Ageha = Bad; Mado-Lounge = Good

The past couple of days were busy with Mr. Pachinko in Tokyo for the weekend. On Friday we went to check out m-flo at Club Ageha, which boasts to be one of the biggest clubs in Tokyo. I was not a big fan of m-flo, but in lieu of this event, I "obtained" their latest album and was listening to it non-stop prior to the event so I would be somewhat familiar to what they were going to play. Since m-flo is a big act in Japan, they had advanced tickets for sale with a 500 yen discount compared to the door price, but unfortunately for us, I was too late to buy them. No matter, my perception, and I'm sure the rest of the world's view of advance tickets for a club was that it is just a marketing ploy to guarantee attendance by giving a discount price only. Well, I was wrong. Anyways, knowing that we did not have advance tickets, we went a half hour before the doors opened. This initially seemed to prove to be a good idea, because we were near front of the "non ticket holders" line. Well, we remained in the same position, by the time the doors opened, an hour after the doors opened, and eventually 3 hours after the doors opened. There must have been over 300 freezing and full price willing people waiting in this line, and yet it felt like we were all ignored as none of us without a ticket manged to get inside. This continued to occur even when the "advance ticket" line was completely empty. My body was frozen and my mind was shocked over the logistics of this club. Once 12am hit, Jody and I had to make a decision. The club was in an inconvenient part of Tokyo and we had to decide whether or not to continue to wait in line and risk not going in and then spend a fortune on a taxi ride home or leave immediately and be able to make the last train. We chose the latter after finding out that one of the security staff could not guarantee that any of us will be able to go inside the club. After our frustrations from what happened, we decided to call it a night and save our energy for the next night.

I'm happy to say that the next night was not a disappointment. We went to Mado-lounge at Roppongi Hills. This club was on the 52nd floor with a beautiful night view of Tokyo and Tokyo Tower. As an added bonus, two of the biggest hip-hop DJ's in Japan, DJ HaseB and DJ Kaori were scheduled to play that night. Having been burned the night before, we were a bit overly cautious and made sure to get in the club early. We got in with no problem and had a blast. The music was great and crowd, though a bit suspect in the beginning, was crazy especially when Kaori appeared. The only negative part of the night was going home in what felt like freezing rain. Regardless, the night was definitely worth it and I was very happy that everyone had a great time.

Later this week I'll be heading back to Yonago in Tottori-ken for the remainder of the holidays. I'll be meeting Jim, Akiko, and Jody again in our old hang out places. I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'll post the pictures of our time including some from Mado-lounge once I get them from Jody and his new camera.