Category: General News


Tokyo Dark Castle

Flyer for Tokyo Dark Castle’s last 2012 event (JGoth added question in red)

This blog entry is an update on the lack of overnight events this year in Tokyo’s dark scene.

In case you have not already noticed, iconic events such as Tokyo Dark Castle and Midnight Mess have gone strangely quiet in recent months. There could be a few reasons for this, but it seems one big issue is the re-enforcement of some old laws.

Tokyo has began re-enforcing a 60-year old law that makes late night dance activities illegal. There could also be some other re-animated regulations too, but that makes it hard to have the overnight events – especially lively events such as TDC.

Essentially, if an organizer wants to have late-night dancing, they need to have certification from a recognized dancing association to avoid the risk of them and their patrons being arrested. While it is possible to get certification for many standard dance styles, I do not think that there are any “disco” “mosho” dance associations out there, so it looks like the best of Tokyo’s Gothic night events have closed shop for a while.

Why was dancing without a license made illegal?

Well, it seems that it was somehow connected with prostitution when it was originally installed – perhaps offering a venue for solicitation. However, nowadays in Tokyo, walking down any of the night district streets will get you more solicitations than you can point a stick at.

So the question becomes… Why?

There was a case where one guy was beaten to death at a club last year, but that was more a case of gang members coming in with metal pipes and baseball bats, than being danced to death.

The end result is that overnight events are out for the time being. The early evening events appear to continue without problems, so if you are considering Gothing in Tokyo, an evening event may be the type of event to pursue…

Hello folks! Just a short note to let you know that JGoth is not dead, just in hibernation while I catch up with daytime work. Will get onto the blog in the next few weeks ahead.

To people mailing in stuff – thanks! I really like what you sent so will look into it more deeply when I get the chance.

Rock on!

Names are spinning around my head, lotsa names. Names like

DESPAIR!
BAAL!
2 BULLET!
GABRIEL’S STILLETTO
A101!
AGENT MURDER (sadly retired)!
CHIHIRO!
13th MOON!
and tons more View full article »

Heya folks. Just a quick update on the never-ending story of Igor jolting the site around.

As you know last episode, Igor closed the social network experiment after a two-year stint. What was the problem? Basically i didn’t have time or energy to combat the spammers and be a good host. So that will be re-opened as an archive in the weeks ahead. Now I’m here to tell you about my bloggy plans… View full article »

Greetz folks. This is Igor, the Webslave of JGoth.com.

Thank you everybody who have invested your valuable time to supporting and using the site – without you I would never have tried.

Unfortunately due to a massive influx of spam and my own lack of time to combat that and otherwise manage the site (not to mention the decline of usage by regular members) it has been decided to retire the Jgoth.com social network.

Where is my stuff?

At the moment the content is hidden away from everyone while I removed some of the worst spam on the site. An announcement will be made here by February 26 when the site is accessible to the public. This will allow users/former users to access the site and download any content they may have posted there.

Where can I go?

Well, I have another site, Gothers.com, which is a much rowdier place (minus most of the spam). It is more Facebooky than JGoth (JGoth was old-skool SNS for people who didn’t like Gothers!), and a little too bright, but I will be working in the coming months to darken the space to people’s liking. Click through to Gothers.com!

What’s happening to JGoth.com?

JGoth.com was originally a Japanese Gothic news site, so I will be dusting off the old articles and uploading them in the weeks ahead. I got a bigger interest than JGoth itself, so I will be moving on towards more global Goth news as the site continues.

I will leave moderated comments on this page and will check up regularly.

Once again, THANK YOU for your time and energy and support in making JGoth.com last for a couple of years!

After three years of being mothballed, I have taken steps to kick this site into gear again. Wow, there is a lot of debris that needs to be cleaned up here. I will be working to update the category system of the site so it is a little easier to navigate for visitors. This will mean that content will be jumping around a bit depending on where it is stored on the site database. Hopefully you should be able to find items that go into hiding by using the search box.

The goal is to re-initiate the site so people can find more underground events in Tokyo and the rest of Japan and also to keep up with some of the bands as they work on new projects. We shall see in the days ahead.

In the meantime, I have to get prepared for the Bayside+Genocide that will be happening tomorrow on October 10, 2010. I am so looking forward to seeing my old friends U-tarou and Mikito BAAL again, and to meet new friends on the hard-core independent scene.

That’s all for now – cheers.

It is time for another Halloween in Osaka, and what better way to celebrate this dark night than turning up to another iteration of the famous Gothic club event, Black Veil!

Produced by Territory-D’s Taiki, Black Veil is one of the coolest events to go to in the Osaka Goth scene. The event is an all-night affair featuring DJ’s Taiki, Bonzin and Syarman along with support from locals Moe:t and Elmina, plus a special guest performance from Nagoya’s Stigmatic DJ, Doomspider. There will also be performances from an-jali and Midori (a toast to her hallowed name!) and a shop booth for Territory-D, of course.

The event is priced at 3,500 yen (plus one drink) for advanced bookings and 4,000 yen (plus one drink) on the night. I am not sure if this is dress-coded, but for any Dark Veil event it is always worth dressing up as it will be one of the best dressed events in the local calendar.

Starting at 9 p.m. the event will continue on until the dawn so remember to bring a photo ID with you!

Dark Veil :: Halloween
When: October 30
Where: Club Neo
Address: B2, It Bldg., 2-18-9 Nishi-Shinsaibashi, Chuo-ku, Osaka :: 大阪市中央区西心斎橋2-18-9 ITビルB2F
Tel: 06-6213-3211
Booking: sabbat[@]territory-d.com
DJ’s: Taiki, Syarman, Bonzin, Moe:t, Elmina and Doom Spider
Open: 21:00
Price: Advance 3,500 yen (+1 drink), @door 4,000 yen (+1 drink)

Finally, after a month or so doing other things, I have come back to the blog – Tadaa!

Hopefully I will have some more content up soon.

Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this masterpiece from The Damned:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjAI6MNVWKA[/youtube]

Shopping online helps people find alternative and fresh items quickly and efficiently. However, as we all know, sifting through the immense amount of content on the Web for the right information and contacts can be a real burdensome experience. Essentially we all need a guide to help us cut to the chase so to speak. Here is where Shopwiki.com come into play to make your clothing selection process easier and fun.

Shopwiki.com provides comprehensive information about clothing for women including the latest fashion trends, designer fashion, a handy tool for those needing special sizes and a seasonal fashion forecast (summer, fall, winter and spring). The site also includes an environmentally friendly information section.

Visitors can define their own wardrobe or just pick up specific pieces online. For example, you can look for work suits, casual work outfits for special occasions, or look for particular items such as jeans, tops and more. Regardless of your tastes the site’s guides discuss all manner of details needed to be considered for clothes shopping – covering nearly every imaginable piece of clothing you could need. Using a thorough Wiki-powered search the site offers a plethora of data organized ready for your research.

The wiki and its buying guides, together with store listings help users find what items they want and where they can buy them at the most competitive price.

While checking out Psydoll at my latest adventure to Urga in July 2010 I came across Shredni Vashtar, a rather interesting duo producing peppy electronica. Excuse the audio quality, I was standing too close to the speakers again.