Tokyo Shop Where You Can Sleep With A Stranger
Posted under: Soineya, a “co-sleeping specialty shop” that opened in Tokyo’s eccentric Akihabara district in September, lets its patrons sleep with one of a staff of female employees — for a price.
According to Rocket News, Soineya — whose name literally means “sleep together shop” — isn’t a brothel, but a cuddle club where after paying an admission of 3,000 yen (about $38), customers select from a menu of sleep durations.
The business also offers a selection of premium services at an additional cost.
For 1,000 yen (about $12) a pop, the customer can give the woman a foot massage, have the woman look at him or her, get petted on the head, or have the woman change clothing, among other things, according to a Rocket News translation of the Soineya Web site. Interestingly, it is more expensive to give a foot massage than to receive a foot massage.
For a full list of “services” at Soineya (in English) visit Rocket News.
Strangely, this isn’t the first business to sell cuddles. In July, The Huffington Post featured Jackie Samuels, a Rochester, N.Y., woman whose business, the Snuggery, charged $1 a minute for cuddling. Like Soineya, the Snuggery isn’t about sex.
“Hypothetically, if someone were to get aroused, I would just communicate that that’s not what we’re doing,” she told the Penfield Post.
Despite its population’s generally conservative social mores, Japan, and especially Tokyo, is no stranger to taboo-busting businesses.
Recently, two former adult film actresses opened Love Joule, Japan’s first “love and sex bar devoted to women,” according to the Tokyo Reporter. The Shibuya district bar’s vibrator-lined setting is meant to encourage discussion of masturbation among women.
