At Dance Clubs in Toyo

By Emi Tsuruta

I think even the first time I met Ryosuke, I could kind of tell he liked me, that we were going to get along. He's a talkative guy, but it's not like he came right out, and said it. Just the way he looks at me though, the smile he gets on his lips, almost laughing when I turn up was encouraging. Tomoyuki was kind of that way too, a bit agog at the way I look, the things I come out with. It's almost like they'd never met a girl like me before. I don't think I'm that special, but I am kind of glad I can get them going without hardly doing anything. It's nice to be wanted.

For spring break of my freshman year, I suggested to Ryosuke that we fly home to Japan. I wanted to see my family and friends again, but I also thought it would be kind of exciting to set out together, and explore the wonders of big city Tokyo, get him to show me a bit of his former life. At that point, I hadn't told my parents about him, so he had to stay up in Tokyo with his parents and brother while I headed home to the sleepy seaside town of Kamakura where my parents live.

My older sister Norika was living up in Tokyo at that time, but she came home to see me. Norika and I used to fight a lot when we were younger, but now that we're living apart, I kind of miss her, want to reconnect. I used to play the good girl all the time, mama's little angel, but Norika was kind of the one who showed me you can live your life, enjoy yourself without always having to worry about what everyone will think. Norika is brave in a way. I want to be more like that.

The last time I saw Norika, she'd been dressing sexier, looking for a boyfriend perhaps. Now she'd changed her look again, styling her hair in crescents, tweezing her eyebrows into arching curves, trying to look more adult, more sophisticated I guess. My mom didn't seem to notice, but I figured this must have something to do with a guy. Sure enough, at night, I overheard her talking in English with someone on her phone, someone pretty special from the sound of it.

A bit later, Norika and I went outside, and she did tell me a bit about her new guy friend. Evan is British. She met him in a dance club in the Roppongi area, where a lot of westerners hang out. Apparently, he is studying history or something at a university in Tokyo. Since they were both into clubbing, I suggested that the four of us go, her and Evan and Ryosuke and me.

At first, Norika didn't seem all that keen. I mean she seemed happy I was back, had come all this way to see me, but my mom makes things complicated. She wants Norika and I to marry Japanese guys, live here, and she doesn't think we should fool around before marriage. I guess in the old days, Japanese people used to meet their partners through matchmakers. They didn't really date. You'd just meet the guy, and decide if you wanted to marry him or not. I don't think my mom dated anyone before she met my dad. She's pretty old-fashioned that way.

"It's not like I would tell mom," I promised Norika. "I haven't even told her about my... well, you know."

"It's different for you. You're the youngest. Mom will just get all excited, hatching all these plans, scouting out wedding venues..."

I knew only too well about that. Mom has been scheming to get me to go out with this boy who lives next door. "He goes to a good university," she keeps telling me.

"I won't tell her. It'll be just our secret."

Norika still seemed skeptical, but I started trying to set this up. Ryosuke shouldn't be that much of a problem. He's not a big dancer, but he had come to some parties in Satomi's dorm, and came clubbing with Futoshi and us the night of the strip poker game.

"Who do you go clubbing with?"

"Yurie and Momoe."

"Where'd you meet them?"

"I don't know. At an event on campus? They are pretty lively, struck up a conversation right away, not afraid of anything."

I wasn't quite like that yet, but I admire people like that. This last year with Ryosuke, I have opened up, tried a whole bunch of things I never thought I would.

"Sounds interesting. C'mon, Nori. Let's just go. It'll be fun."

Norika didn't really commit, but she did message her friends, and tell them Ryosuke and I might come join.

Next step, I had to figure out what to wear. All my clubwear was back in Oceanview, but I did have some dresses in the closet of my old room. One dress was long white cotton, a high neckline, but sleeveless. The material in the skirt part was a loose weave, almost like a chiffon or mesh. The top part had a lace pattern and elastic buttonhole loops that you do up along the opening down the front that went down to my navel. As long as I wore something underneath, it would look tasteful I thought.

Ryosuke and I went early, and grabbed a bite to eat. He dressed sharp for once, a deep green sweatshirt, grey plaid pants, aviators. He looked me up and down when I took off my coat.

"Nice dress," he smirked. I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not. I shot him a look, but he just nodded that he was serious.

He took me to an izakaya bar for gyoza dumplings. The restaurant wasn't that fancy or anything, but the food was yummy, piping hot.

"This is kind of exciting, huh? Being back in Japan?"

"Yeah, sure. I haven't really gone out so much in Tokyo."

After supper, we went to meet up with Norika and them in front of Almond cafe. We saw two women standing there, and when we went over, and asked, it turned out they were Yurie and Momoe. I kind of recognized them from Norika's description. Yurie has a long sharp nose, pointy chin, long hair. She had her bangs done up in some kind of bouffant. Momoe's hair is shorter, dyed brown and curly, and she has a kind of pure 'who me?' face, like little orphan Annie or someone. They are both quite cute.

"I work in a fashion boutique in Ginza," Yurie beamed, "but my true passion is dancing. I belong to a troupe. You should come see us." She was so full of energy.

"Yeah, sounds great," I smiled back.

The first club was just this little hole in the wall, a bit grungy, kind of like a billiard bar in the U.S. We went in, ordered drinks, and got a table. We sat around chatting for a while, Yurie and Momoe telling us about all the different clubs, which ones had the best music, the cutest guys. Ryosuke just listened, but he seemed amused.

I finally got a message from Norika, saying she was running late, and probably wouldn't make it. Yurie laughed.

"Typical Norika."

I was glad the two of them were such good friends.

I danced a bit with Yurie and Momoe while Ryosuke watched us from the side. They both were excellent dancers. I didn't recognize the style, maybe a bit like hip hop. I tried to imitate their moves, and they all laughed. It was fun.

At the end of the night, Yurie suggested,

"Hey, do you guys want to come check out this other club in Shibuya? Womb? They are having an Ultra after party, so there could be some big techno or house stars there from the festival. It could get pretty wild."

Ryosuke seemed game.

"Mmm. Sounds good. Let's go. I'll get Norika to come too."

"Momoe and I are going to dress up in bodycon fashion. You should try. Get into the spirit."

I kind of knew what 'bodycon' was. I think it was originally a Japanese thing. It's short for 'body conscious.' In Japan, bodycon is like mini-dresses in shiny metallic colors or with ridges like a mummy's bandages. In western Europe, they used to have 'bandage dresses' which cling to your figure, but in Japan, bodycon actually looks like real layered bandages. The bodycon they have in the States tends to be blacks or pastel shades and sometimes even long sleeves. Bodycon in Japan shows a lot of skin, you know, like showing your navel, cleavage, shoulders or whatever.

Anyway, we said goodbye to Yurie and Momoe, and got on the train. Ryosuke had this mischievous gleam in his eye.

"What? What are you grinning about?" I needled him.

"No. I was just thinking. These clubs are so dark. I wonder if a camera would even work..."

I scrunched up my nose. Ryosuke does tend to video me a fair bit. He used to belong to a photography circle.

"You and your cameras!"

"What? I'm probably going to go see Habu." One of his friends from the circle. "He might have something that would work..."

I just snuggled up closer to him.

"Anyway, that was fun. I wonder what this other club will be like."

My next problem was finding a bodycon dress. I didn't really have anything like that, so I called up Miori, the girl I'd met at the Shinto festival. The two of us went to Harajuku, a youth fashion district in Tokyo. I told Miori I had to find something sexy, and she was keen to help. She doesn't dress that trendy, but I think she has good taste in clothes, being the daughter of a tailor and all.

I found a red, white and green crochet wool sundress that might work. I guess it's more like an apron than a dress. There are these strings at the back that you tie around your neck and waist, but the back is mostly open.

"I have a pair of fire engine red shorts that match, so I could wear it with them."

I also found this pair of suede thong bikini panties which tie up in a bow at the back. I didn't know what Yurie and Momoe were going to come in, but it sounded like they wanted to go all out.

Anyway, the day of the show, I had a shower, and then tried on my new g-string. It felt kind of funny. I could feel this little round string wedged up between my butt cheeks. I decided to go braless, and pulled on my new red apron dress right over my bare breasts. I went over to Norika's old room. Dad has kind of converted her room into a study, but I did manage to find a black leather choker that ties around your neck like a belt. It's a bit sexy too.

Anyway, I pulled on my red shorts, and checked my rear end in the mirror. The shorts are made of fairly stretchy material, hugged my curvy behind quite snugly. Ryosuke is going to love these, I mused. I pulled on a long tan raincoat, so my mom wouldn't see, and then my shiny black leather ankle boots. All set.

I took a train down to Tokyo, and met Ryosuke in front of Hachikō, the statue of the famous loyal dog. He was really trying this time, all dressed up in black pants and a colorful purple and red shirt undone a few buttons. He had this weird contraption hanging around his neck.

"What's that?" I asked. It was like a harness slung over one shoulder with a camera buckled in place.

"The infrared camera... courtesy of Habu."

Oh brother. Here we go.

We had Australian cuisine for supper. The menu said 'kangaroo,' 'ostrich,' but whatever it was, it was good. They had little koala bears on the tables.

After supper, we went, and found the club. It was on this cozy little alleyway. You could hear the music pounding away even from outside. Yurie and Momoe showed up on time, but no sign of Norika nor Evan.

"I'm pretty sure they're coming this time," I told everyone. I texted Norika to make sure.

Inside we locked our coats away in lockers. When Yurie and Momoe took off their coats, I was kind of shocked because they were wearing swimsuits, wet-look one-pieces, maybe Realise or Arena. Ryosuke was so shocked he let out a laugh. Yurie didn't seem embarrassed at all.

"Wait till you see how the other girls are dressed," she winked.

Yurie led the way, up these winding stairs to get to the dance area. Ryosuke elbowed me, raising his eyebrows at Yurie's posterior, joking that I should have worn a swimsuit too. I playfully smacked him, but I could tell he liked my outfit too. You can see my bare back for heaven's sake, maybe even a bit of side-boob.

This club was bigger and more modern than that other club. The dance floor was fairly dark, but there were these strobes blinking on and off, and beams of white light crisscrossing above our heads. The music was kind of funky, people crowded round the DJ, dancing, hands in the air. A lot of the other girls were in pretty racy get-ups too, bikinis, tiger print, bunny girl outfits, white see-through negligees. I think some of them must be go-go dancers, hired by the club to dance in cages up front, but it was kind of hard to tell. There was even a professional cameraman roaming around videoing the event.

At the edge of the dance-floor, they had these little mini-stages (tachidai in Japanese, 'standing platforms'). Yurie got up on one, and starting flailing her arms about, shaking her booty like crazy. I felt Ryosuke's hands on my hips, and the next thing I knew, he'd lifted me up onto the mini-stage facing Yurie. I covered my behind, but it felt like everyone was watching me. I begged Ryosuke to let me down, but he motioned for me to dance. I felt so nervous, but I tried to dance a little just to humor him. All the guys around us kept looking at me, ogling my rear.

Yurie went into a new dance routine, techno not hip hop this time. She would rock her hips side to side, lift her right arm in the air, and then her left. I tried it, but it looked funny with the strobe because no one can see you, and then suddenly you're in a completely different position.

Right where we were dancing, it was mostly girls, but just a ways off there was this whole pack of guys eyeing us, Yurie especially, practically naked in her skimpy monokini. Ryosuke grinned away amused by our antics. I felt a bit self-conscious, but Yurie kept encouraging me that I was doing great. I was having trouble keeping a straight face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I don't know this dance. Do you know shuffle?"

She did it, and of course she was great at that too.

"Do you know Party Monster?" she asked me. It turned out to be the most sexual yet. It almost looks like you are humping each other.

My phone went off. It was Norika. I got her tickets from Momoe, and went back down to get her. Norika had her hair all done up, and was wearing a long black cocktail dress, showing off her shoulders, and with a slit up the leg. It was sexy, but much more elegant than my tiny little apron dress. Evan was there, quite the presence at 6 feet tall, glasses, a square jaw, dirty blonde hair. It's kind of cute the way his chin juts out, but he hangs back a little, just watching, not at all like other westerners I'd met. He had on black slacks, a white shirt with a button down collar and a studded leather vest, a bit formal, but quite smart, I thought. He reminded me a bit of Clark Kent, wide shoulders but humble, mild-mannered.

"Evan? Emi," Norika introduced.

I shook his hand. He seemed amused by me, but didn't really say that much. I escorted them inside, and helped them get organized. Norika's outfit was much more modest than what the rest of us were wearing. I guess Evan must like steady girls not so flashy, and she was trying to accommodate. I found it a bit funny though because not so long ago, she'd been dressing quite sexy indeed.

Yurie and Momoe already knew Evan from before, but we introduced Ryosuke. Ryosuke is usually good with western people, friendly, jokey. We all went, and got drinks, and then sat down on one of these small daises. Ryosuke sat next to Evan, but there wasn't really anywhere for me to sit. Ryosuke motioned for me to sit on his lap, and I did, trying to look as ladylike as possible. Ryosuke wrapped his arm around my waist pulling me back into him, letting me feel the size of his erection. I fanned my face, trying to simmer down, but it was hard not to get excited.

I kind of wanted to talk, but Evan was peering off at the stage, wondering about the DJ I guess. A song came on that I knew, and so I stood up, and danced right there, straddling Ryosuke's knees. Part way through the song, I felt him place his hands on my waist, fascinated with my hindquarters. I felt kind of embarrassed, doing this in front of Evan, but he didn't really look at us.

Eventually, I sat down at Ryosuke's feet. Evan looked down at me, and asked,

"Are you having a good time?"

"Yeah, this place is amazing. I've never seen anything like it." I peered up at him. "Are you from London?"

"Why yes, I am. Did Norika tell you?"

"No, but she did say you are from England. I don't think I've been there. Ryosuke and I are in the States now, in California."

Ryosuke turned towards us, and raised his glass, clinking it against Evan's.

"Cheers."

Evan looked down at me to ask something, but his eyes ran down my bare back.

"That's quite an outfit you have on," he laughed.

"Uh, yeah. I just bought this dress the other day... in Harajuku," I shouted over the music. Ryosuke nodded for me to stand up, and show Evan. I kind of hesitated. Norika was right behind us. Evan did seem like a good guy though.

"It is kind of open at the back..." I admitted. I might have been a little drunk.

"Oh really?" he hum-hummed, looking down at me curiously. When he raises his eyebrow like that, he really does look like Clark Kent.

I stopped talking, and looked out at the crowd waiting for the hubbub to die down. Once these other guys turned away, I casually stood up letting Ryosuke and Evan see. Evan smiled.

I handed my drink to Ryosuke, and started dancing a bit to the music. The bass was just thumping away. I started swaying a bit, teasing Ryosuke.

"What are you studying at school?" Evan finally asked. I just kind of blinked.

"What?"

"Norika says you are in university..."

"Um, yeah, communications, media, literature, a bit of everything...," I told him.

"You want to be a writer?"

"Yeah, something like that."

Norika kind of interrupted, saying she wanted Evan to come over with her and talk to the DJ, a westerner. Ryosuke suggested the two of us go in search of real chairs. I held one hand over my behind, as Ryosuke dragged me out past the other people sitting on the daises. The guys turned to look at my behind, checking me out.

We couldn't find any open tables on this level, so we ended up going up another set of stairs to this balcony overlooking the dance floor. It was a lot quieter up here with big comfy chairs and tables, all in black. The light was dimmer up here too, most of the twister lights focused down on the dance floor below.

"You look gorgeous tonight," Ryosuke whispered into my ear, intertwining his fingers in mine. I looked up at him, aware that he was in the mood for love. I lowered my head, wondering what on earth we could do here of all places. We could still see everyone down there dancing up a storm.

I polished off my drink, and made a face at how tart it was. Ryosuke laughed.

"It wasn't that strong. It's all tonic water," he teased.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What next?"

Ryosuke took my hand, and led me off down the hall. We passed this one dark little alcove filled with potted plants, but Ryosuke wanted to see what was further on. Through this door, we emerged into a stately wood-paneled hallway with glass doors and windows looking out to a balcony, and beyond that the city below. It was kind of grey outside, cloudy, but not quite dark yet. The building across had a neon sign, maybe a hotel? Some of the other buildings looked like apartments. I don't know if it was raining, but the balcony looked wet.

"Nice view, huh?" he nodded.

"Mmm."

Down this way, there was another door leading to a stairwell. We climbed up, but the door at the top was locked.

"Hmm. Dead end." Ryosuke glanced over at me, obviously wondering what to do.

"We could go back down, find Norika."

"I have a better idea."

He came closer, and gave me the gentlest kiss. He stopped, and listened.

"What?" I blinked shyly.

"No, nothing. No one's coming."

It was kind of obvious that he wanted to fool around, but I think he also knew this was kind of dangerous. My heart was beating faster just at the thought of it.

"Umm, Emi?"

"Yes."

"What do you have on under those shorts?"

I laughed.

"What? These?" I turned to show him. "Wouldn't you like to know?"