Shinjuku Parties

Ah, so Golden week consisted of first, that trip to Tokyo City that I previously posted, on... and then 2 very interesting parties in Shinjuku.

I've told this story to several people w/ various info added in, but here's that night for the rest of you to read.

First party was an international one in a small bar. The premise was a meet and greet with free drinks. So you got to meet all sorts of people, most speaking English or Japanese in there. And you saw all the stereotypes too. The white guy trying to take a Japanese girl home. The Japanese girl trying to get a white guy to take her home. The super tall white guy who's swarmed by Japanese girls wanting him to teach them English. The old pervs who are there for drunk girls and free drinks.

But of course, there are normal people there too who are actually there b/c they want to meet international people.

Those are the ones I ended up talking to... after we got over the "no, I am not Japanese and I am not looking for an American white guy". Once they realize that's not why you are there, they approach you differently and suddenly, you're a tourist too looking for friends.

But the ones that stick in my mind as fun to talk to were all Japanese guys and all have previously been to America for schooling of some sort. So it was fun.

So I left that party with a guy named Nari and we hung out in a coffee shop for a couple of hours before meeting one of my new friends at the train station to head to another party.

Let me back up a bit.

That other new friend, her name is Kristen, although she calls herself Noroi. She's an English teacher and attempting to start up a career in alternative modeling (think as in... cyberpunk w/ costume makeup). I met her very randomly on a train bound for Atsugi. What happened was, we were in the same cart and the train stopped at Sagami-Ono and we were forced to get off. Neither of us knew what was going on, so figuring out we were both not Japan natives, we went off in search together as to what to do next. The train was just disconnecting some carts it seems and we had to move to a front one.

But story short, we talked a bit, then went to karaoke until 1:00AM at which time she invited me to a party in Shinjuku, telling me it was a harajuku-ish one. Lolita girls and stuff going to a party.

Sounded fun.

So let me explain something else. When she said Harajuku I figured happy-go-lucky wild people my age since I met those "Free hugs" people in who were wearing the outlandish fashions. And when she said Lolita, I figured, cutsey Japanese girls in gothic doll dresses just looking dark but are actually really sweet and love it when you take their picture. Not many are actually goth... they just look the part. Like porcelain dolls.

You'd get that idea too if you ever visit Harajuku. It's a very young place to hang out. And very varied. I love it.

So the party we went to was very much a goth party. A goth/cyberpunk/fetish party. And quite frankly, I was very uncomfortable at the strangeness of it all. Don't get me wrong, I like weird, but this was beyond anything I'm used to. Nudity on stage during a band performance and the feeling up of the nudity was something bizarre to me, if not artistic in the way the girl moved on stage. All the things that are associated with the eroticism of goth.

Good thing Nari was with me at the time. I'm glad he was open enough to go and venture out to this club w/ me. Without him, I'd have been stuck there until 7:00AM. And quite frankly, despite the oddity of it all, the music was much too loud for me. I couldn't go downstairs b/c it physically hurt from the strong bass.

The funny thing was the majority of the guests were foreigners. More than 50% I think.

We probably left after 2 hours of it and spent the rest of the night walking around Shinjuku and then hanging out at a McDonalds (the only cheap thing that was still open) until the trains started again (aroud 5:00AM).

I got home around 7:30AM

So that was my first all-nighter in Shinjuku. Fun right? Maybe I'll add pictures next time.