The Incredibly True Story of Renting a Friend in Tokyo

[DGUtley]

The Incredibly True Story of Renting a Friend in Tokyo - When you’re alone in Tokyo and you need someone to talk to, do as the locals do: Rent a friend..


It's muggy and I'm confused. I don't understand where I am, though it was only a short walk from my Airbnb studio to this little curry place. I don’t understand the lunch menu, or even if it is a lunch menu. Could be a religious tract or a laminated ransom note. [It's 2016, and] I’m new in Tokyo, and sweaty, and jet-lagged. But I am entirely at ease. I owe this to my friend Miyabi. She’s one of those reassuring presences, warm and eternally nodding and unfailingly loyal, like she will never leave my side. At least not for another 90 minutes, which is how much of her friendship I’ve paid for.

Miyabi isn’t a sex worker, or an escort or an actor or a therapist. Or maybe she’s a little of each. Since 2011, she has been a professional rent-a-friend, working for a company called Client Partners.

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This is the story: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/t...=pocket-newtab

This is not the story:

[MMC]

Oh great.....now leftists with money will actually be able to say they have a friend.