I wish more North American nightclubs had sideshows with artistic whipping! (You can watch more performances on YouTube.) In 2005, Tokyo Dark Castle exported its morose crew to San Francisco. Hopefully, the dark lords will hear my plea and ship them out again.

The salon I want to crash most of all is Narziß, “a fantastic space where the sophisticated dandiacals can do their best: display their fashions and get hedonistic together.” Unlike at the other parties, the volume is low enough to allow for conversations; playlists run from jazz and French pop to psychedelia and disco. The hosts are Tokyo’s most luscious Yarimanchin – a word that translates to Horny Hermaphrodite, Trisexual, or Playcuntcock. Love it!

Narziß is run by The Fashion Ramone (TFR), a collective of “exquisite and arrogant dandiacals” that make Tokyo’s nightlife their playground. TFR’s blog is exploding with photos of debauched club kids – a visual depiction of its manifesto to uphold “freedom, freshness, and escapism.”

When the sun sets, Tokyo’s creatures of the night come out to rage… and the bloody tracks always converge at one of the Goth & Loli Heaven events organized by D’s Valentine. Alamode Night is especially favored by Gothic Lolitas. Every week, there are stage shows (such as The Dark Marchen’s twisted operetta), Visual Kei rockers (BLOOD, The Candy Spooky Theater, GPKISM), and electronic sets by DJs Sisen and Chihiro. It’s enough to turn any dance floor into a danse macabre.

The night has expanded into day with the occasional Alamode Markets, where indie Goth Loli designers display and sell their wares. As you can see from the party photos, the guests really know how to rock the undead look. (I want those white devil horns.) At nightclubs, Lolitas like to layer on the plaster, and their attire tends to the extreme and eclectic.

Tokyo Decadance is another popular destination for Lolitas, along with cyberpunks, drag queens, jet-setters, yamanbas… even “salarymen and normal people”!

Led by Adrien, a towering ex-drag queen from Paris, the extravaganza is slowly taking over the world. Tokyo Decadance has never been staged twice in the same location since 2005 – and its neon dreads are now stretching into Europe and North America.

The night may include a striptease, bondage show, fire dancers, circus… or all of the above. It makes me want to wear a pink birthday cake on my head (like the girl at 1:24).