Osaka! Trance Party!
Last night I went to Zepp, an enormous dance club in Osaka with my friend Shun. It was a wild night, my ears are still ringing but after seven hours of dancing and getting home at 9:30 this morning, I amazingly feel pretty good. I'll start my story at the train station. I met Shun in Himeji, and we caught a late train to Osaka. This is where things get tricky. To get to the club, we changed trains three times throughout Osaka. Eventually we left the station on what might have been a manmade island, I really have no idea where we were. Anyway, we left the station and the streets are still. No one is around. We're in a new town, no old buildings, no trash on the streets. The sidewalks are new bricks and the roads are wide. A few tall skyscrapers and expensive apartment buildings break up the landscape of empty lots awaiting development and new streetlights hang out over the deserted streets. We follow signs, written on computer paper and taped to walls for the club. Soon through the darkness I can discern a faint pulse of bass creeping through the night and penetrating the stillness.
As we get closer I see the building, it's an enormous warehouse style building with a red neon Z emblazoned on it's side. We pay the (extravagent) entrance fee and head in. The entrance feels like we're walking into a sports stadium, there's a drinks counter (bar) and a small table selling fried chicken and ice cream. Moving past that, we go through some large black doors and enter the heart of the club. The first thing that occurs to me is that I feel like I'm at Universal Studeos. There are several tiers of floor space. It's slightly terraced going down to the main dance floor and each level is divided by a large hand rail. Maybe 200 people are spread out across the floor already, but the space is so big it feels empty. Up front there's a stage, with maybe ten hexagonal screens projecting out above the DJ booth and kind of Mind's Eye computer graphics swirl. The whole effect makes the DJ booth seem like a bizarre neon altar. The dancers all stand facing forward, no one dances together, as people dance by themselves en masse. I feel like I'm in the Thriller video with techno zombies. Shun and I have a few drinks (is this a gin tonic or just a ginger ale? I think the latter) and hit the floor. As the night gets later, people appear out of nowhere.
I'm entranced by the Japanese girls fashion and the boys' hairstyles. Nowhere in the world do men have better hair than in Japan. The girls all wear tall boots, short tight skirts, long dangly necklaces and have enormous hair. Oh, and everyone is in black or gray with a touch of white. It wasn't until about 4 am that I saw another foreigner in the club, a guy from Canada that let me go ahead of him to get a bottle of water. I head back to the dance floor, Shun tells me that the DJ is really famous, "Chianti", one of the 5 DJ's playing that night from Israel. The floor is packed, which is amazing to me considering the size of the club. It's also littered with bottles which were once filled with sports drinks and oolong tea. Everywhere I move there's a new smell. Men's cologne, girls perfume. Cigarrettes and marijuana. I'm having a great time, I lose myself in the music. I'm smiling as I dance. I look around, the people having the best times are those like me, just there to dance. I make eye contact with lots of cute boys. Man, are there lots of them! The Japanese girls I make eye contact with smile at me, amused to see a foreigner in their midst. I don't feel like I stand out too much. Well, yes, I stand out immensely, but I don't feel out of place. I'm very glad that I wore sneakers to dance in and not boots like all the other girls there though.
I go back in the hallway to use the bathroom and I realize how seedy this place really is. Many of the girls have tatooes showing on their shoulders, I notice one of an angel weeping. The men too. Normally tatooes in Japan are a symbol of the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia, so I try not to stare at them too long. Girls in too much makeup and too little clothes slouch against the wall, exhausted or depressed. Maybe lonely. I head to the bathroom and find men coming in and out. Huh. Then I see couples going into the stalls together. Sometimes two girls, sometimes two girls and a guy. Sometimes two guys and a girl. Uh huh. I leave the bathroom and look for a less popular toilet to use.
Shun and I keep dancing until five. We both feel exhausted as we get our jackets out of the lockers and leave the club. On the train back to Himeji we sleep, surrounded by businessmen in their suits and old ladies in woolly hats. Staring out the window, an elderly lady stares at me as she puts on her gloves and waits for the next train. I smile at her, she smiles back at me, a genuine smile. I close my eyes and wake up at 9 in Himeji. Shun and I get a bowl of Donburi, rice covered with stuff. Today's "stuff" is a Chinese- inspired mix of cabage and seafood. A little bit mushu-style. We wash it down with a cup of miso soup and a plate of tsukemono- pickled things. I say goodbye to Shun and head back to my apartment, crash in bed, and wake up four hours later. And that's the end of my Osaka story.
What a great night. It's New Year's Eve, I don't feel like going clubbing with everyone. I think I'll bike to Mt. Shosha, climb the mountain and pray at the Buddhist temple at the top.
I hope all of you have a wonderful evening tonight, the last of 2006!
Happy New Year Everyone!
posted by aburke @ 4:30 PM
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