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Corporate Goth party in a Tokyo boardroom! A strange themed club, or office meeting?

japan alternative party

My Pirates TV production company has been doing well lately, so it was nigh time to celebrate with rum and wenches!

Naomi, Yukiro and I threw a “Corporate Goth Meeting” — our clever way of hosting a drinking party in a central, inexpensive Tokyo space. Read on for the shenanigans, and tips on how you can plan an alternative event like ours.

tokyo goth scene

After wrapping our latest Tokyo TV job, we wanted to host a get-together for our “spooky friends.” But how to throw an epic Goth party at minimal cost?

In Tokyo, this is a special dilemma. People live in small apartments far away, so we couldn’t have an event at someone’s house. We didn’t want to join an existing club night, or meet at a restaurant or bar (too noisy and expensive, and not good for mingling). Renting a private club space would also be much too costly.

corporate goth work clothes

The sneaky and slightly subversive solution… We rented a hotel boardroom for three hours, and held a “work meeting!”

In Shinjuku, you can rent business meeting rooms for under $50 an hour. They’re large enough to hold 20-30 “staff members”, and the location is convenient for everyone.

tokyo goth makeup, drag queen

The hotel didn’t question our motives behind the “Corporate Goth Meeting.” But once the doors closed, the work gathering… turned into a drag queen drinking fest.

whiteboard merger profits

Our friends (aka employees) showed up in “Business Casual Gothic work clothes” to fit the theme (aka ruse). We did end up discussing important matters, as you can see on the white board.

mount gay barbados rum

Everyone brought a little something to eat or drink. This Barbados “Mount Gay” rum was the hit of the evening.

drinking party, alcohol table

How sweet that many of my “pirates” brought me yuzu (the tangy Japanese citrus), since they know it’s my favorite fruit flavor.

nightmare before christmas sweater, rolick lumine

I’m wearing a Nightmare Before Christmas sweater from Rolick, a women’s boutique in Shinjuku Lumine. I’m not a big fan of the current winter collections in Japan, as the materials tend to be scratchy and the designs uninspired. However, I love the Jack Skellington print in this collaboration.

My fuzzy boots are by Liz Lisa.

jack skellington sweater

There are perks to being Captain of the Pirate Ship. You can engage in a little “harassment” here and there…

corporate goth meeting

Everyone got into the theme of the party. It looks like we’re having an animated panel discussion.

la carmina and pirates sign

In fact, we are a business: La Carmina and the Pirates does Japan TV fixing, local production arranging, translation, on-camera hosting, consulting and more. We’ve worked with Food Network, Travel Channel, Discovery, National Geographic and other networks.

nu goth clothing, leather garter belt

Three shining examples of how to dress Work Goth. It’s possible to abide by an office dress code, while keeping a dark, alt aesthetic.

cruella de ville costume

Yukiro appears to be delivering a corporate takeover speech.

japanese goth dolly fashion

Kanae raises an objection, Phoenix Wright style. (In fact, our friends do work with us — they’re always willing to lend a hand with projects, and appear on our TV shows.)

grey green hair color

Naomi brought portable speakers, and played Gothic MIDI tunes. The boardroom space was perfect: everyone could mingle freely, and chat without being drowned out by music.

drag queen posing

We even had a nice view of Kabukicho. The only problem with the room… was that Seby thought the lights were too bright!

iphone 3 old phone

Maybe we need to upgrade our employees’ cell phones. (This is Yukiro’s ancient iPhone 3.)

crossdressing gothic lolita

Thankfully, none of the people at the hotel disturbed our meeting. If they walked in unexpectedly, I think they would be very confused.

halloween gingerbread, ghost bat cookies

We munched on Caro’s haunted gingerbread, made by hand.

girl taking iphone photos

The cookies go well with mocha and vodka, apparently.

sony a700 digital camera

My hair flower clips are handmade by Angelica Brigade. Remember when I wore them in this Ice Queen photoshoot?

drawing on whiteboard

Naomi does a presentation about capital gains and losses. Or something like that.

sitting on board room table

There’s always a lady in the office who gets a bit scandalous after a few drinks..

crazy office party

At our events, someone always ends up being tortured (in this case, stomped on).

work party, staff photo

The motto of the evening: “Be there or be fired!”

red and white cake

We gave out an Employee of the Month award to David, who was also celebrating his birthday.

goth eating cake

In addition to the bloody delicious cake, you can see how much there was to imbibe.

funny cake eating

Yukiro and Remiko show how eating should be done.

i like it hard tshirt

And this t-shirt says it all. What do you think of our out-of-the-box idea for renting a cheap and central event space? I think we’ve created an alternative to alternative parties!

work office parties

Cheers to my Japan Pirate crew. My ship would have run aground long ago, without you crazy kids.

Would you throw a “business meeting” like ours? Do you dress Corporate Gothic when you go to work?

SHARE & COMMENT

30 Comments

  1. Charles
    Posted January 11, 2014 at 12:42 am | Permalink

    This. Is. Amazing..

  2. Zi
    Posted January 11, 2014 at 12:43 am | Permalink

    Love them!

  3. yukiro
    Posted January 11, 2014 at 1:49 am | Permalink

    I´m not satisfied with these meeting only taking place once a year. I will take that up on our next meeting as the main issue! ;)

  4. Jonelle
    Posted January 11, 2014 at 4:11 am | Permalink

    OMG, I am soooo sorry I wasn’t in Tokyo for this! ( ; _ ; ) Everybody looks AMAZING! Next time I’m flying in for sure!

  5. Harriet
    Posted January 11, 2014 at 8:27 pm | Permalink

    That looks so fabulous

  6. Remiko
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 4:53 am | Permalink

    The cake was good and so was eating it with Yukiro. ;)

  7. Jenny
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 4:53 am | Permalink

    Someday

  8. Tara
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 4:54 am | Permalink

    I will be at the next meeting! (o^^o)
    Just happy I’m not fired :P

  9. Mathieu
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 4:54 am | Permalink

    That cake was so perfect…….

  10. Suz
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 4:54 am | Permalink

    What a fabulous idea!!! (And I do in fact dress that way when I’m at my day-job – they haven’t sacked me so far!)

  11. Glen
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 4:54 am | Permalink

    yeah!

  12. Jen Nair
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 6:58 am | Permalink

    really awesome

  13. Rob
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 6:58 am | Permalink

    Amazing!

  14. Sara
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 7:59 pm | Permalink

    ♡♡♡

  15. Pat
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 8:00 pm | Permalink

    for the WIN

  16. Terra
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 8:00 pm | Permalink

    So sweet

  17. April
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 8:01 pm | Permalink

    <3

  18. amanda_chen
    Posted January 12, 2014 at 11:17 pm | Permalink

    Awww, Basil. What did they done do to ya, baby? LOL.

  19. Julia
    Posted January 13, 2014 at 1:23 am | Permalink

    What about a party in a love hotel next time? :D

  20. Vivienne Crosse
    Posted February 9, 2014 at 7:54 am | Permalink

    Lol insane, I would love to be there xD

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