A woman with purple hair sits in the waiting room on the platform at Nerima Station, surrounded by salarymen who look exhausted from their workday. Nearby, a private security guard herds four friends wearing matching floral-print pants and light-up shoes toward a line. An assortment of middle-aged workers and high school students weave through the swarm of 20-somethings downing cans of chu-hi to catch their trains.
"I just want to have a new experience," a young man in a pink shirt tells me. He has chosen the right place.
We're all gathered on a Friday night at Nerima Station on the Seibu-Ikebukuro Line for the ageHa Train, a special two-day event organized by Seibu Railway and the megaclub ageHa. A few hundred people will board the train, which will take them to ageHa just as it opens. Once there, passengers can move on to a special pre-club gōkon (group date) before partying until the first train of the morning, which will no doubt be a lot more sedate.
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