This was the inevitable entry in this blog, the one in which I talk about the Japanese enjoy their nights. Basically, the obligatory "party" entry. Being a large city, Tokyo has plenty of places to go to at night to drink, dance, club or wander. That is one of the perks of living here, however most of my experiences in nighttime Tokyo are centralized around two areas: Shibuya and Roppongi. And sadly, it has been the latter more than the former.
There is a large market for social gathering of the party variety in Japan. Walk around Shibuya long enough, you will see a number of clubs and bars with "love hotels" conveniently placed about a block away. Trust the excellent urban planning of Japan to develop that not so subtle suggestion. Also, Shibuya has some awesome names such as "The Red Room" and "The Womb." However, I am a college student on a budget and Shibuya is expensive, so I have been limited to Roppongi.
My fellow students and the staff at TUJ have warned many incoming study abroad students to avoid Roppongi as much as possible. This is primarily because Roppongi is notorious for bad things happening to foreigners, such as stolen property, spiked drinks, and other questionable criminal activities. However, despite all the warnings, Roppongi is still the go to party place to spend a Friday or Saturday night because of the sheer abundance of affordable places to spend your night.
To this day, I have went to Roppongi four times, which is about three times more than I intended. Roppongi is a hot spot with a very lively night life with locals and foreigners congesting the streets with aspirations of drinking and dancing. Sadly, I have no photographic evidence of this but that's because I don't trust Roppongi with my phone or my camera. Or my credit card. Or more than 5000 yen in my wallet. Okay, so I just don't trust Roppongi at all.
To be fair, Roppongi is vastly different than I expected. It's more popular and less "sketchy"with many more Japanese out and about. I was anticipating nothing but foreigners around my age who wanted to get completely drunk in Tokyo just to say they did. Well, apparently the Japanese like to party just as much as we do.
The Japanese tradition of partying is a bit different than the American way. Our parties build up slowly, hit a few peaks, and gradually clam down. The Japanese have a toast or a "kanpai!" an BAM! They party. It's a like a button they turn on and go crazy. And then just as quickly, the party can end when they need to catch the train home. That could be the last train at 12:30(ish) or the first train at 5am.
My first venture to Roppongi was, as briefly alluded to before, supposed to be my last. Going to a club called "Jumanji" for an affordable 2000 yen (a bit more than 20 dollars) for all you drink for four hours, the brief excursion was fun. You drink a few drinks, attempt to dance and chill out. No harm done. I even made a Japanese friend. As far as I am concerned, it was worth it.
And then I was invited to another trip to Roppongi. This time for a "Tokyo Pub/Bar Crawl." Run by one of my dormmates' bosses (he is working as an intern), this is basically a deal to check out about 4 bars/clubs for a flat fee which allows you to get into the place without paying its service/entrance charge and a "free" shot (you are paying the Pub Crawl people so it's more or less included). I was 50/50 on doing the whole bar crawl thing, but I was convinced by the irresistible charm of my friends. The crawl was pretty fun even though we were late, so we only got to go to 3 of the 4 bars/clubs. I only remember the name of two: Propaganda and Wall Street. I just love the Japanese names for things, even though I am pretty convinced both of those two are run by Americans. Oh well. Still cool names.
Oh, I also went to Roppongi for Halloween, dressed in a makeshift Mario costume much to the amusement of every Japanese person in the area. That was priceless, especially since I had a Luigi with me. I must have taken at least 10 pictures for Japanese people because they loved the dumb American in a Mario hat. It made my day worth it.
Nothing much to say here. Stay tuned for my blog on my trip to Odaiba, which will hopefully be written this weekend. Also, my thoughts go to all those who are experiencing problems with the fallout from Hurricane Sandy. I hope all those affected by it will preserve. We can do it New Jersey. We've had worse.
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