Yes, the time to celebrate my Nativity has been and gone. I'm now 26 which, I feel, is better than being 25. 26 has a feeling of authentic, newly acquired life experience to it whilst still retaining all the advantages of remaining a young 'un. 25 was a bit of a no man's land; too young to know better, but not young enough to warrant being naive and wide-eyed all the time. So now I can look down on early 20s types and their puppy-like innocence, whilst still being able to pass myself off as one of them from time to time.
My birthday party was my first big night out in Tokyo, and what a night it was. We started by going to a very exclusive bar called Fereira, in Roppongi. So exclusive, in fact, that we were the only customers! I suppose the 3000￥ cover charge should have been a give away, but I didn't know any better and was just following the advice of my Japanese guides (very easy to do when you're not paying!). Since we wanted to go clubbing, the big sign hanging ominously over the entrance to the bar saying "NO DANCING" was not a good start. The fact that the bar staff outnumbered the customers (i.e. me and my friends) was also a little unnerving, as well as the undivided attention they gave us.
After drinking our two free cocktails with the entire place to ourselves, we decided to head to a different environ, and ended up in GasPanic, Fereira's nemesis. Waitresses dancing on the bar
surface, a thick fog of smoke, funky music; the party had finally started. We spent a couple of hours there, dancing a lot and mainly drinking "Banana fucks", whatever they may be. The atmosphere was great, although Roppongi's reputation as a bit of a seedy hangout was beginning to manifest itself. In Roppongi, the 「外人・がいじん・gai-jin・foreigners」 definitely came close to outnumbering the Japanese; all of them t
otally plastered and most of them chasing after the locals. Apparently if you want to pick up a girl without all the hassle of having to get to know them first, Roppongi's the place to go, hence the gaggles of Japanese girls dressed in little more than a sentiment and the equal number of American/British lads closely following, usually singing something about football.
The karaoke place was great. Moody lighting, a very comfortable room all to yourself, and an amazing selection of songs. They even had a decent selection of Motorhead songs, resulting in me giving an amazing rendition of Ace of Spades. I didn't know I could sound that much like Lemmy if I wanted to. Maybe it was my moustache that helped me. We all had an amazing time unwinding from the packed mayhem of GasPanic and the streets of Roppongi.
After it hit 5am most of the flatmates went back, but I stayed out to eat some ramen in a noodle bar so that I could sit and watch Roppongi recover from itself and peer at some of the Japanese clubbers around me, dressed like true fashionistas (how some of them manage to look so cool I'll never know!). Then it was off home.
Exclusive bar, clubs, karaoke, noodles. A perfect night out :)
My birthday party was my first big night out in Tokyo, and what a night it was. We started by going to a very exclusive bar called Fereira, in Roppongi. So exclusive, in fact, that we were the only customers! I suppose the 3000￥ cover charge should have been a give away, but I didn't know any better and was just following the advice of my Japanese guides (very easy to do when you're not paying!). Since we wanted to go clubbing, the big sign hanging ominously over the entrance to the bar saying "NO DANCING" was not a good start. The fact that the bar staff outnumbered the customers (i.e. me and my friends) was also a little unnerving, as well as the undivided attention they gave us. PANIC ATTACK
After drinking our two free cocktails with the entire place to ourselves, we decided to head to a different environ, and ended up in GasPanic, Fereira's nemesis. Waitresses dancing on the bar
surface, a thick fog of smoke, funky music; the party had finally started. We spent a couple of hours there, dancing a lot and mainly drinking "Banana fucks", whatever they may be. The atmosphere was great, although Roppongi's reputation as a bit of a seedy hangout was beginning to manifest itself. In Roppongi, the 「外人・がいじん・gai-jin・foreigners」 definitely came close to outnumbering the Japanese; all of them t
otally plastered and most of them chasing after the locals. Apparently if you want to pick up a girl without all the hassle of having to get to know them first, Roppongi's the place to go, hence the gaggles of Japanese girls dressed in little more than a sentiment and the equal number of American/British lads closely following, usually singing something about football.As well as the mating calls of the nocturnal, migratory inhabitants of Roppongi, an equal amount of chatter is generated by the door staff working the night clubs and the more than abundant strip joints that run down the main road. Along with these are those running the massage parlours, which I'm pretty sure don't actually offer massages. Fortunately we were in a good-sized group, but I can well imagine that if you were by yourself or just with your girlfriend, that this place would be quite hellish. The door staff (all of whom are, without exception, Nigerian, for reasons I don't understand at all) can be very persistent to the point where you can feel very uncomfortable, even threatened.
Whilst we're opening up the underbelly of Japan's clubbing centre, I would suggest if you wa
nt to go to Roppongi that you go as a group. If you want to go somewhere with your lady friend, then find somewhere else. Clubbing with my flatmates, the sheer number of times I had to step in to separate them from a be-suited Japanese salary-man quite excessively groping them in rather inappropriate places... well it was a lot. Observing the crowd around me, it was quite clear that these guys would pay no attention to the fact that two people were obviously a couple. In they would go and grope nonetheless. So for clubbing, yes, I'm sure Roppongi might tick your boxes a couple of times, though even with a group I can imagine having to run the aggressive door man hurdles, and shield the female members of your group from the hands of rich businessmen might grow a little tiresome very quickly.
nt to go to Roppongi that you go as a group. If you want to go somewhere with your lady friend, then find somewhere else. Clubbing with my flatmates, the sheer number of times I had to step in to separate them from a be-suited Japanese salary-man quite excessively groping them in rather inappropriate places... well it was a lot. Observing the crowd around me, it was quite clear that these guys would pay no attention to the fact that two people were obviously a couple. In they would go and grope nonetheless. So for clubbing, yes, I'm sure Roppongi might tick your boxes a couple of times, though even with a group I can imagine having to run the aggressive door man hurdles, and shield the female members of your group from the hands of rich businessmen might grow a little tiresome very quickly.Ahem... anyway. MY night out was great. We finished dancing our socks off in GasPanic, and, with many Banana Fucks down our gullet, made our way to Karaoke. This wasn't so much out of choice (although it did end up being the perfect way to the end the evening) as it was due to the fact that the last trains in Tokyo are around 12am. Add to this the facts that Roppongi isn't particularly close to anywhere and taxis are very expensive, if you're out clubbing past 11:45pm, you're pretty much stranded until the trains start again at 5am. So off we went to Karaoke.
The karaoke place was great. Moody lighting, a very comfortable room all to yourself, and an amazing selection of songs. They even had a decent selection of Motorhead songs, resulting in me giving an amazing rendition of Ace of Spades. I didn't know I could sound that much like Lemmy if I wanted to. Maybe it was my moustache that helped me. We all had an amazing time unwinding from the packed mayhem of GasPanic and the streets of Roppongi.
After it hit 5am most of the flatmates went back, but I stayed out to eat some ramen in a noodle bar so that I could sit and watch Roppongi recover from itself and peer at some of the Japanese clubbers around me, dressed like true fashionistas (how some of them manage to look so cool I'll never know!). Then it was off home.Exclusive bar, clubs, karaoke, noodles. A perfect night out :)
じゃ、またね！See you later!
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