Last night I had a conversation revolving around the plethora of so-called "soap land" massage parlors in Japan. As far as I can tell (I'm not very well versed on the subject), they're basically legalized brothels. You go ostensibly for a body massage, and you end up with a penis massage. They have them at home too, but not as blatant as far as I know.
Anyway, I was asked why I never tried one. I replied that I have a girlfriend and that would be cheating. Not so, I was told. The reason given was that massage-pooches and others in the business of pleasuring for money are "not normal people" and are a "business." That being said, even having sex with a straight-out prostitute constitutes little more than a business transaction. If you have sex with a "normal person" (I'm still not really sure what that entails) other than your girlfriend/boyfriend, that's cheating. As lonng as you've paid for it, it's not.
What? I can't possibly believe that this is an opinion that reaches beyond the one person I talked to. If it does, then no wonder this country is so bizarre. I must continue researching.
Comments
happy ending n'at!
Posted by: oldefezziwig | March 15, 2006 12:22 PM
Eesh. This is just disgusting. Was this someone Japanese? Because they seem to have a more relaxed approach to cheating.
Posted by: Jenn | March 15, 2006 2:09 PM
Yeah I failed to mention that I suppose. Japanese person.
Certainly such an attitude is quite rare back home, and I can't vouch for here. That's what I wonder ...
Posted by: Justin | March 15, 2006 2:29 PM
I believe you mean, "I must continue 'researching.'"
Posted by: Will | March 15, 2006 3:37 PM
Well, it's just s-e-x, right? No emotional commitment; what's the harm?
Right.
Even a total immoral reprobate (I love that word) like myself finds this disgusting. Feh and ugh combined.
(I vaguely insulted...your comment moderation was just incredibly rude!)
Posted by: IbaDaiRon | March 15, 2006 6:15 PM
Booty is booty. You're either getting some or you're not, and it's either part of a monogamous relationship or it's not.
Now, if you and your partner have some type of non-exclusive agreement, then fine. If on the other hand there is any kind of expectation about monogamy, exclusivity, etc and you're voluntarily getting booty elsewhere, I call that cheating. I'm sure that many people would say that there are different levels of cheating, and that motivation and reason may be as important as "the act" itself. That's all arguable. Still, if you're getting booty from someone other than a partner who thinks that you're getting it only from him/her, then I think you're breaking the rules.
Posted by: jansen | March 16, 2006 5:44 AM
this calls for an investigation, i'll be there soon
Posted by: won | March 16, 2006 3:47 PM
1) Japan changed to the "marriage for love" model much more recently than the west, so maybe this is the tail-end of the change.
2) Japan is still a lot less feminist-ified than the west, so maybe this is part of that too.
3) I know Japanese women who have SAID that seeing a hooker ain't no thing, but I bet that still wouldn't be happy if their boyfriend did...
Posted by: Matt | March 17, 2006 12:54 AM
I also heard that traditionally if a male has sex with another male that isn't considered cheating. In fact the Japanese don't even consider gay sex to be sex it is roughly translated as "similar to sexual activity". Traditionally sex has emotional connotations if there's no money but prostitution and "similar to sexual activity" does not.
Posted by: Ak | April 27, 2009 11:05 PM