House & Sake: New Year's Therapy

Shout out to Tokyo's Eleven Lounge, staff, and crew for the all-you-can-drink sake/nihonshu.   Also, special shout out to Ron Trent and Chez Damier, both amazing DJs  who rocked the house on New Year's Eve 2012.    What a way to kick off  2013 the right way.   Old school house music.    The real star though was Chez Damier, a spiritual  beats healer, a man who has taken the whole music genre of house and elevated it to the next level with his deep chest pounding syncopations.    What a night.    I was truly moved.

Tokyo, Japan is one of the most exciting and craziest places in the world to ring in the New Year.       Some of my fondest memories of all night binge drinking parties with the fellas was simply unforgettable here.   So, on the eve of New Years  2012, I headed back out to Tokyo, but to  Nishi-Azabu this time, about a 15 minute walk from Roppongi to the legendary Eleven Lounge a club known for its all-you-can-drink sake and house music.    I never imagined the concept of listening to house music while drinking from woody aromatic cups of cold sake over electronic dance music, and then seeing these two huge glitter balls refracting all the colors of the rainbow,  all over a pitch black smoke filled room.      But it worked!    

      ( " Taruzake or Taru is the large wooden container used to store sake in order to give it a woody aroma")

The whole set up was a real draw and had attracted an impressive crowd of gorgeous young women who had really let loose and just allowed the beats to take them wherever.    The sake helped and created not only an exotic, buy a highly intoxicating environment that reached a fever pitch at ten to the New Year.     The place simply rocked and I had never experienced this kind of club experience in my life.     One of my favorite tracks by Chez Damier is called Keep on Turning by Kids in the Streets ( feat, motorcitysoul, and chez Damier).  

The sake on offer all night was called くろまつけんびし = Kuromatsu Kenbishi and if you click on it you can see more information on it, with some other eye candy for your viewing pleasure.    The large wooden vat offered Hananomai.    Basically, you had two choices Kuromatsu from the large 1.8 liter bottles on the table, or for something more traditional and woody ( excuse the language), but drinking from the wooden crate was far more traditional and fun.   

The beats that came out of the speakers were thick deep bass sounds that echoed all around to the point where I just closed my eyes and danced to the rhythm.  The sake only added to the nostalgia and mixed very well for the evening.   True Tokyo night.