October 1, 2024 Tokyo's alt and Goth expert shares her top haunts to check out this Halloween By Jessie Carbutt and La Carmina As Halloween in Tokyo approaches, we spoke with alternative fashion, culture, and travel blogger, La Carmina. “I’ve been participating in the Goth subculture since I was a teen,” says the creative, “and I dove into Tokyo’s Gothic and alternative club and fashion scene in my early 20s.” The author of four books dedicated to the dark and spooky places and cultures of Tokyo, including “The Little Book of Satanism: A Guide to Satanic History, Culture, and Wisdom,” La Carmina has cataloged Tokyo’s top spots since she started her La Carmina blog in 2007.
From Gothic Lolita boutiques to vampire and monster theme restaurants, La Carmina shares with Metropolis her favorite haunts to spend your Halloween night. Kinema Club, Uguisidani – home to the infamous Department H alternative and fetish party that has taken place every first Saturday of the month since the 1980s. The vintage-style club is teeming with colorful underground characters such as heavily pierced and tattooed girls with split tongues (snake tongues), drag queens in elaborate gowns, temporary body modifications like “bagelheads”(saline forehead inflation), and incredible full-body handmade costumes such as monsters and anime girls complete with giant doll-heads.
Kagaya (Hatanodai, with a new location opening in Sept), is an izakaya home to a head-scratchingly bizarre owner.
