alife recently went through a minor renewal for its 6th year of business. I went to visit the place last Saturday to see what has changed, if anything. Inside, some of the columns and walls are now covered with a cartoony theme, the lounge above appears more spacious but the rest was frozen in time. [...]

This is a simple overview about nampa in Japanese disco clubs.. which currently pretty much means alife and Xross to some extent.

In most cases girls will come in couples. Japanese women tend to be especially attached and protective of each other. Many will hold hands and continuously keep track of their friend like their lives would depend on each other. Sometimes only one of the two is boyfriendless. In that case the friend will get extra protective (read: pain in the ass) as she’s not in business for herself.

The goal in these clubs is definitely not the music. Girls come fully aware that men will try to pick them up and actually expect that to happen.
If a girl with too many attentions acts like a bitch, a girl with no attentions does get upset when nobody comes around to offer her a drink. For this reason it’s actually good to sometimes go early, so that the few girls that are around are still in need for attentions. Though it’s true that later in the night alcohol effects will help them relax, it’s also true that many won’t drink as much and alcohol effects are multiple and not all positive anyway..