ageHa
So, I was meant to go to ageHa last night. It’s the biggest nightclub in Tokyo but sometimes I wonder if Shin-Kiba really counts as Tokyo; it’s as close to Chiba as makes no difference.
Either way - Tokyo or Chiba prefecture - I travelled a fair distance to get there. And why? Because apparently some famous trance DJ that had performed at the Athens Olympics Opening Ceremony was going to be at ageHa. And a friend of a friend of my friend H had tickets.
I hate trance and I hate nightclubs even more. But it’s hard to say ‘no’ to H, so off I went, in my jeans and Harajuku shoes, to what I knew would be a crap night.
First though, to Ginza (my first time there. For shame Chidade, get out more, woman!), where we would meet said friends of friends for dinner and alcomahol. Too bad I’d already treated myself to Subway earlier. Which only left alcohol left to consume. I was the youngest of this group (23, when the average age is 31) so drinking Coke isn’t going to be cool enough. I really should learn to drink beer or wine, instead of all these weak ‘cocktail’ drinks, like Cassis Soda. Tasty, but girlie.
Not only was I the youngest there, I was the only gaijin. So most of the jokes were based on my lack of Japanese, and how I misunderstood their katakana pronunciation of ‘rock’ (rocku) to be the Japanese word for ’six’ (rokku). I suppose it’s their revenge for all those bitter and cynical gaijin teachers they had that would laugh in their faces when they made a mistake. I’m not one of those teachers but I know many of them.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: what ruins Japan the most are all the bloody foreigners.
Despite the jokes at my expense, they were nice enough and fun enough. We were joined later by other gaijin - a Mexican and two Americans, and we moved on to another izakaya in Shin-Kiba. More alcohol! And soon, that familiar shooting pain in my arms as the alcohol forces my veins open with a torrent of anti-coagulated plasma. It’s not unusual for me but it’s still unpleasant and it doesn’t quit for about 20 minutes. It was at that stage when we reached ageHa and the tin shed monstrosity and it’s inhabitants confronted me. At that stage I was thinking that maybe now was a good time to quit while I was ahead.
H was also the worse for wear since she had visited the dentist that day. So luckily she was quite up for excusing ourselves politely and heading home. Which we promptly did.
Haha, ageHa! Yes, you might have a swimming pool and a reggae room, but I can still manage to spend a year here without visiting you! Go to freakin’ Chiba for a nightclub? Not likely! That kind of travel is reserved for anime conventions!
Like the Tokyo Anime Fair this weekend, f’rinstance ^_^
