街コン

I’m not sure if I’ve written about this before but since I couldn’t find it anywhere, I shall assume I haven’t.

Most, if not everyone of you, must have heard of 合コン (Gokon), where a number of guys and the same number of girls go on a “blind date.” It’s typically small in scale with between 3 to 6 per side arranged by a common friend. A few months ago, I participated in one that’s on a much larger scale than that, called 街コン (machikon), which is as large as a few hundred people and up to thousands.

How machikon works is you are assigned to a particular shop (which could be a restaurant, a bar, a cafe or anything depending on the organisers) to start. You can eat and drink as much as you want at that shop and hit on as many girls as you want. After an hour, you can head to other participating shops and do the same. If there is someone you fancy, you can invite them to visit the next shop with you. Of course it is not necessary to leave if you really enjoy the first place. A machikon session typically lasts 3 hours (so the shops don’t go bankrupt).

It originated from shops in lesser known areas wanting to introduce their town and make it exciting, while at the same time improve their businesses but has evolved to an event where young people get to meet new people.

The one I participated was in theory 300 vs 300 (but it felt like there were a lot more people) and in bars. Also, as it wasn’t particularly controlled, the moment you step in, it’s up to you to do something. In summary, it was kinda like paying for unlimited food and drinks to go hit on girls in bars. Frankly, if I wanted to hit on girls, I wouldn’t have to join that event.

Would I join another machikon? Perhaps not. If I do, I’ll write about it again.

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