This was last winter (2010).
It was really cold, and my lovely editor at Asahi Weekly, arranged for me to get a little waitress-training for my column, Jamie on the Go. The idea was that I would learn the basics to waitressing at Hooters, and report on what it was like being ogled at while juggling burgers to work as a sexy-waitress. Plus (little-known fact), we all wanted to try out the restaurant!
Before I start, here is their homepage: http://www.hooters.co.jp/
It includes directions and a map, and yes, I recommend going, no matter what I might say here! 
Um, so, I think that I was a waitress for about an hour. Maybe. It was a lot, lot harder than I thought it would be! Then, I joined my editor(s! This was apparently a story of interest, so we were not alone :3), and ate hot wings and tried to look anonymous. Which is hard enough given how I look. 6 feet tall, white, and oh yeah.. a woman, I sorta kinda stand out in Tokyo. Just a little. It really sucks at those times when you just want to disappear, y’know? ^^;
So, let me take you on a photo tour and story.
By the way, These pictures are all copyright Yoko Morihiro and Asahi Weekly. They’re also a year old, and are left over from the article. I thought it would be a shame if they never saw the light of day!
It was a fateful day. Cold as heck. (′▽`)ﾉ
I took off my jacket for about 30 seconds to take this photo. This was during my I will look cute in froofy miniskirts! phase. (Currently I’m migrating back into my classic-is-best phase.)
I didn’t eat all day, because I was afraid I would look fat in the pictures. Luckily, I’d end up getting free food at the end of the day, because I was famished! I was too nervous to eat beforehand, anyways.
There are no pictures behind-the-scenes, but basically..
We were introduced to the manager. Basically, the manager is a “guy who looks like he would be a manager at Hooters.” You may derive what you will. We never spoke after that day, but he was very businesslike with me. Points for him
I was led into the employee area in the back of the restaurant, and he helped me pick out the right size uniform for me. UM. You’ve seen the TINYTINYTINY uniforms they wear at Hooters, right?
I’m all for Women’s Lib, but they might be liberating a bit too much, if you know what I mean. However, taste and mileage will vary. I like to eat, so it was a one-time experience. :3
Anyways, it turns out that, contrary to my belief and desire to cover certain parts of my body in public, I wear a Hooters Uniform size Extra-Small. Who knew?! I still wear a large in some clothing lines! Not because I’m overweight, obviously, but just because my body is.. large. ^^;
Uniform in hand, I went to change. I had been told to wear a flesh-colored bra, so I’d bought the most padded one I could find, and inserted rolled-up socks in it. That’s why I have cleavage in these pictures! I still wear that bra when I want to feel like I have boobs. It makes me feel sorta kinda sexy. As sexy as one can feel in a really plain flesh-colored bra, anyways. :3
There was a slight mishap with the shoes. I will talk about this another time, but let’s just say that I know what it’s like to wear size 9 shoes when you should be wearing a ten.
This is how I looked! Thank goodness for the (tiny) apron, to help hide! Just a little bit, but every little bit helps!
Loading ...This is me and the head waitress. She’s a lifer, and SOSOSO nice! She not only showed me the ropes, but she also taught me about the sense of camaraderie and friendship the girls have there. Bonding over skimpy uniforms FTW. Actually, I think the uniforms are kinda cute. If tight and uncomfortable.
That is.. they’re cute as long as I don’t have to wear them all the time! I thought about stealing one for halloween, but stealing is bad. :3 And Halloween is cold.
I learned how to send off an order to the kitchen.
There it goes!
Ta-dah! No slippage!
Then I learned a dance! When THE SONG comes on, all of the waitresses dance to it.
I has rhythm, yes I do..
A little early to celebrate, but why not! I messed up the song every time. I was just too nervous. Plus, I can’t dance. A fact I will have to remedy one day. Does anyone here dance? What dance will you do? Will you teach me?
One of these things is bigger than the others.
I can’t believe that I thought I was doing the toe-thing right! Hindsight is 20/20, ne.. ^^;
My head is small, isn’t it?
Loading ...That is what I took from that photo. ^^;
So, that was my experience working at Hooters in Tokyo. I was only there for about an hour, and the first half of that was getting dressed. The only people that I actually served were my editors, but it was still interesting!
And boy, my feet hurt! But overall, I mostly came away with the impression that waitressing is a really hard profession. It seems like it would be really tiring. While I would be okay doing it for an hour or even a day or so, I don’t think that I’d ever want to do it for a long time. Kudos to you, waitresses of the world! I’ll remember to thank you, and understand when my food is late. ^o^;
Do I want to go back to Hooters? Why yes, definitely! But this time as a paying customer! 
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Don’t know why you’re so self conscious about being tall. I love being tall, and I think tall women are great. I think it’s amazing I ended up marrying a Japanese because she isn’t tall, but I guess the truth is I married her for her soul not her legs. Cheers!
Mmm.. I guess because there’s a social stigma against girls being taller than their boyfriends/husbands. I’m quite taller than mine and when I look in the mirror, I feel self-conscious. There’s also the protective-thing. I’m always taller and bigger than everyone, not tiny and cute, so I don’t know what it feels like to have a guy want to protect me. It’s hard always being strong, and never getting a chance to just let someone take the reins for a while. -_-; Also, as a shy girl, I can’t ever just blend in, no matter what I do. I always have to be “on” because people will look at me, and it gets pretty tiring. There are a lot of times I’d like to be just “one of the crowd” like everyone else.
Also, because I’m tall it means that a lot of clothes don’t fit right or a lot of fashions don’t look right on me. I look ridiculous dressed as a goth-loli, let me tell you!
You looked more like a European fashion model than a Hooters girl. Are you sure your editor wasn’t just trying to get photos of you in tiny shorts?
I think he just might have XDXD
You looked awesome! I hope it was fun! I teach/help teach self defense classes made just for women and a lot of them in this area work at Hooters or similar styled restaurants. After talking with them it is amazing what working in such a place is like. @_@ Self defense is a must! Haha… But they are awesome people.
And food service is a beast all its own. Haha.. but it is still fun!
Also! I can teach you a zumba dance? XD;;;
Aww, thank you Frufru! *^-^*
LOL, really? Do you remember any of the stories that they told you?
Oh, I’ve heard of Zumba! Is it fun?
holy shit girl, but you are gorgeous! so skinny and you look like a model! don’t wanna hear you bitch about your body ever again! >_<
looks like you had fun though, and it's definitely making me wanna go and check it out just for kicks. also, we don't have hooters in Canada (or at least, the part where i'm from) so i've never been there before!
LOL, remember that I didn’t eat for a whole day too.. if that helps ^o^;
You should give it a try! They especially seem to get a lot of female groups, which was a big surprise for me! That, and families!
a very stupid P.S : the girls in the pics with you, especialy the one in black, don’t seem Japanese. for some reason I feel as if they’re Thai or something akin.
pointless , I know, but it was racking at my brains :p
LOL, it’s very possible that they are. ^^
you look good in that uniform. you wouldn’t catch me dead in sexy clothes like that. I’m waaaaay to self concious of my body.
I haven’t worked as a waitress, but I did do training at KFC ; I quit after 3 days and not because of the long hours of staying on my feet or the heath in there but because they kept telling me to smile. now, I know how important it is to serve the customer with a smile on your face, but our trainer insisted on us smiling even when there weren’t any customers. she was shorter than me and she would come behind me and suddenly I’d hear this whisper “smile” . it may sound crazy to others but it felt like a nightmare to me. I felt stupid smiling at no one in particular. I mean there were times when there were no people at the register. smile at what for crying out loud? not to mention that smiling non stop for 8-9 hours a day gives you muscle cramps in your cheeks. at least that’s what happened to me.
Like I said, I didn’t eat for a whole day because I was really self-conscious too ^^; I don’t look like that every day!
Wow, that sounds awful!! I know smiling in front of customers is necessary, but when they’re not there? That’s ridiculous!
when i was in high school I didn’t know anything about hooters. so one day my friend (who eats there sometimes) got me a t shirt. she didn’t tell me exactly what the place was, so i thought it was innocent enough to wear in gym class. Every one was staring at me like I had dog do do on my head! i felt so uncomfortable. by the end of the class one guy came up to ask me “so, i have this coupon right, and I’m wondering if I could get extra wings with it?”. I had no idea what he was talking about! plus he kept on staring down at my shirt… uhhhh… yeah… right after that my friend told him that i didn’t work there. yeah, i never accepted anything from her again.
it looked like you had a lot of fun Jamie! besides be self conscious over your height, which i think is a blessing! Seriously! You look like a model (so thing, in a good way) and the face to match! and btw your head isn’t small ^_^
LOL!!! That’s the best story!! I wouldn’t trust that friend’s gifts anymore, LOL.
It kind of reminds me of a girl that I knew in college. She wore a tank top all summer one year, with the Girls Gone Wild logo on it. She also was a size zero with an F-cup, and her parents were supposedly some kind of doctors. So I always wondered. But maybe, just maybe, a friend had given her that shirt. The worst friend in the world, but still!
The girl in sweatpants is lucky. The short shorts look like something I use to wear when I took Jazz dance in Jr. High. I’ve never had a desire to eat at Hooters. I seriously doubt there is anything there I could eat.
It’s too bad the last question isn’t ticky boxed. In college, I worked for CDS and Campus Catering, so I’ve worked as a waitress for catering and worked a waffle iron preparing food stuffs. Overall, the catering job was a lot more fun and involved more group bonding. Actual waitressing is very very hard, my sister has been doing it for years.
Yes, she was definitely the lucky one that day! I was freezing that day– those poor girls were such great sports! Not a single one of them complained.
I don’t think you could eat anything there, yeah, unfortunately. ;_; But then again, I just like it because I love looking at sexy girls
The food isn’t really my thing– too many calories and too much oil involved. I’ll stick to a slightly healthier diet :3
I should have made it ticky-boxed, I’m sorry! ^^; I wasn’t thinking, and it was really late.. I wonder if I can fix it now.
Yeah, I can only imagine working as a waitress every day. It must be exhausting. I worked in retail for a long time, and then teaching was really active too, but I think waitressing is probably much harder.
wow… you are sooooo slim. and your legs are twice or 3 times longer than mine… *_*
i know it may be troublesome to be tall in Japan, but long legs are long legs. you have to be born with them. you can’t do them longer than they are! *_*
You’re totally right, Jenya. (Well, there is some surgery that can lengthen legs, but that’s pretty drastic!)
When I think about how much I hate being tall, I try to think about what you and others have said to me about long legs, and it makes me feel like I have a little bit more confidence. I’ll try to love them a little bit more!
Though really, I just wish that I was short and cute like you… you’re so much cuter than me! I can never be a tiny and cute girl like everyone else..