We needed to pay the club every night the equivalent of one table dance; that's $40 -- which seems like a lot now, but over there it didn't seem like a lot of money. So anyway, it wasn't free to work there. But the rest of the money we made from table dances we could keep; that would be our income. At this point, we were really hurting money-wise. We'd just arrived in Tokyo from Bangkok and time was money. So we were eager to work. We moved into the apartment; it was in a little building with five or six other girls.

What were your rooms like?

It was a two-bedroom apartment with some Japanese touches. In the living room there was a table you would sit cross-legged at, and a TV and a VCR. We each had our own bedroom. And we had balconies. The neighborhood was industrial, but I always thought it was beautiful in a geometrical way. You look out onto the street; and it didn't feel smoggy at all even though it was a city.

What was a typical shift like?

There were two shifts. One-half of the girls would start at 6 p.m. and the other half would start at 7 p.m. We alternated each day. No matter what time we started, we all got off at 2 a.m. I'd get to work and go into the locker room; I'd put on my little dress, my make-up, and get all dolled up. Then I would walk as well as I could in my really high-heeled pumps out into the main room. There'd be some shitty music playing, and all the girls would be sitting in the corner smoking cigarettes. Japanese girls, American girls, Canadian girls, they'd be talking and drinking oolong tea. Usually they wouldn't be drinking alcohol at this point. When a customer came in, the manager would ask if he wanted to sit with a Japanese girl or a foreign girl, and then he'd choose a girl to sit with him. Once there was a customer in the room, that meant we had to start dancing. As soon as a customer arrived, there had to be a girl on stage, so the DJ would call out a name, and the girl would go up there and dance two songs. We would take turns dancing. It was pretty funny when there was only one guy in the strip club and we were all dancing for him. By about 8 p.m., there'd be a few more people, and by 9 p.m., it was much more happening. That's usually when I'd start doing table dances and make most of my money.

How did you deal with the language barrier?

When you sat down at a table with a guy, most of them knew very little English, and the dancers knew very little Japanese. I learned my little lines to say. "Hi, my name is Ophelia." And I'd tell them I like Japanese boys. I would tell them I had been in Japan for one and a half months already. I would ask them when their birthday was because I would try and find out what sign they were, but Japanese don't care about the zodiac. They care about blood types, so the guy would ask me what my blood type was -- which I still don't know. And they would be shocked that I didn't know my blood type.

Were you the one trying to draw them out? Did they ask you questions?

It depended on the client. Most of the time it felt like my responsibility to draw them out. Sometimes they would ask me questions, sometimes not.

Are you supposed to be making them comfortable so they'll buy drinks, or so they'll want to buy a table dance? What's your business goal?

Basically, I needed to sell them table dances. I didn't make much from drinks. If they were sitting there with me, they pretty much had to buy me a drink as long as I was sitting there. My job was to slurp them down as fast as possible and then ask the guy if it was OK to get another drink. If they were really poor or cheap or if they didn't want me to sit with them anymore, they wouldn't buy me another drink; then after one or two drinks, I'd leave. The customers weren't always Japanese. Sometimes they were Indians, or from Bangladesh or China or Hong Kong. A lot of the time, it was married businessmen out in groups with their co-workers after work. Or a group of young guys who usually had no money but were much more fun.

Why were they fun?

They were laughing, flirty and trying to be charming -- it was fun for them instead of just being assholes about it. Some of the older businessmen would just sit and be stony and quiet; I'd try to make conversation with them and it was almost like they were mad at me for trying.

What was the ritual when a client wanted to buy a table dance? Did the money change hands at the beginning of the dance or the end?

It changed hands at the beginning, because you didn't want to do a dance and not have them pay. If there was a group of them, sometimes you could go around the group and they'd give you money, too. So you could get more than what you'd normally get. Usually, though, I'd just dance for one guy. A table dance was three minutes. At first you would just be sitting there talking to the customer, wearing your dress. Pretty soon after starting the dance, you would take your dress off, and then you would basically be in your G-string -- and your high heels, of course, those would never come off. We could touch the clients, play with their ties, rub up against their thighs or whatever, but they weren't allowed to touch us.

On a good night, how many table dances would you do?

If you were Japanese, you'd do about 17. If not, about 7.

Did you do lap dances?

No, just table dances.

Would customers sometimes tip afterwards beyond the $40?

Not usually. On stage they might give you tips, or if there were other guys at the table, they'd give you tips. But they were already buying you drinks, which were about $12 each for a little drink -- and which weren't even alcoholic if you didn't want them to be.

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