I still have yet to go to a club in the states. In SoCal if I drink alcohol then I’m at a house party and its generally vodka, malibu, jager and various fruit juices. Usually, I don’t drink those all at once (except on special occasions). I’m fortunate (or unfortunate depending on how you see it) to have a very high tolerance for alcohol (similar to a horse if a horse were to drink I imagine), since I have a lot of Scots-Irish in me. And German. Over the past 8 months it has at times been a blessing from the heavens, and at other times a terrible, terrible curse.
The very first club I went to was in Tokyo. I’d heard about it from a guy friend at the dorm I was living in at the time. Imagine around 60 people of various heritage, age, gender and temperament sharing one kitchen and 8 showers. Yeah. It wasn’t the greatest time of my life. He wasn’t the clubbing type by any means, but said that this one was pretty cool. Its called Club Atom. He said it was four or five floors of awesome in Shibuya. Smoke machines, different themes and music genres on each floor.... and lasers.
I bugged various friends at the time to go with me, but everyone complained about a lack of money. Understandable. But I still secretly hated them for it. My friend Kelly** said she wanted to go, and was willing to spend the 4000 yen (around $43) to get in. This was back in late September, and I can’t quite remember exactly how we found the place, because I was born missing whatever internal compass most people seem to have and have been known to get lost when following a GPS. Its tragic. Turns out, if you go before midnight, its only 1000 yen and you get two free drink tickets.
There are two things that really stand out about my first clubbing experience even now. Within ten minutes, she and I each had a gyaruo boy (google the style, its epic) and within the half hour we were dancing/making out with them. We also came to realize it was only 3 floors of awesome. I’m pretty sure various other crazy hijinks happened, but my next memory is of us overlooking Shibuya Crossing from the 2nd story of Starbucks, frazzled and looking a hot mess, in utter shock and confusion of what we’d just witnessed/done. I was also in shock that I had danced. I don’t dance. Ever. At my senior prom I did that retarded dance teenage girls do where they hold hands and move them around in the air. But when I saw that 1/3 of the people were just bobbing their heads, and the majority were way worse than I feel I ever could be, I felt a bit of a confidence boost and just did it. Nothing crazy, but now I really enjoy being able to dance off at least some of the carbs from all that booze.
I’ve been to Club Atom faaaar too many times to count since then. I once went four days in a row. And that isn’t bragging, its more of a shameful admission. I’ve tried a few other clubs, but nothing is quite like that club. Its probably because it seems to be where all the gyaruo and host boys go in Shibuya, and they just tend to get crazy when they get alochol. Meat markets make the best clubs, really.
Kelly and I were partners in..uh....clubbing clear up until the end of the semester in December. I went with other friends, too, and sometimes even in a group, but she and I were a near constant when it came to that club. At that point I had long red hair, and she had blond hair, and together we just seemed to be a good mix for getting Japanese guys to talk to us. I was more edgy, she was more cute. Yin and yang...kinda.
So, that was my first real “night life” experience. I remember thinking it was one of the best nights I’d ever had because it was just so random and weird and fun, but I had 7 more months to realize I hadn’t seen anything yet...
Because when it comes to Tokyo, it seems that just when you think you can’t be surprised by anything, an old man dressed in a lolita dress walks by you giggling with a teenage girl in the same dress in Harajuku while you eat your crepe and try to ignore the man doing the robot in a pink spandex body suit.
<3 WrittenAnon
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