G.N.O.

Girls' Night Out that is.

I had one.

Last Saturday.

My cohorts and I ventured into Roppongi, the sleazy neon part of Tokyo, where every other establishment is a bar with a suitably pushy man outside handing out flyers, free drink tickets and complements in order to get you inside.

After the required greasy bar snacks and a couple of margaritas, I was ready. Our first stop was "Motown I", where not a Motown song was played for the entire time we were there. We did dance, even if it was to bad 80's music. A silver haired gentleman definitely eligible for medicare, dressed in the only suit and tie seen in the club (and probably in all of Roppongi)took his turn with a few of us, swinging us right and left , whether we wanted to go that way or not.

We then moved on to "Wall Street", receiving drink tickets from the doorman only after we assured him we were sufficiently "wild". We stayed there for awhile and then moved again to "Motown II", again disappointed at the lack of Motown songs. We did dance with some Sikhs, the happiest people we ran into that night. There was another stop at another rather unknown and empty bar, but probably the one with the best music, where we enjoyed shots of tequila (at least I wasn't mixing) complements of our hosts. Back to Motown I (or II - at this point they all looked alike) we danced some more, finally calling it quits at about 3:30am.

What I learned:

1) Every bar in Roppongi has it's "hour" - for some reason you must go at exactly that "hour" or else (else what I never figured out).

2) You must not stay at one bar for more than an hour. Moving is the name of the game. Staying too long, especially after dancing with the same person leads them to believe you are there for something other than dancing.

3) Be prepared for the United Nations - I met people from the UK, Brazil, Nigeria, India, Japan (and that's only what I remember).

4) Do not go stereo shopping at Yodabashi the day after a night in Roppongi. For those who don't live here, Yodabashi is a very large, very loud, very bright, very crowded store that one should never enter with a hangover. Even a little one.

5) Sikhs are fun.