WORK IN PROGRESS 10 THE MEGUMI STORIES BY MEGUMI KATO AND FRIENDS VOLUME 05: WORK IN PROGRESS BY BOB WILLIAMS ASSISTED BY MEGUMI, NORIKO, FUJIKO, AYUMI, SAEKO, MARIKO, TAMA, MAIKO, SHIZUE, MIE, AYAKO, TOMO, YUU AND RUMI PART 10 CHAPTER X The First Date Cafe The germ of this piece was an article I wrote for a sex-tourism magazine interested in new developments on the Tokyo sex scene. When I came to look at it again, I thought it could be expanded to give some of the background to this highly successful venture - and include the latest news of some old friends. Perhaps you remember Miss Mie Takahashi - or Mrs Alan Buller as I should correctly call her. She was for some time right at the top of the Japanese porn industry: she is tall, elegant and amazingly sexy, and the movies she made for Marucho are among the classics of the genre. Japanese sex stars do not last long, the pressure from eager newcomers hoping for their own careers is so intense; but Miss Takahashi continued for longer than most, so great was her popularity, and she quit, as they say, while she was ahead. Many lovers of Japanese erotic beauty sincerely mourned her retirement; but of course her place was soon taken by others. To mention developments at Marucho alone, there was Megumi Kato, of course, whom Miss Takahashi had herself spotted as her successor. There was Megumi's school-friend Kimiko Kobayashi who has developed into one of the stars of _ojosama_ or "Princess" movies, delightful stories in which a high-class young lady is kidnapped by roughs, taken to a secret hideaway, tied up and subjected to every kind of perverted and humiliating sex - which, of course, she soon finds she adores and can't get enough of. Then there is a promising and insatiable little slut called Emi, a _protegee_ of Megumi's whom she is grooming for stardom in the shorter videos which don't bother with a plot and start straight off with non-stop fucking: she is at present, on Megumi's instructions, broadening her experience working in the cheaper end of the sex-trade - as a bath-house girl, as a stripper in seedy theatres, and flitting like a swallow every fifteen minutes from cubicle to cubicle in the many "sex cafes" of Asakusa. Megumi tells me Emi is so happy in her work she may never want to return to the studio. There are so many delicious little sluts like that at the sleazier end of the Japanese sex-trade, bless them! It is a duty as well as a pleasure to seek them out and give them the thorough and intense fucking they love so much. Please remember that when you visit Tokyo. Meanwhile Miss Takahashi was living happily in England with her rich, elderly _gaijin_ husband. He was still besotted with her and she made sure to please him and satisfy his lust for her; he for his part had the sense to realise that a beautiful young woman in the flower of her sexuality could hardly be expected to limit herself to a single partner, and made no objection to her other affairs so long as she was discreet and occasionally came to his bed with new ideas and techniques for him to enjoy. I heard all this from Megumi and we were both glad for her. One of Miss Takahashi's virtues was that her former lovers - who included of course both Megumi and me - remembered her with deep affection and wanted her to be happy. One day the news reached us that Miss Takahashi had returned to Tokyo. A big international company had persuaded Mr Buller out of retirement to lead their expansion into Japan; and he and his lovely wife were living in one of the grandest expat houses in the city. Miss Takahashi soon made contact with her former friends and lovers and was as popular as ever. She had made it plain to her husband that she was there for him when he needed her - either in his bed or as hostess in his splendid house - but wanted to pursue a life of her own as well. She was not interested in returning to her acting career, but was looking for business interests where her experience of the sex-trade would be useful. The industry is so wide-ranging and well-developed that it took her a while to find a point of entry. But an idea came to her when she was visiting Megumi at Marucho's head office in Shibuya, and was sitting in on a series of interviews Megumi was conducting with young girls dreaming of acting careers in sex videos. They were all too young to have heard of her, of course, but Miss Takahashi liked meeting them, and sometimes picked out the prettiest and most enthusiastic to share her bed or serve as acceptable presents to her friends and lovers.[21] On this occasion Megumi was of course quizzing the applicants about their sex-lives and progress so far: what had been their first sexual experience, how old they had been when they were first properly fucked (in their cunts rather than their mouths, that is), how often they attended sex-parties, whether they had yet learnt to enjoy being whipped, and so on. Afterwards Miss Takahashi said, "Have you noticed something? They all said how difficult it was to get a boy to fuck them the first time." "Did you think so?" asked Megumi. "I thought they were just trying to show how keen they were." "Well, yes, maybe. But I do think that's something we do badly, providing the facilities for sex on a first date." "Oh, surely not! Tokyo is full of love-hotels!" "Yes, but they are for more experienced couples. Think of it: a young couple on their first date, both longing to fuck but neither sure how to approach the subject, the boy afraid to suggest a visit to a love-hotel in case she is shocked and upset, and not really knowing where to go and how much it would cost and whether he has the money ..." "H'm, I do see what you mean. They need guidance. A bit like the old days with the pillow-book." Megumi was genuinely interested in the history of pornography. That was partly my influence: I had shared with her some of the results of my own researches into sexual literature, like the eighteenth-century novels of the Marquis de Sade and Victorian publications like _The Pearl_.[22] The pillow-book was in a way the Japanese equivalent of such classical pornography. "How did that work?" asked Miss Takahashi, who was more interested in the present and the future. "Well, when a young couple were married, or were going to make love for the first time anyway, older friends or relations would place a book on their pillow with lots of pictures showing clearly all the nice things they could do to each other." "What a lovely idea!" said Miss Takahashi. "Of course today the problem isn't showing them _what_ to do - our industry does that very efficiently - it's providing somewhere to do it." She giggled. "Not the book so much as the pillow." So an important commercial idea was born. Megumi discussed it with her husband Mr Otani, who liked it and immediately saw how it could fit in with the promotion of their company; and sufficient capital was forthcoming from Marucho and from Miss Takahashi's own resources to develop it. What was needed, the two girls decided, was a simple cafe of the kind that a boy might take a girl to on a first date without feeling intimidated or worrying that he could not afford it, equipped with facilities for fucking which the young couple could progress to naturally and almost without noticing what was happening. Megumi wanted to give the establishment a classical name to do with the pillow-book, but Miss Takahashi said young Japanese wouldn't understand that and wanted a name which clearly told them what it was for. So they agreed on First Date Cafe or Fasuto Deito Kafe in Japlish. Real-estate agents were put to work and it wasn't long before Miss Takahashi announced she had found the ideal place. It was a former basement disco in Harajuku, in an area frequented by young people. The public area, the disco itself, had been designed as a large circle, which sounds a bit wasteful of space especially when you think what space costs in Tokyo; but actually is quite practical: you could fit a triangular entrance lobby into one curved corner, a cloakroom into another, and two washrooms into the others. Separate from the public area and with its own staff entrance was a small kitchen and serving area. There was room for about twenty-four tables round the outer circle of the main room, all tables for two and quite small and intimate so that knees and feet could touch underneath and hands find each other easily as if by accident. In the centre where the dance-floor had been a large, perfectly circular bed was installed, with twelve standard mattresses radiating out from it like the spokes of a wheel. The area with the tables was discreetly lit but the former dance-floor was well illuminated from the sides and overhead, with mirrors on the ceiling between the lights. The floor had been constructed out of a translucent plastic material and there were elaborate lighting systems underneath originally designed to show off the girls' legs as they danced: these of course were retained. So let me describe what the First Date Cafe is like. The menu consists of simple snacks and dishes, so that no one need feel intimidated by complicated choices. No alcohol is served. This saves a lot of troublesome regulation, need to enquire into customers' ages, and so on; but as well as the usual long drinks the menu offers sweet non-alcoholic fruit cocktails of the kind Japanese girls love, with discreetly teasing names like "First Kiss", "Boy and Girl" and "Microskirt". There are a lot of pretty young waitresses, all dressed in a fantasy French maid outfit in various colours: wide short skirts held out from the bottom by a froth of petticoats, a lacy short-sleeved blouse cut to offer a coy glimpse of the breasts, black high-heels, a tiny impracticable apron tied in a big bow round the waist, and a matching bow in the hair. You have no doubt seen this sort of thing being worn (and taken off) hundreds of times in Japanese sex videos: in fact Megumi obtained the whole set of outfits cheap from a company specialising in supplying costumes to the porn industry. The waitresses look delightful, I must say. There are also half-a-dozen waiters, all young good-looking _gaijin_. Well, with the sort of looks young Japanese girls find exciting. They have been chosen from among the international drifters who come to Tokyo for a few months, supporting themselves by teaching English and, if they are lucky, by occasional parts in porn videos.[23] They don't speak much Japanese but all they have to do is greet the young couples, conduct them to their tables and produce menus with a flourish, leaving the orders to the waitresses. They wear tight trousers in various garish colours and are naked above the waist apart from white cuffs and a white collar decorated with a bow-tie in a colour matching their trousers. This teasing reference to the costume of the ubiquitous _Playboy_ bunny always makes the girl customers giggle, and wriggle discreetly on their seats as they feel their pussies lightly tingling and their panties becoming a little damp from the first drops of love-juice. The cafe is open from 5 p.m. till 11 at night. Each waiter is given two half-hour periods on special duty: they might be from 6.30 to 7 and again from 9.30 to 10, for example. Before the doors open, each waiter chooses by lot two waitresses to be his partners during these periods. Exactly on the hour and on the half-hour a couple, waiter and waitress, proceed to the circular bed in the centre of the floor and make love, gently undressing each other and going through an undemanding fucking routine designed to reach climax in twenty or twenty-five minutes. Of course the customers are fascinated and thrilled by this. They watch open-mouthed, and some of the bolder ones gather round the bed. Hands reach for hands, eyes meet, and couples know without having to say anything that they are both longing to share the same beautiful experience themselves. The beds round the perimeter of the dance-floor are soon filling up with young lovers. It is, I must admit, even for a debauched old lecher like me, a very pretty sight. The cafe has been a great success, and is now developing quickly into a chain. Rather than run it all themselves, Miss Takahashi, Megumi and Mr Otani have decided to franchise it, insisting that the details of the original cafe are carried through unaltered into all the others. Two things all Japanese like are being included in a group or club, and being given a free gift or _sabisu_ as part of a retail transaction. When a young couple have finished making love, they are gently helped to the washrooms by the waitresses, who discreetly ask their names. In due course they return to their table, the young man stiff but proud and the girl shy but radiant, to find special souvenirs of their experience waiting for them. The young man receives a handsome laminated folder. On the front is a certificate confirming that he, identified by name, is now a member of the First Date Club complete with membership number, and enjoyed a First Date at the First Date Cafe on such-and-such a day. On the back the address details of the Cafe are shown, together with a map of the location. On the two inside pages are four carefully chosen and very tasteful photographs of him and his girl fucking, which he can proudly show to his friends. She receives a folder with just "First Date Cafe" on the front in elegant gold script. Inside, tucked into the left-hand pocket, is a miniature pad of diary pages, accompanied by a pretty little gilt ball-point. The first page is headed by her name and the date, and the words "Today I visited the First Date Cafe with ..." and the name of her lover. The rest of the page is for her to record her feelings and experiences: Japanese girls are insatiable diary-keepers, and love to share what they have written with their friends. In the right-hand pocket are two items: a certificate like his though printed in a much more feminine and girlish style, and a coupon entitling her, when she has collected three of them, to a free video disc. This of course encourages her to visit the cafe twice more and earn the other coupons, gaining in sexual confidence and poise as she does so. When at last she sends for her free disc, she will receive a video carefully selected from the _kawaii_ or "sweet" part of Marucho's catalogue, designed to appeal to the company's younger female customers. It will show a pretty girl, one of Megumi's latest recruits, being beautifully and tastefully fucked. The sex will be straightforward and elementary, starting perhaps with the girl flirting in charmingly provocative clothes and ending maybe with her pretty face decorated with cum, but with no whip or clamp or other sex-toy to be seen: nothing to frighten or worry the shyest beginner. This too she is almost bound to share with her friends. At the end will appear some individually prepared text frames. The first will congratulate the girl again, by name, on being a member of the First Date Club. The second will guide her to the Marucho website where the full catalogue of products is shown, and tell her that by entering her membership number she can obtain discounts. The third will inform her that the First Date Cafe and Marucho are both looking for part-time employees (performers in sex acts in public or on camera, of course, though it will not say so outright) and giving her a single contact number for both if she wishes to be considered. The secret of success in business comes in several stages. First, identify a gap in the market which has remained unfilled. Second, encourage repeat business and word-of-mouth recommendation. Third, promote the sale of tie-ins from your core business. Fourth, when you have a winning formula, franchise it. And this is the story of how two porn video idols, one retired and the other still very active, and a clever Japanese-American businessman, started a successful retail chain selling sex to young couples. FOOTNOTES [21] She once gave me such a present: an adorable little creature called Nozomi, hopelessly in love with her and eagerly carrying out her instructions to please me and do everything I wanted. "You _will_ tell Her that I pleased you, won't you?" she would ask anxiously after enthusiastically fulfilling whatever sexually advanced demand I made of her. She still adores Miss Takahashi, of course; but is now, at only seventeen, the live-in companion of an older man - older than me, I mean - famous for the ingenuity and imagination with which he invents new variations of sadism. I met them recently at a party and she introduced me. He knew who I was, and paid me the great compliment of thanking me for having trained his little girl so well. Meanwhile she blushed and looked virginal, knowing of course that that was the best way of tickling his depraved lust. I managed a quick private word with her. Was she happy? I asked. "Oh _yes_, in _Heaven_!" she replied with an angelic smile, before being whisked off, shivering with delighted anticipation, to another session of wonderfully sadistic debauchery in his secret underground dungeon. [22] _The Pearl_ was one of several pornographic magazines published in England at the height of the Victorian era. It lasted for eighteen issues, from July 1879 to December 1880, plus two special "Christmas issues", and contained a total of seven full-length novels, most of them still well worth reading. [23] If you detect a touch of jealousy here, you are right. I once applied for a job as a waiter in the First Date Cafe - the pay is low and the sex plain vanilla, but the waitresses are pretty and willing - and was rejected as too old! Huh. [Next in Part 11: Ayako: Personal Best] For complete series so far see /files/Authors/Bob_Williams