Arty Farty
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Reviews
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Nice little Tokyo Club.
This is probably one of the nicest gay clubs in Asia, which isn't saying a lot as there are very few gay clubs there, but at least this is something. It is upstairs and quite small, but that's typical for Tokyo. You must buy a drink upon entry, but there's no cover charge when I was there, even on Saturday nights. It fills up on Saturday night with a Japanese majority but a surprisingly large foreign crowd. A favorite of gay ex-pats living, working or teaching in Japan. In all, nothing special but a fun time with reasonably priced drinks (for Tokyo), friendly crowd & good music.
like a three star hotel
Exactly! Nothing special, nothing extra, but everything you need on your Friday night is there: young guys, cheap drinks, decent pop music. Hot in summer, a little bit cold in winter. Almost empty on the weekdays.
First to Review
Art(y)... or Fart(y)?
I never got over the name of this place. Who would call his own club "Arty _Farty_"? That only brings negative associations for the foreign - or English speaking visitors of this club. Anyway, in Tokyo's Ni-choma gay scene Arty Farty is the most hated and most visited club at the same time. It is funny how everyone keeps saying "I hate Farty", "I dont like going to Arty"... But in the end, everyone ends up there anyway. So what does a regular Tokyo Ni-chome night out look like? During the happy hours from 6/7 to 9pm you'd be in Advocates and get all-you-can-drink beer for JPY 1000 or in Dragon for all-you-can-drink-cheap-cocktails for JPY 1000. After that (9pm) you either stay put or you switch places to other bars. When you're drunk enough you start to feel like dancing, so you think about clubs you could go to. If you're unlucky there are no monthly gay clubbing events that night and you have to stick with nichome clubs. Cheapest and most popular place to go? Arty is it then! On regular nights it's free of charge to get in, but minimum consumption of 1 drink upon entry (normal drinks costs JPY 700, cheaper ones JPY 600). Arty Farty is a quite small and very _very_ packed club. The crowd is mostly young Japanese boys (barely 18 - and therefore not legal visitors to the club as you need to be at least 21 in Japan), Japanese in their early 20s and foreigners in their 20s-30s. Sometimes you can spot a foreigner or a Japanese in his 40s or 50s, but that rarely happens - and usually are the same 2-3 guys all the time :P Musicwise they play mostly Pop remixes, like Britney, Beyonce, Madonna, Kylie... but also quite lots of Japanese pop music (Amuro Namie). Sometimes when the DJ feel funny he plays some electronic tracks - much to my liking. The crowd is quite fun, people get all wasted, do group dances on the stage. Be aware, though! In winter as in summer, it get quite hot and sweaty in there. So you would'nt wanna even stand in there with anything long sleeved. So in winter or when it rains, be sure to get there early, grab a locker to put your stuff (umbrella, coat, backpack/bag) in there, visit other places and come back later for clubbing. If it wasnt for the music and sweat (they should turn up the A/C a bit more!) I'd rate this place with one more star ;)
