I've only played Sengoku but I'm gonna try to play them chronologically when I get the chance. I just thought Rance would be a good analogy for this forum in reference to Sengoku, for obvious reasons.
My HelloTalk era basically ended when I had enough connections that I didn't feel the need to check the app very much. I was meeting with a few girls I met on the app as well as some I had met in the nightlife in Shibuya. I was living in Shibuya at the time. I made friends with some club promoters and just started cruising on the relationships I made that way.
There are essentially four major hubs of nightlife in Tokyo:
- Shibuya: the loudest and most flagrant hub of partying. It's the tourist attraction. You'll find the largest nightclubs, music, dancing, and international bars here. A typical night would begin at HUB (a British-themed pub chain), Tasuichi (a densely-packed foreigner bar)... or several others. From there you could go to one of the 10-12 nightclubs to make friends and hook up. The nightclub comparison is an entire post unto itself.
Shibuya is the place to go for beginners. While it's the highest energy of the Tokyo locations, it's also the cleanest, safest, and most straight laced. It does what it says on the tin. It has the youngest clientele consisting of mostly 18-24 year old university students, young workers, and a fuck ton of tourists. People out in Shibuya want to have good, clean fun, to drink a bit, dance, and get lucky. You can be as stupid as you want here and never get yourself into trouble because it's a Disneyland for adults. Zero drugs, zero scams, zero prostitution.
- Shinjuku: the most densely-packed sector of Tokyo, home to the notorious Kabukicho neighborhood. Shinjuku station is the largest train station on the planet in terms of daily passengers. There are several districts like 3-chome (known for izakaya) and 2-chome (known for gay nightlife) that have some cool drinking establishments, very much worth hanging out in with friends, but I won't go into them because they're mostly just hangout locations you'll go to after you've made friends. It would also make my writeup twice as long.
We're going to focus on Kabukicho. Kabukicho is likely the largest red-light district in Asia outside of Bangkok and it's a huge cesspool of carnal pleasure. If you want something, it's here. You may be familiar with it because it's the setting of many of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon video games. Women pay fat stacks at the host clubs to talk to cute boys. Men pay to talk to women at the kyabakura. Girls bars, snack bars, kyabakura, strip clubs, cozy dive bars, karaoke bars, people drinking in alleyways, drugs, fetishes, whatever you can imagine. You may notice there are no police officers on the streets. The yakuza have an arrangement where the police don't patrol at night. It is the dark side to the light side of Shibuya's "clean fun".
Infamous in Kabukicho are the African touts who will try to lure you to their bars for "titties" and "all you can drink". Half of them are yakuza pawns; the other half are cartel pawns. Several of these guys are my good friends and I want to dispel the stereotype that they're all scammers. Many of them have legitimate establishments where you can have a good time. But if even 10% of these bars are dangerous, that's reason enough for you to not follow them into bars when solicited, if you're alone. It can be more tempting than you think. If you have friends with you, it's okay to follow the touts, but do the sniff test when you get there and leave if the bar is empty or anything feels too "off". Nobody will ever physically touch you or force you to do anything, but they will use all manner of verbal tricks. Never use your credit card; cash will keep you safe.
It is incredibly easy to get laid in Kabukicho but the girls you find will mostly be bartenders, dancers, prostitutes, DJs, and kyabajo. Aged 20-35. Real nightlife ladies who will reward you with the best nights of your life (like seriously, holy shit), but far from relationship material.
There are also 3 great, "normal" nightclubs in Shinjuku where you'll find "normal" people. Two are in Kabukicho; one is just outside Kabukicho.
I realize I may be spooking you a bit with Kabukicho but I promise it's not dangerous if you act like a sane human being. Nobody here ever gets into trouble unless they dig themselves into that trouble. It's a wonderful part of the city and you'll miss out on great fun if you skip it.
- Roppongi: where people go after Shibuya if they still want to party past 4:30 AM. Clubs in Shibuya close at 4:30 AM or 5:00 AM except for Jumanji 33 which closes at 7:00 AM. The veteran partiers will take taxis to Roppongi somewhere in this time range. The nightclubs here close at 10:00 AM on weekends. There is a particular large bar called Blue Bar that is open until 2:00 PM on weekends. If you want to meet washed-up yakuza, depressed expats, and other such people in way over their heads, go to Blue Bar. Roppongi is the "advanced" location, there's no risk in checking it out, but don't get in over your head. I consider Roppongi to be more dangerous than Kabukicho because not only do you find the same kind of scammy establishments, but there's a police enforcement layer on top. I recommend never doing illegal drugs in Roppongi. If you decide to do this, do it in Kabukicho. If you absolutely must find yourself doing it in Roppongi, never leave a club with it on your person. Additionally, all of the P4P in Roppongi is scam or scam-adjacent. Do not go with the massage ladies.
Roppongi is known for wealthy expats and semi-working girls. If you roll into a bar you'll quickly find girls glancing your way and speaking sweet words to you. They aren't prostitutes per se, but they want your wallet. This is another reason I consider Roppongi "advanced".
As a final historical note, ten years ago (before my time), Roppongi used to be Shibuya. If you research old threads on Tokyo nightlife, you'll find a lot of people recommending Roppongi as the hub of partying. Those days are over.
- Ikebukuro: I don't know much about it because I've only been here a handful of times but just think of it as a smaller and more dilapidated combo of Shibuya and Kabukicho. Some cool bars and very cheap prostitution. I don't recommend going here at all beyond just checking it out.
Note that everywhere I mention "on weekends", the same thing applies on weekdays, just an hour or two earlier. Tokyo never sleeps.
Wow, I wrote a lot here but if I had to give a general game plan it would be to hang out in Shibuya at first. Make solid friends and go with them to other places like Kabukicho. It won't take long for you to find people, Japanese or foreigners, who know the ins and outs and can introduce you to every aspect of the nightlife.
Not particularly. I didn't come to Japan with any kind of geomaxxing in mind, I just wanted to get good at Japanese. I only visited Taiwan which I wasn't crazy about.
If you do intend to visit multiple locations in Asia, Tokyo is a fine hub from which to do so.
Honestly I fit the Japanese looks standard pretty well. I'd consider myself a 6.5 higher-tier normie in America but I meet all the "Japanese white boy" standards which probably boosts me to an 8 in Japan. The only thing I changed was my fashion. Look around you when you're out and keep a mental note of what the "cool guys" are wearing, then shop around. Go to Shimokitazawa for secondhand clothes.
I had some rough breaks in language school where I skipped for a while, heavily influenced by my nightlife job in Kabukicho. I managed to snap out of that pretty quickly before graduating and I learned to stay straight. The only advice I can give is to always focus on the reason why you came here in the first place. If you are coming to Japan, your goals should be to learn Japanese, network with Japanese people, and carve out a good future for yourself.
I "made it", but many of my peers and friends did not. They started skipping classes (or even work), using drugs regularly, drinking around the clock, blowing their money on prostitutes and bottles.
If you have trouble with this kind of stuff I recommend living a little bit away from Shibuya and Shinjuku. After I lived in Shibuya, I literally lived inside Kabukicho. It did not help.
Thanks, likewise, I'm glad I found other people like yourself who I can have a good conversation with.
