I managed to come of of Shibuya Station via the Hachiko Exit which seemed to be my usual exit every time I went to Shibuya. Looking at the little map that was on the flyer I preceded to walk along the Shibuya streets in search of this new club. I had to walk a little bit to get to the club. But once I managed to find it I was fairly surprised to see that it was next to Club Asia!
Once inside I was given a drink token like many clubs I had been to previously in Tokyo. But unlike the other clubs I was also given a Ragga Wagon ticket which would allow me to participate in what was going to happen later in the evening. When I walked down to the dance area the club was fairly empty apart from a few Americans and some Japanese. But it seemed like these people didn't know it was a Reggae night at the club nor did they know these club nights don't really get going until the early hours of the morning. Because of this quite a few people left the club and some even tried to get me to go with them but I told them I was going to stay.
The night started off slow with some early warm music. But as the night went on more people started to pour in to the club and the music started to get more lively. I even saw the guy Chaka Chaka. I asked him what happened on Wednesday but he told me he was busy that day and could not go to the dance. Later on a few people went on the stage and began to dance too. As I was standing I noticed one girl that looked familiar to me and I remember saying to her "...I know you from youtube!" which is a great way to start a conversation I know haha. It turned out that she was a dancer called Sizzka! Unlike many other people I got talking to her English was pretty good and she like the rest was very friendly. While I was hanging around I saw both Miharu and Haruka from AB Squad. They were pretty cool as I tried to speak to them using my limited Japanese. At one point one of the DJs started to make an announcement and it sounded like he said I-Van. I asked Chaka Chaka if I-Van was here and he said he was then pointed to the corner. I approached I-Van in the corner and asked if I could take a picture with him. I-Van then said "YEA MONNNN!!!!" and started to talk to me in a Jamaican accent. He then told me to come on the stage with him to dance but I was like "no, no, no" since the last thing I would want would be to embarrass myself on the stage. I thought this was quite funny when he spoke to me since it was the first I had heard a Japanese person talk like this. I-Van asked me where I was from and what I was doing in Japan. I told him I was from London and was just in Japan for a holiday.
It was at this point that I-Van wanted me to come on the stage with him to dance but I kept saying "no, no, no" because I wasn't ready to embarrass myself just yet in front of Japanese people I barely knew. I-Van began to dance to one of his new songs that he had just recently finished recording in Jamaica with Shelly Belly called "Get Score". The crowd started to get really excited once I-Van started to dance.
After I-Van got off the stage the 2006 Japanese Dancehall Queen Mai and MC Shen Long started to begin the whole Ragga Wagon night! A whole bunch of ladies lined up on the stage and what I could gather from understanding some of the Japanese the men on the dance floor were supposed to choose one of these girls. This was the first time I had ever seen anything like this in the club before. Each lady came up one by one and gave an introduction and then Mai asked the audience whether or not there was a man that wanted this lady. If a man said yes he would be called to the stage and then the lady would decided whether or not she wanted him. Hardly any of the men decided to get on the stage but when they did the majority of the time the ladies said no and the man kinda just walked off the stage with a look of disappointment on their faces.
After this had been going on for a little while I thought maybe I should go on the stage too if I see a girl I like. But of course there was one I liked, the same one I had seen a few other times at the club. Yes it was the one and only Haruka from AB Squad! When Mai brought her on to the stage she went through the same routine of asking her some questions then saying to the audience in Japanese something like "...which one of you would like this woman?". At the time I thought I didn't want to seem too eager so waited about 5 seconds before I put my hand up..haha! When Mai saw that I had my hand up she called me to the stage and asked me some questions in English but she was quite surprised when I answered her in Japanese. Mai then asked Haruka whether or not she wanted me and Haruka then began to think. Luckily for me she said "OK!" but maybe she just did that so that I wasn't embarrassed haha. We then shared a glass of champagne to seal the deal so to speak.
I kept wondering to myself what was supposed to happen or what were we supposed to do once this was over. Although I did ask Haruka if she wanted to go on a date but she just told me she was busy which I thought fair enough. While I was walking around the club Domino-Kat said to me "...you got di gal!" which made me laugh because I just remember how I saw Domino-Kat nearly every night since I have been out in Tokyo. At the end of the night I hung around a bit more to take some pictures with some of the dancers such as Megu from Hottie Cat and Mai. I spoke to Mai briefly and she was very friendly and asked me if I was going to Master Blaster at Shibuya Eggman which at the time I wasn't sure if I was going or not.
Overall I would say that I really did enjoy this night and met a few more people in the club that I only knew from youtube videos.
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