The Weird Underbelly of Japan

This was the first time I experienced an interesting piece of Japanese underground culture. The party, which my friends and I enjoyed, was called “Far plane Night”, and is held annually at Namba. It is very popular with those who are involved in tattoo culture. The event manages sold out completely, and by the end of the night more than 2000 people attended.

Lots of attendees dress themselves up in unorthodox costumes, showing off their tattoos. Some of them rather seem to be excited to show themselves off, sometimes barely wearing anything to hide their nether regions. Also, there were some foreigners coming from the American Village in the center of the Southern Osaka. This kind of popular underground movement, which is expressed through party, tattoos, westernized costumes and club music, in a sense, might be influenced by American culture.

The content of the party was the mixture of entertainment shows including jazz song and dance performance, a strip show and things like that. What I was most shocked in particular among those shows, was what was called a "Psychic Show", a kind of daredevil performance. The performers were suspended from the ceiling by hooks that were directly attached to their skin without any support. Believe it or not, the first performer, pictured above, looked really happy to perform, and she sometimes even tried to dance while suspended, although, the other people naturally screamed covering their faces with the hands in shock and awe.

I am pretty sure that this type of culture is a small minority, a small yet colourful part of a much deeper underground whole. However, their enthusiasm at the time, and their extraordinary passion for their art and culture overwhelmed me. Needless to say, the party was filled with comparatively young people, and they enjoyed interacting with the many western people in Japanese. It was quite interesting to see not only a purely domestic kind of extravaganza but rather a big melting pot of different cultures helping to put on a fantastic show.