「ウリセン」「売り専」「ボーイズバー」「ゲイマッサージ」「出張ホスト」: urisen (in two spellings), boys' bar, gay massage, outcall host. Once you start looking, one term after another turns up, and it becomes hard to tell which refers to what.
This is not a problem with the reader’s understanding. It is because the shops themselves use several names at the same time. That is where we start.
Why the terms are confusing
We check the official websites of 89 shops in Tokyo one by one. Counting how each shop describes itself gives the following.
| Term | Shops using it |
|---|---|
| 売り専urisen, written in kanji | 28 |
| ゲイマッサージgay massage | 23 |
| ウリ専urisen, katakana + kanji | 7 |
| 出張ホストoutcall host | 7 |
| ウリセンurisen, all katakana | 4 |
| ボーイズバーboys' bar | 2 |
| メンズエスコートmen's escort | 1 |
If the names were simply spread out, they could still be sorted. The problem is that 13 shops use more than one name side by side.
- 新宿エンブレイス売り専 ・ ウリセン ・ 出張ホスト
- TOPBOY 東京売り専 ・ ゲイマッサージ ・ 出張ホスト
- ボーイズバー シュートウリ専 ・ 出張ホスト ・ ボーイズバー
- 売り専(ウリ専)出張ホスト FREEDOM高田馬場店売り専 ・ ウリ専 ・ 出張ホスト
- 売り専ヒーローズ東京売り専 ・ メンズエスコート
- 男子学園 新宿店売り専 ・ ゲイマッサージ
- 男子学園 上野店売り専 ・ ゲイマッサージ
- An independence売り専 ・ ウリセン
- FREEDOM 上野店（サロン今池 IN 上野店）売り専 ・ 出張ホスト
- JAM! Tokyo売り専 ・ ウリ専
- RED LINE売り専 ・ ゲイマッサージ
- COWBOY（カウボーイ）売り専 ・ ウリ専
- Ah! DANSHI売り専 ・ 出張ホスト
For example, one and the same shop calls itself 「売り専」 (urisen), 「ゲイマッサージ」 (gay massage) and 「出張ホスト」 (outcall host) all at once. For the shop, this gives search engines more ways in. For the reader, it means you cannot tell what the service is from the name.
Conclusion: sort by how it works, not by name
Memorising the names gets you nowhere. Only two things actually differ: where you meet, and what you are paying for.
The usual three categories
The glossary of g-lad xx, a general information site for gay men in Japan, divides these businesses into three types.
- 売り専バー（ホストバー） (urisen bar, also called host bar)｜A bar in a gay district where you choose a boy, enjoy talking with him, and if you like him, can take him out of the bar
- 個室ホスト (private-room host)｜The shop has private rooms, and you spend time there with the boy you chose
- 出張ホスト (outcall host)｜You choose a boy on a website and he is sent to your home or hotel. There are no premises
Why this site uses two categories
We group those three categories further into two: urisen bars and private room / outcall shops. In practice, the same shop often offers both private-room and outcall visits, and its price list shows them side by side as “using a private room” and “outcall”.
Urisen bars (3 shops)
You go in and drink. Boys' bars and hostess-club-style places fall here. You cannot visit a bar whose address is not public, so their location is always published.
Pricing is basically a cover charge plus a set price, with nomination fees and extensions on top. Among the shops we list, as far as we could confirm, cover charges ranged from ¥500–¥2,000 and set prices from ¥1,700–¥10,000 (set prices are per person). Some bars charge men and women a different cover.
Private room / outcall shops (53 shops)
You book, then meet up, or have someone come to your home or hotel. Among the Tokyo shops we list, these are by far the majority.
Because they work only by appointment and meeting up, it is normal for them not to publish a street address. Of the 89 shops we list, only 12 publish an address down to the street number. This is not secrecy; it follows from how the business works.
Pricing is by courses of a set length. The median 60-minute course is ¥15,000, ranging from ¥13,000 to ¥17,000 (calculated from the 45 shops that publish prices).
Not the same as a gay bar
Shinjuku Ni-chome has hundreds of gay bars, but these are simply places to drink and are outside the scope of this site. You pay for what you drink.
English-language guides sometimes introduce all of it together as “gay nightlife”, but the pricing and the way you use them are completely different. Mix them up and you end up somewhere you did not intend, or paying an amount you did not intend.
The way you pay is fundamentally different
This is the most practical difference.
- Gay bar｜You pay for what you drink. It depends on how much you order, not how long you stay
- Urisen bar｜Cover charge + set price. Stay longer and extra charges arise (we could confirm prices for 3 shops)
- Private room / outcall｜A course price by time, plus extensions, room fees and travel fees
With private room / outcall shops, the part people overlook is that last one, the add-ons. If you budget on the listed 60-minute price alone, the bill on the day will not match. How to work out the real amount, using each shop’s figures, is in urisen prices are not decided by the listed price.
Which to choose
It depends on what you want.
- You want to enjoy the atmosphere or conversation, or find it hard to go alone｜An urisen bar. There is a counter, so you are not suddenly one-on-one
- You want to spend time with a particular person｜Private room / outcall
- You do not want to be seen meeting someone｜Private room / outcall. Because you meet by arrangement, nobody sees you going in and out of a shop
- You want to fix your budget before deciding｜A shop that publishes its prices. 86 of the shops we list do
Frequently asked questions
Q.What is the difference between urisen and a gay bar?
A gay bar is a bar that serves drinks, and you pay for what you drink. Urisen is a service where you spend time with the person you choose, and you pay a course price by the hour. Even in the same area, the pricing and the way you use them are completely different.
Q.Are 「売り専」, 「ウリ専」 and 「ウリセン」 different things?
They are different spellings of the same word (urisen). Among the shops we list, kanji, katakana and mixed spellings are all in use. Whichever spelling you search for, the same kind of business comes up.
Q.Are boys' bars and urisen the same thing?
No. At a boys' bar you go in and drink; urisen (private room / outcall) means spending time with the person you choose. Some shops do run both, though. Of the 89 shops we list, 3 are bars you visit, 53 are meet-up / outcall shops, and 33 are gay massage shops.
Q.How are shops that call themselves “gay massage” different?
They put the massage up front, but there are real cases of the same shop calling itself both 「売り専」 (urisen) and 「ゲイマッサージ」 (gay massage). Do not judge the service by the name alone; check the course descriptions and the price list on the official site.
Q.Which should I choose?
If you want to enjoy conversation and atmosphere, a bar you visit suits you; if you want to spend time with a particular person, a private room / outcall shop does. The pricing works differently, so the way you budget changes too.
What to read next
- Price comparison｜60, 90 and 120 minutes and overnight for each shop, with extension, travel and room fees side by side
- Seven things to check to avoid price trouble｜ What to check before your first visit
- Overall shop ranking｜Rankings by type of business, scored from public information
The count of names is based on what each listed shop says on its official site. When the shop data is updated, the figures in this article update automatically. The three-way classification of business types follows the g-lad xx glossary.