Make Believe Bonus: A Busy Tokyo Friday (Shinjuku Guerilla Live + Live Haus Shimokitazawa)
An Eventful Night Reminding Why I Love The Capital
Friday, September 5, 2025
6:20 PM: I was getting ready to buy seaweed-flavored potato chips when the news hit my Twitter feed.
“Aina The End to hold guerilla live in front of Kabukicho Tower today at 7 p.m.” The timestamp from the Natalie Music tweet tells you how truly “guerilla” this was — less than 40 minutes before it started. For most, they’d admit defeat and settle for the second part of the upload, about it being livestreamed on YouTube.
I, however, was willing to race the clock…after buying snacks for the household.
Helping solidify this decision was the fact I had already been planning to head out later that night for a different show. The France-born, Tokyo-based group Tapeworms, whom I had interviewed earlier in the year, were nice enough to put me on a discount list for a show in Shimokitazawa, which is just a sub-10-minute train ride from Shinjuku. All I had to do was ignore eating for an hour, and I could fit it all in.
I power-walked to Seven-Eleven, bought the salty treats, and then hauled it to my station to catch the Chuo Line for a surprise J-pop show…and have the kind of whirlwind night only Tokyo can provide in the country.
