We had a fair amount of experience in Saigon with English clubs and similar events.  They were interesting, overwhelming and really just a huge gathering of people interested in speaking English excitedly swarming around foreigners that arrived.  In Japan we’ve started to attend English clubs in our search for jobs and have recently stumbled across a monthly English party on the 53rd floor of an exclusive condo complex.  People sip sparkling wine cocktails and dine on plates of freshly prepared hors d’ oeuvres while making small talk and looking out over the shimmering lights of a dozen different districts of Tokyo.  Some of the basic dynamics are the same, but I am not sure I have been to the same kind of event in two places with a more radically different setting and atmosphere.