what do people do in host bars exactly?
Well, for example, in Thailand you pay for one of the workers to come sit with you. They tend to be in a thong and show their stuff on stage. You either pay for the company there or you pay to take that company up to one of their rooms for sex.
In Japan, it's similar except it's more common to sit and talk with the guy – or guys -- than go up to their room. The conversation is much better, there's karaoke, the mamasan (owner of the bar) is more involved, there's a much lighter mood. It's hard to explain but it's not seedy at all. One perk, if you know where to look, the Japanese pornographic actors often work for such a host bar. Oh, and there are host bars for women, too. And at each host bar, the boys are ranked by how much money they bring in. It's a strange system but it's a kind of competition and how well they work you, the guest, will determine how much that guest spends – so you get really good customer service (and I'm not talking about sex). Many even have the boys pics up ranked in order.Here's a more famous one. They have bars all over Japan.
http://www.dgdgdg.com/top_all.php
The black band lists all the places. If you use the "boy search" you kind find young men in whichever region you're browsing in only. There are three regions: Kanto, Osaka, Nagoya. There are other such services with KO models, etc. throughout Japan.
The idea of competition seems to be applicable to many different areas..
;D