GENERAL INFORMATION

What is there to say about Tokyo that most people don't already know? Maybe that Tokyo is not a single city, but rather, a metropolis, like London, and consists of 23 wards. Tokyo runs south into Yokohama, and merged together they make for the largest urban area in the world. It's a jungle alright. You will never walk down an empty street, and only the rich live in anything other than a shoebox. You might be saying, why bother? Well, Tokyo is the best place to seek out work in Japan. It also has the most varied nightlife. Well, if you're planning to move to Tokyo, you won't be alone, there are some 354,000 foreigners currently residing there, and frankly, you could live there and probably never run into a situation in which you can't avoid speaking Japanese. Likewise in most capital cities of the world, although Tokyo is in Japan, in many ways it is completely unique from other cities and towns around the country.

PLACES TO GO

EATING-OUT

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NIGHTLIFE

OYAFUKU-DORI -The good, the bad, and the plain fugly of the Tokyo clubbing scene. Points to consider: Genre and quality of music; atmosphere; prices; and of course, nampa-bility (did I just coin that?!)

So I'll start things off with my very limited knowledge of the scene. Feel free to disagree with or expand on these opinions.

Gas Panic - Gotta start with this one, as this is where most newbies will end up on their first time out. Now with 2 locations in Shibuya, one at the entrance of Center Gai, just past Starbucks, one on Dogenzaka a stone's throw away from hundreds of love hotels. I've never been to the Dogenzaka one, so no comment about that. GP Center Gai is a narrow, crowded, sweaty affair playing the most commercial R&B/Hip-Hop available. This place caters to the lowest common denominator, and you can tell by looking at the girls and the guys who patronize it. True, girls are often on the lookout for some gaijin action, but chances are, you won't be the first, and unless you are black or military, your chances will be severely reduced too. Also a pretty hight guy/girl ratio, most guys being gaijin to boot. The one plus point is that drinks are not too expensive; about 700 or 800 for a beer depending on the brand. Minus point on this side is that unless you have a drink in your hand, you will either be forced to get another or asked to leave. For this there is no cover charge.

Xanadu - Gas Panic for the man who thinks he's better than Gas Panic. A 1000 yen cover charge gets you 1 free drink, or 2 if you are a girl. All drinks 500 yen, bonus. Plus beer vending machines on the dance floor. A little more spacious than Gas Panic, the main dance floor is a no-holds-barred groping area with pretty much the same clientele as Gas Panic. Music covers a fairly broad range, from commercial house to commercial RnB to commercial rock. The emphasis being on commercial. A slightly better guy/girl ratio than GP in the times that I have been there, and a reasonable place to stop off and get a few cheap drinks before you head off to somewhere good.

Pure - Gas Panic for the alcoholic. Went to this place for the second time on Saturday. The floor was covered in spilled drinks, my shirt got filthy every time I touched the bar, and there was a huge fight involving 3 guys and a Japanese girl, resulting in tables being knocked over and glasses being smashed. My girl was pretty "kowaii" about the whole thing. This place is pretty dirty, but when you're paying 3000 yen (2500 for girls) for all-you can drink (of anything) in a club, what do you expect? That's a pretty dangerous proposition. Music is Pure-ly ( :blush ) RnB and Hip-Hop. But the crowd is not as Hip-Hop orientated as sometimes can be found in Gas Panic. Again, very high guy/girl ratio, about 90% G-guys too. If you go with a girl, she'll get nampa'd in about 5 seconds if you turn your back to get drinks/go to the bathroom etc. But don't worry - the guys in the place have such laughable technique that it's actually kind of funny to watch. On the other hand, this seems to be where the legendary "easy" Japanese girls hang out - so make sure you get there early cos by 3:00 everyone except the fugliest of fuglies has hooked up and is making out on the dance floor or on the fire escape outside. At which point you have no choice but just to gorge yourself on nomihoudai alcohol.

OK, that's the shittiest places covered. Sadly, those are the places I know best. So I'll be looking to other dudes to flesh out my comments on the next couple of places, as I've only been there once each and been pretty drunk each time too :)(kuroneko)

Pure - Ok so i knew what was coming,we paid the cover which wasn't cheap Y3000 although included a 2 hour nomihodai,

however when we got inside we were so shocked.This wasn't the normal pure gang, and (even though slightly intoxicated) I couldn't see any chicks below a 6 in sight. An achievement in itself for pure.

The music was on low, and lightswere on so people could actually get a good look at what they were attempting to nampa.

The selection of girls range from 18 upwards, I would also say it was 60/40 in the favour of guys, and chicks (as well as guys unfortunately) would just strike up a conversation. No effort needed.

The standard like i said was really high, got a few numbers went for a few beers after with a few of the chicks. One who is coming to my house tonight.:devil LZ did just as good.

Suprisingly recommenced, there were a variety of chicks. Sure alot of Eigo bandits too, but also alot of genuine girls that you would never usually meet in clubs and pubs. The place does what it says on the tin, and if you are looking to meet guy friends too it seems pretty sweet.(tokyochojin)

AND..

Club Asia - Getting into the area of more serious music now. This place is mainly orientated towards trance (and house?). The crowd are generally into the music and up for a dance. Considerably less gaijin here than in the places I mentioned before, and a much better guy/girl ratio too. Lots of groups or pairs of girls come here, and it's not overtly a "nampa box" so you don't get the hordes of predatory guys putting all the girls on the defensive. From my somewhat hazy memory, I think there are meant to be about 3 areas in this club, although I spent all my time on the same dance floor. It's not too small and not too crowded - also not as gyaru as people seem to assume. Charge is 3000 with 1 drink, and you have to spend 1000 a pop on drinks, which will get you two 500 yen tickets. Some drinks are 1 ticket, some are 2.

Simoon - The one time I went here, the music was excellent. Trance and progressive house going on on the main dance floor downstairs, with a more chilled area with plenty of seating on the first floor. The crowd were mostly Japanese and very friendly, with a good guy/girl ratio. I liked this club a lot because of the layout, the atmosphere and the people. Don't remember the prices of drinks I'm afraid, and I think the cover charge was about 3000, although I was guest list so I'm not 100% sure. But I would recommend this place.

Harlem - A more serious joint for the RnB/Hip-Hop enthusiast. Playing commercial and harder stuff. One thing that struck me about this place is, it's pretty damn dark inside. All the walls are black and I got the impression of dancing in a warehouse or something like that. On the other hand, it's pretty big, with one large dancefloor, and a chill-out area upstairs (which I failed to find due to drunkenness, so I can't comment on...). The crowd was mainly Japanese, decent guy/girl ratio, but of course leaning towards the Hip-Hop type. Managed to get three # closes in 1 night, so it can't be all bad. Again, 3000 yen cover, don't remember how many drinks that included or how much the drinks inside were, but I think it was reasonable as I drank a hell of a lot!!

That's about the end of my very limited knowledge of the Shibuya scene. Sorry about that. I was going to post something on Roppo-ngi, but I'm getting hungry and mildly bored now, plus who wants to go to Roppo-ngi anyway...(kuroneko)

Womb - Serious music club where all dancers face the DJ, some real big time DJs show up here. Mostly house, techno, dnb, with the odd hip-hop nights. Haven't had success nampaing here, but good music nonetheless.

Air - similar atmosphere and music to Womb, a little more casual, perhaps. Was the club featured in Lost in Translation.

Above two clubs charge 3-4000 yen cover w 1 drink and 700-1000yen per drink.

Module - this small dark (but kinda cool in a non-pretentious way) club is purely for dancing, and only for techno. When I went on an acid house night (yeah, acid, now), it was like a geek music club night with a 9:1 MF ratio (chicks were cute but came with guys..) 2-3000 yen cover 700-1000 yen drinks.(twist)

Vanilla - It's a frequent joint for YDs nights out. I think I've been there 3 times with various YDs groups. The damage is 3,000, although there is a reward for frequent attendance as they usually give a coupon for a few yen off your next visit.

There are 3 dance floors. Upstairs, a big one with totally cheesy trance (not the hard hitting stuff) and like disco remixes and shit. There are these boxes for the women who think they're hot shit to stand and sway back and forth on (I think they think they're dancing). Ignore them. Instead get on the dance floor early and go for the girls who are out there with their friends. Charm them with a few ballroom dancing moves and some deep booty grinding. Then when the sing-alongs come on suggest going out to the lounge area for some quiet conversation at one of the tables.

On the lower floor, there's a hiphop floor. The hiphop here is actually not bad if you just want to hear the latest popular shit (think lots and lots of Chingy). At least they don't break out the downright corny shit that Gaspanic occasionally does. Once again, I find the girls in this area much more approachable early in the evening.

Then there's this dark loud room that seems to be reserved for "I like it when my ears bleed" hard dance music. As one would expect, there are usually only a hadful of people in this room and they like to dance facing the DJ. A couple so much as facing each other on the dance floor here would be a bit out of place.

Now I've heard some comments from dudes about the place that the girls are hot here but stuck up or bitchy. I don't know how true or untrue that is, but it isn't a "gaijin place." The girl dancing next to you probably didn't come here specifically to find a piece of foreign cock and you may have to speak a bit of Japanese to her. But some of us like it that way. Overall I'd give Vanilla an 8 out of 10 as far as Japanese clubs go (which would make it maybe a 5 out of 10 for clubs overall). I recommend it above the other Roppongi trash unless you're really intent on getting the skanky one night stand that night. (And if so, more power to you)(the huntergatherer)

Club Atom - Massive Shibuya Girl alarm ! In summer, a lot of them come just in bikinis to dance , BUT they are also those mega tanned Shibuya Boys. A lot of them are models for magazines like 'Men's Egg'.

Prices for drinks are normal. When I was there, I had to pay 3000 Yen cover, incl. 2 drinks.

The two times I was there, I felt very uncomfortable. No gaijins and most of the girls ignore guys who are not like them. So, if you don't have a golden members card of your local tan-studio and no dyed hair, it's not worth to go there. Packed on a Sunday night. (Extraordinary Gentleman)

Ageha - People have made throwaway mentions of this club for a while now on this thread but no one has actually discussed it. I'll start off with Ageha's biggest drawback first: it's in Shin-Kiba. This can be reached by Yurakucho line until the Metro stops running, and afterwards by the wonderful and free Ageha shuttle bus, which runs from Shibuya every half hour or so throughout the night. But it's not the easiest place to get to, and once you're there, you're pretty much committed to spend the rest of the night there.

But this brings us to the plus points. There's no reason not to spend the rest of your night there. The club has roughly 5 areas: a large, dark, fairly bare room that is reminiscent of my school gym, where they play house and trance, and everybody has plenty of space to try their crazy moves. Just outside that, there is the main bar area, a very large bar where you can hang out, and where they also have a cabaret show (sorry LZ, they're not really strippers!!) at around 2am I think. The dancers don't show anything (apart from 1, who took off her bra), but they are hot and it was reasonably sexy.

Leading off of the main bar is an RnB room. Because it's RnB, I have spent very little time in this room, so I don't really know a lot about it. Other than that is was packed, hot and sweaty, with music that I could listen to anywhere in Shibuya.

Instead, let's head outside, where firstly, there is a very large chill-out are with lots of seating and plenty of food stalls as well. This is a pretty good area to get some casual conversations going. Some stairs up from this area take you to my favourite part of Ageha - The Water Bar. A small pool (in which no one seems to swim, although I believe it would be possible) is surrounded on all 4 sides by people dancing to reggae/dancehall. You can look out over Tokyo Bay (pretty sight that it is) and watch the sun rise as you dance early in the morning. The atmosphere is very chilled and while the music is average in my opinion (not a big reggae fan, and the DJ/MC won't shut the fuck up throughout his set so I can't even listen to the songs properly), there are a LOT of girls up in this area.

In terms of price, it's not that cheap. 3500 yen to get in (no drinks included), and drink prices are around the 800-1000 Yen mark. But you do get a lot for your cover as far as variety goes.

As for nampa-bility, I've always left with more numbers in my phone than when I arrived. Never got any action on the night itself, and there wasn't really a lot of that going on in general, but people, especially outside, are open to conversation and it seems fairly easy to pick up. There are some very hot girls here, and of course some very average ones. But the overall standard was good, and the guy/girl ratio seems to be a pretty good balance. It's not really a nampa atmosphere, so there is no heavy competition, as most people are just there to dance and have a good time, but the potential is there.

Definitely a recommended night out, although maybe more of a summer place as the Water Bar can't be that fun in winter. (kuroneko)

LOVE-HOTELS

BRIEF EXCURSIONS

EXTRAS

WHERE TO STAY

LINKS

Here is a nice list of clubs, including most of the above, with numbers and links to their pages (directions!)

Page Contributors - kuroneko, twist, the huntergatherer, Lemonzinger, Extraordinary Gentleman