Initially, I found it similar to other gay hook-up and socializing apps like Grindr and Scruff. I downloaded 9MONSTERS the next day, joining approximately 150,000 active users in Japan and 300,000 worldwide. Maybe I’d had too many drinks, but I didn’t get it eventually, he told me to just give the app a try. He described it as a game, though his explanation was convoluted. I first heard about 9MONSTERS from a guy I met in Tokyo’s gay district, Shinjuku Ni-Chome. According to 9MONSTERS, a gay hook-up app popular mainly in South East Asia, I was definitely a wolf-specifically a Muscle Wolf Level 11, by the time I left Japan after about a two month stay.