Train Cafe, an adult's club in the basement of a seedy building in Tokyo's
Ikebukuro district, claims to be combating the crime of molestation by getting
chikan, or gropers, off the streets.
Train Cafe is a members' only club and is staffed by young women dressed in
school uniforms or aprons. Membership costs 5,000 yen and there is a 2,000 yen
payment for a cup of tea levied with each visit. A subsequent payment of 3,600
yen for 20 minutes permits members to partake of Train Cafe's services.
Those services are carried out in a room refurbished so that it looks exactly
like the inside of a carriage on the Yamanote Line, the train that loops the
central Tokyo area. Young women stand at strategic points in the carriage and
patrons are permitted to fondle them in whatever way they please. An extra
payment of 5,000 yen gives patrons the option of selecting the woman they want
to ride with for a 15-minute period.
Male customers, of who the club says there are 4,000, are not allowed to
ejaculate in the establishment.
Train Cafe members are offered a virtual reality trip on the Yamanote Line.
"During the 20 minute session, the trip takes you from Ikebukuro to Meguro
(about one-third of the Yamanote Line's 60-minute complete loop). With each
stop, the doors of the carriage open and the girls get on and off the train. We
use actual recordings of the conductors' announcements and LCD screens outside
the window display actual footage of the trip along the Yamanote Line," Train
Cafe's operator tells Weekly Playboy. "We cannot be beaten when it comes to
reality."
Train Cafe's operator tells the weekly that the club's membership is largely
based on men in the early to mid-40s. He adds that many customers enter the
establishment saying that they had just ridden trains and been driven almost
mad by temptation, but made it to the club before tackling an innocent woman
commuter.
"We have a crime reducing effect," the operator says.
Far from feeling demeaned, women working at the club say they enjoy it.
"I loath real chikan. But if I'm attacked by one, I'm too scared to do anything
and just shut up. I really, really hate it," 20-year-old Rin tells the weekly.
"But here, all the customers are members. You know you're going to be felt up
and it's a good place to make friends, so I enjoy it."
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