The Toyko underground club scene is not the usual haunt of the middle aged and pregnant. But, when Click editor Leigh Brotherston and his pregnant partner Katie arrived in Tokyo for a stop-over, jet-lag kicked in to open their minds.
Feeling quite buzzy after their dinner they hopped in a taxi and asked to be taken to a nightclub. In the gaudy lighting of the Tokyo night the taxi-driver took on a slightly dodgy air as he repeatedly checked them out in his rear-view. The buzz of this new city and its vibrant nightlife was joined by a frisson of adrenalin.
Suddenly he veered off the main drag and shot down some distinctly darker back-streets. Knowing that there was no way they’d find their way back to the main drag now, Leigh and Katie suspected they’d put their fate in the hands of a serial killer or Triad leader. How could they have let the lack of sleep warp their judgement so badly!
After a few more nerve-jangling corners, the driver pulled up outside a shabby industrial building from which emanated a thumping good beat. Things were looking less like a horror movie and more like a potentially bloody good night out.
Taking comfort from the fact that the driver accepted cash as payment rather than fingers or first-borns the intrepid travellers stepped inside the building. Inside was a spectacular club full of cartoonesque Japanese youth, all texting compulsively as they danced. Leigh and Katie leapt in, the tallest, oldest and definitely the most pregnant on the floor.
At the end of the night, pretty much hallucinating through lack of sleep now, our brave adventurers left their new spiritual home having had a corker of a night out. We’re happy to report that Katie and the baby are both well and Leigh can’t wait to get back to underground Tokyo!