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The story
Gravure idol Moe Kawase appeared on ABEMA’s “Tokimeki Fanfare SECOND” on November 12 and revealed details about a current TV announcer’s private life. She shared an anecdote about a shisha bar bill that came to ¥100,000, exclaiming “Isn’t that crazy?” — and the original article names announcer Akane Takiyama. Reactions on the 5ch live-commentary thread were split, ranging from shock at how expensive shisha bars are, to wariness about an atmosphere some associate with drugs, to speculation over who actually paid the bill.
[Photo] ¥100,000 Bar Tab at a Shisha Lounge… Announcer Akane Takiyama’s Figure-Hugging Tight Dress Turns Heads
¥100,000 Bar Tab at a Shisha Lounge… Current Announcer’s Shocking Private Life Revealed: “Isn’t That Crazy?”
Gravure idol Moe Kawase appeared live on ABEMA’s “Tokimeki Fanfare SECOND” (Fridays, 7:00 PM) on the 12th, where she touched on an ABEMA announcer’s private life.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
That place is just pure fun, nothing more.
the vibe that shisha bars are one step away from drugs is way too scary.
If anything, Reina Tanaka is the sensible one here —
the people who actually go to shisha bars are the creepy ones.
Well it depends on the person, but shisha's usually a guy's treat, isn't it?
Shisha bar & body sculpting.
Like Halloween, it's just not something that fits Japan — no need to import it.
Can't believe people actually smoke there.
"Pukeway drug" (a pun on ゲートウェイドラッグ/"gateway drug" swapped with ゲロ, meaning "puke")
It surprised me when one popped up in a regular restaurant search.
So the 'common sense' here is that guys are supposed to pay for expensive outings?
You're sitting at a table sucking smoke through a stretched-out hose, right?
I'd rather lie down on tatami and smoke like that.
Can't believe people actually want to smoke from that thing.
The look isn't great, I'll admit, but the mechanism is just using water as a filter.
It's a simple enough structure that you could basically build one with a plastic bottle and a thin hose.
It's less about the device itself and more about what you're actually smoking through it.
So you're just inhaling pure water vapor into your lungs?
Water vapor.
Well, if what you're burning has tar and nicotine in it, it's basically just a cigarette.
Plus there are all kinds of flavors.
You could probably mix all sorts of other ingredients in too.
That's probably why some of the trending liquids out there include illegal stuff.
Though some people lump e-cigarettes and "electronic shisha" together under the shisha label when they're not really the same thing — the real problem is the illegal liquids, not shisha itself.
Still don't know what plant that actually is, but smoking it repeatedly used to make my head spin.
Shisha is basically just regular tobacco.
Isn't that a business tobacco shops started up once regular cigarette sales declined?
Basically it's tobacco (leaf) — you're burning the same plant used in rolled cigarettes and inhaling the smoke.
Water just acts as the filter.
Naturally it contains nicotine and the like.
For flavoring, all sorts of things get mixed in — herbs, coffee, pretty much anything.
There's also nicotine-free shisha that doesn't use tobacco leaf at all.
Shisha bars in Japan are basically hookup spots, or like a rest stop in front of a hotel.
Background and Points of Debate
Shisha (water-pipe tobacco) is a smoking device that originated in the Middle East. The basic mechanism — inhaling smoke filtered through water — isn’t inherently illegal; the standard form uses flavored tobacco leaf. In recent years, more casual, cafe-like shisha establishments have opened in city centers, with per-customer spending ranging anywhere from a few thousand yen to over ¥10,000, making it a fairly wide-ranging business model. The article doesn’t specify whether the ¥100,000 figure came from a group outing, an extended session, or a stack of pricey orders. Where opinions on the thread diverged was over shisha culture itself: there were anxious voices pointing to the look of the pipe and a sense that it’s “one step from drugs,” set against a cooler-headed group that simply enjoys it as a smoking culture. It’s worth noting that the device itself doesn’t contain any illegal substances — the actual problem tends to be illegal liquids circulating in some corners of the market, and the simple equation of “shisha = drugs” is a misconception.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Geisoku Sokuho+) thread “[Entertainment] ¥100,000 Bar Tab at a Shisha Lounge… Announcer Akane Takiyama’s Shocking Private Life Revealed: “Isn’t That Crazy?”“
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