Make Believe Bonus: Kujira Entertainment

Enter Tourism's Heart Of Darkness

To walk into the neon-shrouded innards of Kujira Entertainment in a Shinjuku basement is to enter the id of the imagined tourist ruining Japan. The whole room vaguely resembles a cyberpunk future a large number of people might earnestly believe Tokyo looks like for all I know, a mix of Bubble-era leftovers (a chandelier) and 21st century rot (exposed brick, fake graffiti). Yet it also has the aesthetics of a “neo yokocho,” complete with an assortment of kanji splattered on the wall and corners that make one ask “wait, isn’t this more Chinese?” Whatever image they are going for, it’s bathed in an appropriate neon glow.

Most jarring is the music. To this point, I couldn’t have imagined what the soundtrack to the post-COVID tourism boom in Japan would be. My mind goes to the loud chatter of visitors milling around Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto, or the revving of the engines found on the fake Mario Karts zipping around Shibuya. Yet here — in a tourist trap located beneath approximately 18 host clubs in one of the dankest corners of the always dank Kabukicho — the music marking this period comes through clearly via Kujira’s sound system.

It’s a steady stream of future funk, Sailor Moon samples slicing through re-imagined versions of Japanese pop yesteryear. I have become…the tourist.

Until June 10, you can enjoy get a free 30-day trial of Make Believe Bonus below! Try it out, and learn more about my descent into madness.