Put yourself in the shoes of a tourist on a whirlwind trip to Tokyo. You want to have a fun night out, but have no clue where to go to experience the capital’s nightlife. So, you opt for the biggest — ZEROTOKYO, in Shinjuku’s busy and slightly seedy Kabukicho. The line is a little intimidating on the chilly Friday night you head out, but the hour-long wait beats another night looking for a bar. 

Once you pay the entrance fee and head down the first of what feels like a half-dozen escalators, your senses become overwhelmed. From one room, high-energy and downright fractured remixes of anime theme songs play. Across the way near a bar, a DJ digs deep into a throwback house set. Down another floor, and you see..two anime girls projected onto a biggie-sized screen, busting out choreographed dance moves. You have yet to buy a drink. 

Finally, the main area. It’s packed but you find a space. The lights dim, but there’s no DJ or band. Rather, you watch as what appears to be a traditional stage play unfolds in front of you, except dancers light up in bright neon next to a massive LED snake, while elements of the music sound more modern than gagaku. The finale finds a woman wearing an ornate gold outfit step onto the stage, grabbing everyone’s attention. Your head is spinning.

This was the surreal experience of ZIPANGU The Party!! at ZEROTOKYO, starting late on Friday, Feb. 14 and stretching into the early morning. The night’s bill boasted one of the most double-take-inducing set of names to grace a Tokyo lineup in quite some time — alongside a mix of nighttime regulars and legendary electronic creators, beloved enka performer and spectacle incarnate Sachiko Kobayashi would appear a little after 1 a.m., her first club show ever. 

Imagine going out to an all-night affair in New York City populated by EDM upstarts and a few big names in the scene. Now picture Tony Bennet coming out for a set in the middle of it.

That was the stated mission of ZIPANGU, an effort between ZEROTOKYO and traditional entertainment powerhouse Shochiku to flip club conventions on its head via an influx of traditional Japanese culture a government minister would be proud of. Kobayashi stood as the obvious main draw, but her appearance functioned more as a conduit for a  jam-packed celebration of classic performing arts. 

Surrounding all of it was the sounds of now, with nearly none of the history-book flair. Right before Kobayashi took the stage, Taku Takahashi delivered a crowd-pleasing set capped off by his own group m-flo’s “come again,” while shortly after her performance TeddyLoid offered an uptempo mix of original cuts and songs he’s done for modern J-pop performers like Ado. If you wandered off to any of ZEROTOKYO’s other floors and you had the chance of running face first into modernity — minutes prior to the enka-tinged centerpiece, you could watch virtual artist duo Marpril performing via large circular screen one level up.

Nearly everyone in the venue — and it felt like it was at max capacity, with one of the longest lines I’ve personally seen at ZEROTOKYO to date — was there for Kobayashi and the surrounding show. True to its central objective, this 40-ish minute performance offered up a tech-assisted interpretation of Iwami Kagura, a religious-ritual-turned-over-the-top-performance art originating from Shimane Prefecture in Western Japan. This type of entertainment already goes big on crowd-pleasing elements — think smoke and fire — so the 2020s update featuring an LED serpent and glow-up kagura dancers were a logical step forward, as was the fusion of Japanese percussion with club-ready beats playing throughout. 

It was a spectacle, making Kobayashi’s presence all the more fitting. She’s a celebrated singer with plenty of melancholy hits in her songbook, but she’s also a performer leaning into the exaggeration pop music provides. She’s most famous for performing in flashy get-ups and on wild stages (one example), and is someone happy to have fun with her status. She’s repped for her home prefecture of Niigata as a giant, and collaborated with Kizuna AI, among others.

While she only appeared on stage for one song at the very end, Kobayashi made it count. Clad in a gold-centric outfit, she stood center stage to sing a song, with everyone seemingly holding their smartphone up to capture the moment. It felt like an emotional release following the non-stop action of the Iwami Kagura before it, a coda to one of the most unlikely things to ever grace this main stage.

ZIPANGU provided a unique experience for sure, while also pointing towards possible futures for Tokyo’s nightlife. It felt like not only something locals would go ga-ga for, but something tourists seeking out “unique” Japan experiences might love too — while ZIPANGU approached it with much more class and authenticity, it was hard not to think about Robot Restaurant, another tourism-boom-era staple of Kabukicho, while watching it. This is underlined by the fact ZIPANGU exists thanks to a “Night-time Tourism Promotion Subsidy,” which makes sense. This is the sort of spectacle that can get locals and tourists out to enjoy the city’s after-hours offerings. A second installment is already planned for August.

What ZIPANGU really made me appreciate — more so than traditional Western Japan performance — was the club it happened in. ZEROTOKYO opened in early 2023, and is a mixed nightlife experience. The design can be bewildering at times, and the escalators are…annoying, albeit necessarily in such a subterranean space. Above all it’s big. The trend in Tokyo post pandemic has been to smaller spots scattered about the city. They feel intimate. ZEROTOKYO feels labyrinthian.

Yet bigness is exactly what is needed to host something like ZIPANGU. Tokyo’s previous largest club, ageHa, closed in 2022. It could host similarly ridiculous parties, and attract top-level talent both from Japan and abroad. More importantly, its status worked as both an entrypoint for those interested in clubbing and a goal for those performing. Someone new to the city or simply visiting could easily be overwhelmed or intimidated by so much choice…but a large option like ageHa gave them an in.

ZEROTOKYO now plays that role in the capital’s nighttime ecosystem. Besides being a good starting point — whether through special events or just regular nights — it’s a venue that can house just so much varied music. While ZIPANGU’s neo-kagura took the limelight, one could find no shortage of modern Japanese club sounds all over, whether from the virtual pair Marpril, young forward-thinking dance DJs such as KOTONOHOUSE or playful creators dabbling in playroom sounds such as DE DE MOUSE. 

One could easily spend all night on the main floor…but they could also wander off into a more cramped side room and see something like the back-to-back thrills provided by BAILEFUNK KAKEKO and AXELERATOR, who unleashed waves of thumping Brazilian funk fragments, including distorted remixes of Creepy Nuts’ “Otonoke” and the theme to My Deer Friend Nokotan. Simply wandering around would lead to all kinds of perspectives on the city’s club sound.

ZIPANGU’s special programming provided something special while also hinting at a way to help Tokyo’s nightlife industry benefit further from the ongoing rise in tourism. Yet just as important was the reminder of how a place like ZEROTOKYO plays a vital part in that space, through being able to accommodate ambitious stage shows and a smattering of everything the city’s dance community has to offer. It can feel like a trip, especially on a night like this one, but that’s part of the fun.