. Used with permission. All rights
reserved. Masuo Kamiyama is a contributing writer for the Mainchi Daily
News. No content may be reproduced in whole or part without written
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