Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2013

clubbing

Notwithstanding Japan’s notorious ongoing police campaign against late-night dancing, New Year’s Eve, along with hanami, is one time when police are likely to look the other way. Tokyo’s clubs will be striving hard to live up to their reputations as among the world’s most cutting-edge—with a plethora of atmospheres stretching from house, techno and electro on to more esoteric styles like glitch-hop.

Beginning in roughly alphabetical order, at cavernous bayside Ageha is a bill headed up by the ever-popular B oom Boom Satellites and DJ Kentaro. A duo of guitarist and vocalist Michiyuki Kawashima and bassist and programmer Masayuki Nakano, BBS began as a live breakbeats outfit but in recent years has shifted toward a wall-of-noise, shoegazer sound. With Kawashima recovered from a brain tumor and irrepressible scratch-master DJ Kentaro behind the decks, Ageha’s countdown looks to be positively bombastic.

Club Asia in Shibuya reprises its J-pop-themed countdowns of recent years, with omnipresent Perfume and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu producer Yasutaka Nakata, M-flo’s Taku Takahashi, electrokitschmeister De De Mouse, and as a bracing antidote, dubstep flagwaver Goth-Trad heading up a bill of Club Asia all-stars.

The LGBT crowd and associated party people will be found at Nishiazabu’s Double, which took over the space long occupied by much-mourned Yellow and then Eleven. Double is hosting a collaboration with The Ring, Tokyo’s longest-surviving and thriving gay/mixed night (incidentally, also presided over by Metropolis veteran Lamont Raymond). Behind the decks are Ring stalwarts Asahina and Shinkawa.

Tokyo’s freshest club, Aoyama’s Origami, was still a wild card at this writing. With its vaunted Infinite sound system and “one night, one DJ” format, expect the venue to pull some special beats out of the hat as it seeks to ring in its first New Year’s Eve in style.

Shibuya’s biggest discotheque, Vision, goes French electro with DJs Surkin & Canblaster. Surkin is the hot young head of label Marble, on which Canblaster releases his tracks, and has worked with the likes of M.I.A. With Tokyo electro tastemakers Shinichi Osawa and Dexpistols providing backup, Vision’s labyrinth of rooms underneath Dogenzaka will be heaving into 2014.

In the back alleys of Maruyamacho, cavernous club Womb won’t be slacking either. Expect bracing Teutonic techno beats and a devil-may-care attitude to the proceedings when indefatigable DJ Hell helms the countdown alongside a bevy of Womb residents.

Expat club crew Eggworm are hosting their annual thumpfest at Xex Nihonbashi with guests H-Foundation featuring Halo heading up the night. The pair of US producers have been behind some of the sexiest, dubbiest house to be heard in the last decade, and will be ably backed by Stephane K of Bedrock fame and Japan’s own DJ Aosawa.

classical

The days before New Year’s Eve see frequent stagings of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which Japanese lovingly refer to as nenmatsu no daiku, or “year-end Ninth.” It’s a custom that apparently began when German World War I POWs taught it to their guards at camps in Japan. Most established Kanto orchestras hold their own performances, with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra slated to perform it this weekend at Suntory Hall and Bunkamura Orchard Hall respectively.

In a daring feat of continuous fortitude, the Iwaki Memorial Orchestra will perform all the Beethoven symphonies from 1 through 9 over ten hours on December 31 at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. It’s a marathon tradition that started in 2003 and gives all indications of continuing ad infinitum.

A newer feature of the Japanese classical New Year are late-night “Sylvester” countdown concerts. These take the form of homages to Viennese waltz composer Johann Strauss (December 31 is Saint Sylvester’s Day—Austrians call it “Sylvester”), such as the Suntory Hall Sylvester Concert 2013, again featuring the charming Vienna Folk Opera.

In Shibuya, Bunkamura Orchard Hall’s 19th Tokyu Sylvester Concert 2013-2014 sees Wagner specialist Taijiro Iimori conducting the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Instead of the traditional performance of Elgar’s stirring “Pomp and Circumstance,” audiences will get to select the actual countdown song. The concert will be broadcast nationwide to celebrate TV Tokyo’s 50th anniversary—the perfect antidote to NHK’s schlocky songfest Kohaku.

jazz & r&b

Tokyo’s posh supper clubs are the place to usher in your Year of the Horse at a sedate canter alongside Japan’s bourgeoisie, glass of champagne in hand.

The Blue Note in Aoyama welcomes Hiromi The Trio Project featuring Anthony Jackson and Simon Phillips. Hiromi Uehara, or “Hiromi” as she’s known abroad, is the irrepressible polymath pianist who tore up the stage at Tokyo Jazz 2012. The Berklee-educated prodigy welds the progressive fusion instincts of a Chick Corea to the virtuoso technique of an Oscar Peterson. Bassist Jackson and drummer Phillips aren’t too shabby themselves.

Dance “The Lean” with R&B supergroup Blackstreet at Billboard Live in Roppongi. Blackstreet are a five-member assemblage guided by uberproducer Teddy Riley, along with vocalist Dave Hollister. The group’s 1994 eponymous debut went platinum, generating the infamous single “Booti Call,” while their 1996 Dr. Dre collaboration “No Diggity” went to number one. It’s hard to think of a glitterier countdown than Billboard, which pulls back a curtain behind the stage to reveal a giant window looking out over the Tokyo skyline.

Heading underground, storied Shinjuku jazz club Pit Inn conducts its annual marathon countdown in the form of its All Night Concert 2013-2014. From 7pm on December 31 until the first train on January 1, a pack of jazz heavyweights plays musical chairs. Among them are Takeshi Shibuya’s Orchestra and the Orquesta Libre, with a countdown session featuring sax wiz Naruyoshi Kikuchi again taking the reins to count the New Year in.

rock & indie

Think you’ve had enough of Makuhari Messe this year? Think again. Japan offers up its annual four-day New Year’s J-pop and rock Countdown Japan 2013-2014 fest at the giant convention center. This is for the truly J-committed. After all, there’s only so much Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Puffy and Asparagus a human gaijin can take. Still, amongst the fluff there are some diamonds in the rough. Mo’some Tonebender, Sambomaster and Sakanaction offer up the occasional antidote with some reasonably hard-edged guitar rock.

Another big room rock countdown comes at the hands of Livemaster Inc’s GT 2014 event at Zepp DiverCity. The night boasts some fifty acts including irreverent disco-rockers The Telephones, melocore outfit Total Fat and others. The event begins at 2pm and runs 15 hours through the morning of January 1.

Revered Japanese alt-rockers The Pillows return to present their annual leg-up at Duo Music Exchange in Shibuya, Countdown Bump Show! 2013-2014. Joining them will be fellow Hokkaido bands Bugsy Craxone as well as one of Japan’s more persuasive women rock outfits, Pop Chocolat.

Across town in Shinjuku, venerable rock dive Loft presents Zigzo: The End of 2013 with rock supergroup Zigzo. Headed by three former members of extremely influential visual-kei bands (look ‘em up), the group recently reunited to release The Battle of Love. Perhaps best thought of as recovering visual-kei.

Over in counterculture hub Shimokitazawa, Club Que offers Que’s Countdown 2014, a three-part event with a smorgasbord of better domestic rock bands. Slated for the actual countdown itself are most-excellent chick-rock band Noodles and veteran Osaka retro-garage outfit The Neatbeats.

Ground zero of Japan’s avant-garde scene, Koenji’s Show Boat, will again host noise godfather Keiji Haino for his traditional pre-New Year’s event. A slew of bands will compete on the countdown itself in an event entitled HPNY Breakdown 2013-2014. Special guests from Sweden are the “art metal” group BatAAr, in what looks to be one of the heavier countdown evenings in town.

Another edifice of offbeat rock is Goodman, found in the unlikely context of otaku nucleus Akihabara. The bill for this year’s Good Vibration Countdown 2014 is unpredictable, but Goodman’s booking folks have a good ear—and for the ¥1,000 entry fee you can’t go wrong.

hatsumode & kohaku

The one truly magical aspect of the Japanese New Year is hatsumode, the auspicious first shrine visit of the year.

Many of greater Tokyo’s 30-odd million inhabitants crowd popular shrines like Meiji Jingu in Harajuku, which usually welcomes 3 million visitors, and Sensoji in Asakusa, a popular place to pray for health and wealth. Preferred visiting hours are during nighttime, when the shrines are brightly lit with yatai food stalls and omiyage souvenir shops. For a more spiritual atmosphere, steer clear of the crowds and head to your local neighborhood shrine.

Hatsumode may be traditional, but you haven’t really experienced Japanese New Year’s until you’ve subjected yourself to the ritual of watching NHK’s year-end song battle Kohaku Uta Gassen (“Red and White Song Battle”) with your Japanese in-laws. Kind of a Japanese version of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, Kohaku pits a red team of female singers against a white team of male belters. Ratings may be on the decline, but Kohaku remains the nation’s most-watched musical event of the year.

countdown with kids

First things first—write Disneyland off your countdown plans. The resort is open continuously from New Year’s Eve until 10pm on New Year’s Day, but from 8pm-2am the park—and neighbor DisneySea—are open only to lucky lottery ticket winners and guests at nearby hotels. Still, you can take in the countdown fireworks from nearby and then rejoin the party from the wee hours.

Perhaps a better bet for New Year’s is at Yokohama’s Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, which combines dolphin shows and an aquarium with an amusement park. The park’s Happy Island Countdown ‘14 is priced right, and will see the park alight with fireworks and comedy and dolphin shows. It’s open until 8am for pilgrims awaiting the promising first sunrise of the year over the Pacific.

Also in Yokohama, bundle up the brood and head outside for the Oshare Hanabi in Aka Renga Park. This year, the annual countdown fireworks display will have a Niagara Falls motif and the first hanabi of the year will be clearly visible around the Minato Mirai and Yamashita park area.

beyond countdown

After a few days of oshogatsu quiet, Tokyo revs back into gear with a number of New Year’s rituals. One of the more entertaining is Tokyo’s annual firefighters performance and drill. Japanese firefighting skills were honed in the Edo era at a time when the entire city was made of wood and suffered devastating fires. Thousands of firefighters and a phalanx of 100 engines and helicopters gather at Tokyo Big Site for the Jan 6 Dezomeshiki (New Year’s firefighters’ event) and perform daredevil acrobatic performances atop six-meter ladders.