[Currently ......
Incense: Cannabis
Drink: Merlot
Music: the Scissor Sisters]
Last Saturday I ventured out to Ageha with a group of friends, notable not only for their stunning good looks but also their book-smarts: loads of them just passed either level 2 or level 3 of the JLPT -- Japanese Language Proficiency Test -- and not by the skin of their teeth either, but with FLAIR! Call me vain, but I like my consorts to be hot geniuses ..... Congratulations, each and every one of you.
Ageha is widely known as the largest night club in Asia, and I've never been there before because you have to take a special chartered BUS from Tokyo to the mysterious netherworld location of this club. That first bit is not the problem -- it's making my way BACK, plastered and unhinged at 5 a.m., that worried me and had held me back in the past. (Note the foreshadowing! Observe if you will the Knife on the Mantelpiece!) But it was Mika #2's birthday, and to Ageha we went.
All around good scene -- some amazing DJ's, free-lovin' people, and the pinnacle: a rooftop swimming pool. It was this last location that got me into a little trouble, as it was deemed non-smoking. Bear in mind, PREMATURE-BIRTH NURSERIES in Tokyo permit smoking, practically, and so of course I lit up. When the samurai-faced bouncer came glowering my way, I shrugged and thought, Well, ya can't win 'em all. I began to douse my cigarette, when the bastard, without saying a word, grabbed it out of my hand and ground it beneath his Doc Marten. I was livid and, although I have never before been in a fight with a bouncer in Japan, said some words that would have done my grandfather proud. He moved on. I immediately lit another smoke. When he finished his lap of the pool and saw me, his eyes bulged, I unwisely said something belligerent, and again had my cigarette taken. I took solace in the arms of a punk-boy Japanese guy who I kissed for 20 minutes or so, until he said he needed the restroom and would be right back. Hook-ups in clubs have said this to me before, and I'm always slightly suspicious that they mean only to get rid of me, but fortunately it has never happened and they always come back. UNTIL NOW! 10 minutes went by and I tearfully turned to leave when I saw Jude the Obscure looking mournfully at the glittering turquoise pool, lost in his own despair.
"I've been rejected," I said. "Hey, I've been rejected."
"He'll come back," said Jude, and waited, me with my head on his shoulder and both of us gloomy, until we admitted defeat.
Several other things happened that night: I have vague snatches of drinking water as though it were gin, which saved me, and rescuing Sage from the toilets when they were shut for cleaning but she was still, inexplicably, puking within -- and then it was hideous dawn and none of the people we came with were around, it was just Sage and I wandering unsteadily onto the outdoor pavement, wondering where to catch the bus.
This was my worst fear, mind. We were ages from home, it was only the two of us, and I was less drunk (which isn't saying much) which left the responsibility to me. A cab home would have, literally, cost more than a plane ticket to Korea. I was staring into space trying to come up with a rational plan when a suave-talking man from Ghana with a beautiful car came up and offered us a ride to Tokyo.
"Mmm, no," I said.
He got massive insulted and insinuated race was an issue. I began telling him a list of my former lovers from Africa and then discarded it in favor of the ethical argument: "SAY," I slurred, "that you know, you have a DAUGHTER, and she's drunk at Ageha? And some guy she doesn't know offers her a ride? And even you know, if he's a really nice guy, like you'd tell her not to, yeah?"
He swiftly changed the subject, and Sage and I found ourselves suddenly in the company of two Japanese guys with flashing rave-rings. We hung out with them for a while, sparks flew etc., I exchanged numbers with my favorite one, and when we rejected THEIR offer of a ride home, they took us to the train station, bought us tickets, and carefully explained the long complicated journey we would have to make in order to get home. We accomplished it in the end -- and oh! at one point their was a taxi driver from China, I engaged him in conversation about the Cultural Revolution, which his father had experienced -- and finally we were home, probably close to 7 a.m., and that's the last time I go to Ageha. Womb is way better, and I know Yellow is gone now, but I liked that one better too.
Posted by joy at February 17, 2009 2:14 AM