#haikureview: Clubbing in Tokyo
A night at Sound Museum Vision
I may be thirty now, but I knew I owed it to myself to partake in at least one night of late night club scene revelry while in Tokyo.
I had seen Tokyo as an early bedtime kinda town, with most parties ending at exactly 11:55 so everyone could scramble to cram themselves into the last train of the night. But, as I learned at Sound Museum Vision (aka VISION) last Saturday, the brave minority who stay out past the midnight hour really go hard to make it worth it. It’s like they’re all thinking,
“We’re gonna have to take cabs home anyway so it may as well be at 5am when we’re all so drunk and delirious that we don’t even remember our addresses. YOLO.”
I was nervous to go to VISION because the club has a top-notch reputation, the DJs are a huge crew of international phenoms, Soulection, and I had no arm candy. I mean, does a person go to a club by themself? Is that even legal in Japan? But due to a Twitter miracle one of the local promoters had added me to the guest list and it would be a disgrace to waste a free ticket to one of Tokyo’s hottest venues right? So I pencilled in an extra bold brow (#confidence) grabbed my typewriter, and set out.
I thought arriving just before 11 would be a bit late, and I would even run the risk of a huge line, but apparently all of the people who stay out past midnight don’t even emerge from their dens until 11:59 because the multi-room subterranean venue was almost worrisomely empty when I arrived. Alone. I knew I needed to make friends fast so I did the only thing I knew how to do: I found the first stylish person I could and said,
“Hey let me buy you a drink and oh by the way can I follow you around at a safe distance and just be your friend for the next couple hours?”
Turned out the gentleman was American military (so deeply disguised in a flat brimmed hipster bonnet and perfectly tailored jacket) and we became fast friends. He even had a Japanese friend, a spunky gal who had been studying in Scotland for years and had the most charming accent I have or will ever encounter.
Those two immediate connections set the tone for a rambunctious night of roaming from room to room, mashing around with the remarkably chilled out and very international crowd, and inevitably dancing ourselves into a frenzy for FIVE HOURS. The Filipino-American DJ I was there to see, MNDSGN, didn’t even start his set until 3am. I mean, really. But it was worth it even despite the at that point mind-boggling crush of kids — MNDSGN’s sounds combine funk and trip hop with a new-age twist and almost spiritual vibe unlike any DJ I’ve heard. I had been writing haiku for various strangers all night but didn’t get a chance to get MNDSGN the one I wrote for him — if you’re reading this, here is yours.
I wanted to stick around till the end but by 3:30am I was so exhausted that I drifted back out into the lonely streets of Shibuya. I was trying to convince myself that I could walk the 2.6 miles back to my Airbnb, but I finally gave in when a (very rare and precious!) lady taxi driver took pity on me and scooped me up.
Jamie, Karen, if you’re out there, I’m sorry I left without saying goodbye, I’ll love you forever.
Luckily I had planned in advance for ravenous hunger and came home to a delicious bag of seaweed encrusted potato chips. I highly recommend them as a nightcap for every late night in Tokyo, especially those nights/mornings at Sound Museum VISION.
Much love and dancing.
Next up: A very TOFU #haikureview
