---
type: Video
title: "I Rented a Japanese Girlfriend in Tokyo 🇯🇵"
description: Harry tries Japan's rent-a-girlfriend service for a day in Tokyo — an animal café, a pet shop, wagyu sushi in Shinjuku, and batting cages.
tags: [japan, tokyo, dating-culture, food]
timestamp: 2026-07-12T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjsAG4cBTuU
video_id: cjsAG4cBTuU
upload_date: 2023-09-11
duration: 1102
---

# I Rented a Japanese Girlfriend in Tokyo 🇯🇵

Harry books a date through [Japan](/countries/japan.md)'s rent-a-girlfriend
service — a real industry he links to the country's loneliness epidemic — and
spends a day in [Tokyo](/places/tokyo.md) with Erie, an architecture student
who does the service as a side job. The Japanese-only booking site makes the
process a guessing game. Their day: a rabbit-and-mouse café (the owl and dog
cafés were fully booked), a train ride, browsing puppies at a pet shop, wagyu
sushi in a curtained-booth Shinjuku restaurant — where a second rental
girlfriend joins them — and batting cages, where Harry (a cricketer who has
never played baseball) manages a hit. She teaches him Japanese phrases; he
names her "Emily" at her request. Asked via Google Translate whether she'd do
a second date unpaid, she says yes. Total damage: around $400 — "the most
ridiculous expensive day I've ever had."

## Key moments

- [00:00] Booking on the Japanese-only rental site — profile quirks lost in
  translation, add-ons like hand-holding available.
- [01:33] Meeting at the train station; Harry notes most Japanese people wear
  masks because not doing so is seen as rude.
- [04:12] Owl and dog cafés both fully booked; they settle for a
  rabbit/mouse café — entry was about $20 (from video – unverified) for
  playing with the animals, no drink included.
- [07:00] Taking the train (cheaper than a taxi); Harry notes how well
  presented Japanese women are — makeup, jewellery, dress.
- [07:53] Pet-shop browsing — puppies including a hairless Sphynx-like cat;
  prices high (from video – unverified).
- [09:40] Wagyu sushi in Shinjuku, Harry's first time: curtained private
  booths are normal in Japan, and he rates it some of the best sushi he's
  had.
- [12:40] A second rental girlfriend joins the dinner.
- [14:43] Passing a protest with visibly more police than protesters —
  Harry's read on the Japanese state's tight control.
- [15:31] Batting cages (500 yen a go (from video – unverified)); Harry hits
  a "home run".
- [16:54] The Google Translate second-date question — she says yes, no
  payment; the day cost about $400 all in, "still cheaper than having an
  actual girlfriend".

## Extracted pages

- Place: [Tokyo](/places/tokyo.md)
- Country: [Japan](/countries/japan.md)