"Happening bars" in Roppongi and other parts of Tokyo, explains Shukan Taishu
offer customers a chance to engage in, or observe, anything-goes activities,
performed spontaneously in the most exhibitionist style imaginable. Catering to
the jaded affluent and the morbidly curious, they generally charge a minimum of
10,000 yen for membership by couples, and perhaps twice that figure for
unaccompanied males. Females are generally admitted for a nominal fee, and in
some places even free of charge.
Discovery of the Shibuya establishment shows that once the aura of exclusivity
eventually wears off, when a good idea trickles down to mass markets, it
becomes considerably more affordable. How affordable? Admission for Shukan
Taishu's reporter and Sayaka, his unaware date, came to 4,000 yen, including
two drinks.
The reporter paid in advance, and the couple -- as a prelude for things to
come, perhaps? -- shed their footwear before entering.
This club had a maximum capacity of about 15 people. So as to leave little
doubt as to its purpose as a venue for the sexually open-minded and the
hopelessly horny, its brown-hued walls were festooned with suggestive motifs,
such as phallic symbols and erotic "shunga" woodblock prints from the Edo
period.
Four women, who appeared to be in their 20s, and seven somewhat older men were
already seated and sipping at their drinks.
Sayaka struck up a conversation with a young woman named Miki at a neighboring
bar stool.
"Do you go to 'hapu-baa' (happening bars) often?" Miki asked Sayaka, who shyly
shook her head in the negative.
"Ooohh look, she's shy. Isn't that cute?" gushed Miki.
The reporter's eyes gradually adjusted to the interior gloom and they soon
noticed that an older man with white hair was in the process of using a hemp
rope to tie up a nude young woman, using an elaborate combination of loops and
knots. Once she was rendered immobile, he began teasing her nipples, and she
writhed and squealed with a combination of humiliation, pain and pleasure.
Seeing this, a woman who appeared to be an office worker said, "Ah, I feel like
eating!" She knelt before her date, lowered the zipper on his trousers, and
buried her face in his crotch, making loud sucking sounds.
"Hey, 'Yukorin's' 'regular' performance has begun," a male customer dryly
remarked.
After bringing her date to orgasm, 'Yukorin' moved on to the customer at the
next stool and, after washing out her mouth with a shot of tequila, repeated
the process.
Shukan Taishu's reporter excused himself for a quick visit to the loo, and
returned to find a leggy young woman had moved in and begun fondling the
breasts of his date, Sayaka. But when the woman tried to run her hand toward
Sayaka's crotch, resistance stiffened.
Realizing Sayaka wasn't willing to go all the way, the young woman lifted her
own skirt and began energetically fingering herself, with accompanying sound
effects. Others in the bar soon began joining in, transforming this "happening"
into what American teens typically describe as a circle jerk.
"I can't stand this crazy place any longer," whispered Sayaka in hushed
desperation. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"Hey, don't you want to get it on with me?" the leggy woman said to Sayaka.
The couple fled.
Still, Shukan Taishu's reporter was upbeat after his experience. After all, he
asks, where else can you enjoy such chaotic, erotic action in a city like Tokyo
at these bargain prices?
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