The name “Roppongi” itself is synonymous with partying. No matter what your thing is, it is a safe bet that there are more than a few places to cover your party urges in Roppongi. Roppongi is a suburb of Tokyo, accessed via subway or taxi from Tokyo station, during the day light hours it is indiscernible from any of the hundreds of other suburbs, but once the sun goes down this sleepy suburb comes alive. The main street lights up with thousands of billboards, advertising Roppongi’s many delights!

Once inside any one of the numerous clubs though, the place is a melting pot, Japanese and foreigners raving hard, looking for fun, looking for sex, looking to be seen. This place can get, “no holds barred”, as the Japanese club scene is highly unregulated and very, very liberal!

Another huge part of Japanese night life, that is predominantly for Japanese men, is the snack bar or hostess bar. These clubs are sit down bars, a table or seating charge applies. Once you are seated a girl or two depending on how busy the club is will sit at your table and entertain you. (that is not a cute way of saying they are hookers, they are not) usually the girls will compliment the customers, flirt, talk dirty and sing karaoke with the patrons. Hostess bars are not cheap, the girls salary depends greatly on the number of drinks they can get the customers to buy them per month. The girls will be cute, use guilt trips and even imply that you are cheap and not a real man if yo don’t freely offer to buy them drinks. The general atmosphere is very lively, many clubs have a show time or strip show at some point in the evening. Hostess bars have many themes, from playboy bunny suits to traditional Kimono styles, not all are Japanese either, there are a large array of eastern european hostess bars, which tend to cost a lot more, but offer a little more viewing pleasure for your yen. An hour spent at one of these clubs, depending on where you go, will set you back any where from 10,000-150,000yen.  These bars aren’t totally restricted to male clients, girls are welcome too, but if giggling with girls isn’t your thing then why not check out one of the many host bars on offer, exactly the same as a hostess bar, but full of metro-sexual and or gay men.

One of the things about going out in Tokyo is knowing where to go, many bars have a certain feel or atmosphere that draws a specific type of person, Gas Panic, for example is a large hip hop night club hat tends to draw the U.S marines and a lot of Japanese girls who love foreign men. Where as a spot like Wall Street Bar, is more of a crazy/ classy rave scene, attracting some wild girls and boys and a lot of Brazilians. (Personal aside, if you are in Tokyo visit Wall Street Bar, it is my favorite bar in the whole town).

Roppongi is a surreal place, on the street itself you will see so many fun and interesting characters, the atmosphere in Japan is very safe. Japanese people tend to be quite shy and reserved, but really let their hair down when the party is on. But as the earth rotates it’s way into a new day, and the business men and women emerge to scurry around on their various errands and tasks. As the booze, buzz and drugs begin to wear off. When all the party people have found their way off to one of the many love hotels(hotels design just for sex) or gone home to drink a bottle of water and prey that they make it to work in the morning. That is when Tokyo passes out, and takes its rest, to be ready for the night ahead, because in Roppongi every night is party night!