Single exposure of dancers at Warehouse’s Pink! Photo: Karen Dion

To be fair, underneath its dirt, alienating neon glare and eardrum-lacerating racket, there is something comforting about Roppongi: no pretensions, no dress code; just rowdy bar after rowdy bar, drinking, dancing, fun, and a couple of familiar looking American chain restaurants. After a few nights’ walking up and down Roppongi-dori you are certain to find new friends, though you may lose your wallet.

The Tokyo club scene took a blow in 2008 with the closure of Nishi-Azabu’s long running and much beloved Space Lab Yellow but Yellow’s departure was marked with an appropriately fabulous closing party and the following three clubs are more than filling the gap.

The mother of all Tokyo clubs, ageHa is a giant warehouse in an industrial district a little outside of metropolitan Tokyo. The complimentary shuttle bus that runs hourly to and from nearby Shibuya station might sound like a drag, but is actually part of the fun.

ageHa’s marquis adds a touch of Hollywood.
Photo: Karen Dion

If you take the party bus, you are most likely to bond with partygoers as excited and giddy from convenience store-bought Chūhai as yourself. The journey takes you across the Bay Bridge and past the giant glittering Ferris wheel before depositing you right outside ageHa.

Open since 2002, ageHa attracts the biggest DJs in the world. On any weekend you can catch the likes of Tiesto, Armin van Buuren, Fatboy Slim or Paul van Dyck.

Its four dance floors accommodate up to 5,000 people, and there are an outdoor swimming pool, four bars, an outdoor dance tent, and a store selling ageHa merchandise. You can even get ageHa brand condoms in restroom vending machines.

ageHa is what you can confidently call a super club; it is the biggest club in Japan and there’s even another branch in Taipei.

ageHa.com
2-2-10 Shin Kiba,
Koto-ku,
Tokyo 136-0082
(03) 5534-2525

Womb’s notable disco ball is the biggest in Japan.
Photo: Karen Dion

Have you seen the movie Babel? Do you remember the scene where the deaf schoolgirl takes an Ecstasy pill and goes to a club? The club was Womb.

Womb’s incredible laser system played a major role in that scene and it is a central part of the experience at this cavernous space discreetly located on Love Hotel Hill in Shibuya.

It’s not just the lasers though; Womb regularly draws international artists such as The Chemical Brothers, Sven Vath and John Digweed.

You will almost always see Womb in the Top Ten on World’s Best Clubs lists and, just for good measure, it also has Japan’s biggest mirror ball.

womb.co.jp
2-16 Maruyama-cho,
Shibuya-ku,
Tokyo 150-0044
(03) 5459-1383

Warehouse is a little less well known than ageHa and Womb, yet is just a ten-minute walk from Roppongi and open on weeknights as well as weekends.

Chaotic Video from the Tokyo Decadence fetish party:

The playlist is eclectic at Warehouse: on different nights you can hear house, techno, R ‘n’ B or Hip Hop, and you will see go-go dancers up on the podiums and pole most nights.

Perhaps most fun are the themed nights: look out for Pink! Pole dance Night, Bikini Night and the Tokyo Decadence fetish party.

Warehouse.com
B1F Fukao-building,
1-4-5, Azabu-juban,
Minato-ku,
Tokyo 106-0045
(03) 6230-0343

Community Connection

Is Japan in your future? Matador’s Japan Focus Page centralizes our content about the nation. From descriptions of local customs and foods and insiders’ tips on where to eat to advice on speaking the Okinawan dialect, it’s a varied resource of unexpected information for the savvy traveler.