Word: kabukicho
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Booming techno music and ear-splitting roars from the crowd fill the air, amid shrieks of laughter and occasional calls of "Ikki! Ikki!" (Chug it! Chug it!). The '80s-disco decor and the manic enthusiasm of the crowd at Top Dandy, one of the most popular host clubs in Kabukicho, could make you wonder whether Japan's bubble ever really burst. The clients are entertained by 50 hosts, most sporting an identical Rod Stewart-inspired hairdo. "Quite slow today," says Nobutora, No. 1 host at Top Dandy, the best-looking guy on their 'otoko' menu of male hosts. In less...
...Masaki, 21, a good-looking but not yet successful host, laments the change. "The whole of Kabukicho has been affected. No rich people are walking in the area, and our customers got younger." Another host, 23-year-old Ren, agrees. "I have been in the business for five years, but this change is a real shock. I could meet all kinds of people, great for my networking for the future, but customers got younger and staff got younger as well, and it is boring...
...Taking in the new snootiness of sex clubs and the sight of a couple playing a video game called Cop Killer on Valentine's Day, Richie, who is now 80 and still living in Tokyo, is a Rousseau of Kabukicho. "Life here means never taking life for granted," he writes, "never not noticing"; to some extent beauty lies in the eye of the outsider. A whole group of travelers, often sexual outlaws, has trenchantly mapped the exile's world: Paul Bowles in Morocco, Christopher Isherwood in California, Maugham in the south of France. Donald Richie in Asia goes even further...
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