世界WORLD

It would be a long night, I'd miss the last train and intended to catch one of the first trains. To prep, I stopped for a Starbucks espresso fix (not that hard to find, even here) and filled up with a quick bowl of noodles. I arrived in the general area of Club World, but not knowing exactly which way to go, I must have looked a little confused, as a pair of Japanese girls helped me out. The Japanese are very willing to help, but tend to be shy, like I'll hear 'Hello!' from someone just as they walk by, and even after I respond, that's where the conversation starts and ends. In this case, the girls saw me, said hello, asked me where I was going, then walked with me there but did not stay.

Some friends already had tickets, but I wasn't planning on going, so I didn't. There was a big, long line and a few of us stood there before abandoning it to go have a drink. We'd get in anyway, we knew that, so no need to wait. After hanging out in a bar for a bit, we came back and went right in.

The place was packed. And it was a maze, 3 floors with interconnecting stairways, the lowest level being the dance floor and main performance area. Again, not having planned to go out, I had a jacket and bag with me, but Japanese clubs are good like that as they tend to have long banks of lockers to put stuff in for the night, which I did. Then down to the floor. Crazy. Insane. No room at all and an ocean of bodies moving to the lights and sound. My feet were crushed many times, and I can't imagine what it would have been like as a woman with open-toed shoes. A few trips to the bar, there goes my complimentary drink ticket, and the night went on and on. The floors were slippery with sweat and spilled drinks, but slowly the crowd thinned and slowly the space opened up. The many that remained simply crowded up closer to the stage and screen.

We left sometime after 5am and came out into the sunlight along with hundreds of Japanese clubbers all around.