Heavenly Roppongi

This is the title suggested by an American whom I met with in the Roppongi. There is a greater attraction for the foreigners in Roppongi out in Tokyo. Roppongi is a place falls near the Tokyo Tower; this place starts its activities in the Night rather in a day.

There are variety of Bars, Clubs, Shops and Cousins to choose from, unlike other Japanese establishment the Roppongi hosts every thing for a foreigner. Here the Japanese accept the culture of western region intact without any change, there is a pickup point where the mix of Japanese and Westerner happens. My visit to Roppongi was to investigate and experience some of the attractions, as described by many of those who have visited. I have landed to Roppongi from Daimon after office on a Thursday. There was a reason for choosing that day for visiting Roppongi. As I have told, there are many bars and clubs in Roppongi providing variety of entertainment activities from bars to strip bars. However I restricted myself only to visit a reputable dance club. My search ended in results saying “Gas Panic” a club with a decent dance floor in Roppongi. Many of those visited have given a positive ranking about that club. The Gas panic club celebrated gas panic day every week Thursday, hence on that particular day of week all the drinks served will be costing 400yen per consumption. Now you know why I have decided to go on this day, otherwise the club serves the drinks in the range of 500-1200yens.

Roppongi has a skyscraper building called Roppongi Hills; it’s a landmark for this area hosting many entertainment and office facilities. Since I visited this area after my office and in the evening I couldn’t carry my camera so have taken few tiny snaps using the camera in my mobile. While I landed in Roppongi and started walking on the pedestrian path towards left from the station searching for the Gas panic club, however it was too early to visit a dance club. I had reached about 7:20pm in the evening hence decided to walk around to see what Roppongi is. Immediately after few meters I have seen the Roppongi hills building and on the entrance a small building with information states that there is a Tokyo International Film Festival. I didn’t try getting on to the Roppongi hills because my priority was different on that day, however added it to my must see locations for future visits.

Then I almost crossed the entire area in a direction so, decided to walk back after reaching back to near the station, I asked a cop how to go to Gas panic he humbly showed me the path takes me to club. I have to “walk straight and take a right” that’s the instruction given to me. After noting the same into my cells of brain I have reached a corner that splits in all the directions with a traffic signal. That’s where the pickup point of Roppongi under the almond coffee shop in pink color. Near to the intersection you can see many people waiting with cigarettes, cell phones or some other stuff in their hands. I earlier was under an impression that this is where the foreigner come and wait for some Japanese to select them for company to get into the bar, but that was wrong as I have experienced to see that this is the place where friends meet before getting in to a Roppongi establishment. Unless other places in Tokyo Roppongi also a bit dangerous area to visit, due to the drunken fights on the road often. Also some of the bars in the area try to fool the customer by giving a overpriced bill, additionally to get customers they use some pretty girls to speak to them and make them like a friend then take them into the hunting net of these bars. However being read so many stories online I was bit careful in Roppongi.

I moved on to the right direction after carefully watching some of the happening in the pickup point, in a short walk I have reached the club where I was intend to visit, normally all of the clubs in the area works all night long. There are many of them are here in the roads, lanes and all the buildings. Some of the clubs are charging some money for entrance and some are not. While walking I found many of these bars post a staff on the road to bring the customer in, some times they follow talking to you even if you don’t like to. However the Gas panic doesn’t have an entrance fee but a condition is that, as soon as you enter in you need to buy at least a bottle of beer. The club had an electronic sign board on the road side with some gas reaction in the liquid sort decorated colorfully. And the club was in the 2nd floor but there was a broad step directly from the pedestrian path takes it to the club main door. While I try to open to the door for a second I got just scared because a person dressed in a black dress and with a skull mask on his face screamed to welcome me that was due to their Halloween celebrations. All the staffs inside the club dressed like a Ghost or Evil. I found the entire club had the theme Halloween.

I order the bar tender to offer me some of the available brands of rum, he said only Bacardi. In addition he said today all the drinks are only 400yens. I smiled and said ok let me start with a large. Initially he didn’t understand what is large, then I manage to explain him the measurement what is large quantity in the bars in India.

The club had not packed with people; in fact I was one of the 3-4 customers inside. Actually I have entered very early about 8:30pm. The DJ was playing some rock song and nothing seems to be boosting the 4 customers and we were just drinking our glass of liquor. The bar tender was so kind to volunteer to speak with me in English, also I found him very helpful on the discussions of Roppongi and other clubs in the area. At the end of our discussion he offered me a white paper and a pen to write my wish list of songs to play, I greatly accepted it and Wrote “It’s my life”, ”Who lets the dog out”, ” Rythm Divine”, ”Hotel California”, ”Shaggy” in the paper. The time moved except the Enrique and Eagles the DJ played my requests. The bar had some crowd to dance now, couple of glass of liquor already found its way to my stomach, however for each glass you need to pay immediately along with the order. The world was started rotating in the opposite direction, everything went like a hell and I enjoyed the show for some times, since the last subway train to my place is 00:00 hrs I decided to pack off by 11:30pm.

After I said bye to the staffs there, and stepped down on the roads of Roppongi with a non-steady movements. There was a black American interrupted my walk and said, “sir we are from Gentleman’s club lots of people are there waiting for you, it’s with full of fun I’m sure you gonna enjoy”. I replied him saying oh, my quota over sorry buddy and take care. My walk reached to the subway Toei Oedo line and got the train back to the apartment. I was now walking on the roads of Shin-Egota where my apartment is located, it was half clear sight to me my ears heard the sound of mobile ring, hands went inside the pocket to pickup the mobile, nothing were under control of my own brain everything was happening on its own and suddenly I returned to the normal life after hearing “Hey Siva, This is me, where are you?” [It was my wife from India]

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