since i arrived in japan two months ago, i also tell my friends that one of my frustrations was not having a nightlife. most of the stores/malls in yokohama especially in the place where i lived, tsurumi, are already close by 8:00 pm... and the public transportation is only until eleven...likewise, tsurumi has no bars/disco where my generation could enjoy. yes, there were a lot of beer houses but most of the people who goes there were oldies, typiccal senior citizens who like drinking beer everyday and going home crawling because they were so drunk..
when i asked my friends where to have some good time and hang out, they said that the best place in town is roppongi... the entertainment center of japan which is located in tokyo. when i was about to leave for manila sometime in may, my friends promised me that we will go to roppongi to have fun and to celebrate one of my friend's birhtday... excited as i am, i really look forward to that they that we will go clubbing.. at last i will have a nightlife in japan!
so, the set date came and we were all dressed for partying... a few hours before leaving the office, i already felt the hestitation from my friends... while we were deciding to set our itinerary, that hesitation became very obvious. one, they are not into clubbing and dancing. two, eventhough they know how to get to roppongi they are not familiar to the good places there... whew!!! thus, we ended up having dinner in a somewhat isolated italian restaurant in aka rengga (red brick) 5 minutes away from our office...
i did not let them see my disappointment but inside i really felt sad because i have already set my mind that i will go to roppongi that day... if i would wait for the time for them to set another date in roppongi, i might be back in manila with no avail...
the friday after that, i decided that i will go to roppongi even by myself... i browsed the metropolis (tokyo magazine) to see what possible clubs i could look into... since i do not know how to get to roppongi, i sought the help of jorudan.net, an internet site where you could consult on possible trains to ride in going to your desired place and time... with enough information at hand, i got dressed and headed to the train station...
i chose the shortest train itinerary going to roppongi even if it would require me to take a different line...my travel seems longer but it was nice enough to know some new places near tsurumi... unfortunately, the train i hopped in stopped at shinagawa therefore, i still need to get off and take another train going to ebisu... from ebisu, i took the tokyo metro subway going to roppongi...
roppongi, here i come!!!! as i exited roppongi station, excitement and fear got into me at the same time... excited because at last i would have a nightlife...yehey!!! fear, because im clueless of the place... so, i tried to walk around and scout the place... one thing i noticed is that there are a lot of black people standing at the sidewalk and inviting customers to try their place... when i got tired of walking and still undecided where to go, i called von for help... he suggested a few nice bars and luckily, i was already in front of one of them..the bar's name is gaspanic... similar to some bars in malate and timog, gaspanic is a small place with a VIP corner, a long bar, and the dj's booth on the other corner... just enough for people to stand in and dance.. what's nice about the said bar is that it has no entrance fee unlike most of the bars in roppongi. likewise, you can enjoy a bottle of beer for as low as 600 yen... not bad. the best thing for me, there's a filipino working as one of the bartenders in gaspanic... yehey!!! his name is taro, half-filipino and half-japanese. when he saw me approached the bar, i already saw a nice smile form him and then he asked me if i am a filipina...with that, i already know that i am safe in the place.
since trains are only until eleven pm, i did not have any choice but to wait for the earliest train schedule the following day (5:00 am) otherwise, it would take me a fortune riding a taxi going to my place...
it was only eleven when i got inside the bar, but it was quite full already... and most of them were already dancing... i ordered a beer and tried to feel the place.. after a minutes, i stood in a corner and began dancing...i felt awkward at the start but that feeling faded as time passed by... i did not even realized that i was already having fun with some of them...that moment, differences in race, language, or work status, etc never materialized. people just danced and had their fun...
back in manila, i always try to reach home before the sun would show up no matter what... but since, im the land of the rising sun, it was already bright eventhough it was only 4:00 am... it may have ruined my principle but what the heck?! i had fun!!! at last, i had a nightlife!!!!
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