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| Sat Dec 14: Shinjuku, Minato, Harajuku Going around a completely foreign country dressed as Santa Claus is something everybody should do at least once. But it obviously helps if you've got a Santa posse to back you up.
I woke up at 8:20am in order to meet these guys I had never met at a subway stop I had never been to. Having promised Mike that I wouldn't enter or exit the Oakwood in Santa mode, I packed my Santa gear in my back pack, finally getting out the door at 9:30.
Anyway, so I was about 10 minutes late to Nakano station, where I found the Santas who were to be my companions for the day -- Sneery Santa, Totoro Santa and Oyabun Santa. Sneery (Greg) and Oyabun (Soren aka Lazlo) both had traditional Santa costumes, though they were nicer than my bargain basement one. Sneery was most identifiable by his mutton chop whiskers that had remnants of pink dye in them. Oyabun, which means "head of the gang" in Yakuza culture (apparently), got the name because he was the organizer of this first ever Tokyo Santacon. Totoro Santa (aka David) did not have a traditional costume. His was a red sequined affair. It's really a great look, especially when the sun hits him. Unfortunately the pants were a little tight on him and a large hole has formed near his crotch. I'm not sure if he has another suit with him should this one completely give way. Soren had told me over the phone a couple of days before coming here that David would be wearing a Totoro costume that he owned -- thus the name. But unfortunately Soren was confused as David's landlord threw out his costume along with other things he was keeping in an unauthorized place. Besides the glitter, Totoro is the only one of us with a full-on beard, with his being of a salt and pepper nature. He's also doing this trip on the super cheap, which must be a drag. (I'm just cheap). I got dressed and the other Santas were kind enough to wait as I got my shit together. As the other Santas asked what my Santa name was and I hadn't figured mine out, I threw out Disco Santa, but that was stepping on Totoro's toes as he already had the glitter goin' on. When I took out the fake jewel-encrusted dollar sign necklace I'd borrowed from Sarah at work, Oyabun complimented me on my bling-bling, and that kinda stuck. I am Bling Bling Santa. Sitting here at the Oakwood at the end of a long day of merriment-spreading and sight-seeing, my head has the reverberations of hundreds of Japanese people exclaiming "Santa-san!" running through it. Depending on the place and time of day, there was a good 60/40 split between those who noticed and enjoyed seeing a pack of four gaijin Santas strolling the streets, and those who averted their eyes and completely ignored us. For those who did look, the reactions ranged from waving and smiling (which was how I chose to react) to shock, giggling, and -- my favorite -- utter fear, and in the case of a department store escalator monitor, revulsion. Shinjuku We began our day in Shinjuku, attempting to find an ATM that would accept our American bank cards. The search for such an ATM was long and difficult. But Sneery's guidebook didn't steer us wrong -- it's on the 8th floor of the Keio Department Store, which is across from the east side of Shinjuku Station. (The escalators only go to 7, and you have to find the stairs or take the elevator to go higher. Just ask the employees or try and find the floor's map). While I was happy to fuel up my funds, It took us an hour and a half to get cash, and I was starting to think the day might be one miscue after another. But it turned out to be truly wonderful.
Minato We were finally ready to head over to the first thing we had on the agenda for the day, the Festival of the 47 Samurai, where there was supposed to be some sort of parade with Samurai running crazy in the street. This made Santa excited. We found a rice ball shop in Shinjuku Station where I got some inari and tuna fish rice balls -- if I had known it wasn't whole toro but tuna salad I would have ordered something else, but it was still good.
We got off the subway and went up the hill to find a large crowd shuffling towards a temple. On either side of the line were booths selling great food, drinks and gifts. I got a custard-filled hotcake-meets-biscuit, and Sneery was kind enough to offer me his last two octopus balls, which were really good. There was a long line waiting to see what we assumed were the graves of the 47, but we didn't bother. Honestly, there wasn't much to see there, but I'd still like to see another shrine or temple when it isn't thronged with people.
Harajuku Next we were off to Yoyogi-koen, with koen meaning park. This was one of the only things on my list of things to do in Tokyo. I had seen a travel video that mentioned that on Sundays kids come to dress up as rockers and goths, and that sometimes rock music is played on portable generators that are dragged out there. When we got out of the subway we asked someone where to go and we must have misunderstood, because the park is directly adjacent to the station on the west. However, where we ended up was a feast for gaijin eyes.
Takeshita Street
is filled with small shops attended by cool kids in rock gear, selling
great, weird stuff in shops with sometimes bizarre names. I
took a ton of pictures.... When we got to the end of the street we saw a crepe van, which was pretty cool.
Then I asked a kid where the park was and he pointed us to the right. Then at the next intersection I asked someone else and he pointed up the hill, back from whence we came. And sure enough there was a line of trees. From the overpass we saw what we came to see -- goth kids by the bucketful.
Our attempt to introduce some joy into these rueful miscreants' lives was fruitless -- there's no joy in Mudville. (Sneery kept saying to them, "Cheer up! It gets better after high school!") But we did bridge some cultural gaps, I believe. When we arrived there was a band braking down their instruments, and I thought for sure we'd missed our opportunity to see some music. It was so important to me to rock out in Tokyo, especially for free, and I was sure we'd blown it. But a white guy with dreads, a long beard and glasses gave me hope (which I'll get to later). His name was Lars and he's a cultural anthropologist from Norway who comes to Yoyogi-koen every Sunday. I'm not exactly sure how he hopes to observe without being noticed. I can only imagine the goth kids saying, "Oh God, there's the pervert with the notepad again." But I don't mean to pick on him. The park -- well, the area where the kids hang out is more of a stone-lined plaza -- is filled with men taking pictures of all the cute, creepy girls. And Santa was no exception. But it's a safe bet that the goth kids enjoy the attention.
I was particularly taken by this one girl with thick black dreads and a black mask that went over the top half of her face. We never did see Samurai running around at the temple, but this girl was Samurai enough for me.
After learning that she was 17, Sneery was filled with fear and foreboding. Miyu asked him how old he was and he replied, "Ollllld. Too old for you!" The fact that I took pictures of the two of them together and got her e-mail address didn't make him any happier. But I can't wait to ask her more questions and learn about up and coming bands. So speaking of bands, the guys that I saw breaking their instruments down came back again. According to Lars, this was their third try, with the cops having shooed them away before they could start. Meanwhile, Sneery had called another Santa to tell him where to meet us. Bad Ass Santa (aka Andrew) is Asian-Canadian from Toronto. He's been living in Tokyo long enough to be able to read kanji and speak Japanese -- a very valuable asset to the group.
After all, the whole point of our excursions is to drum up support for next Saturday, when we hope to get a whole gaggle of gaijin Santas and Japanese Santas to come along. So Miyu had better show up on Saturday.
Then the band's generator kicked on, their lights went on and I got excited to witness the Rock! Also at this same time a police car with sirens was noticeable at the intersection, but it passed by harmlessly.
All of these girls came out of nowhere to sing along, jump in unison, headbang in unison and do these hand and arm gestures in unison along with the beat. It reminded me of what I'd read about fans at Japanese baseball games who perform intricate cheers and arm movements.
During the gig, the cops arrived and eventually unplugged their equipment, which pissed off the lead singer to the point that he grabbed the hat of the head policeman on the scene! Afterwards we talked to the band and told them that if they had grabbed the hat of a policeman in America they probably would have been shot on sight. But I don't think we communicated this effectively. We also got a flyer from the band that said they're playing at a club called The Live Station Saturday, the night of the main rampage. Something tells me Santa's going to be rocking out to Jer-st again. At that point we were really hungry, and with Andrew with us, we were able to find an out of the way okonomiyaki place. Okonomiyaki is sometimes called Japanese pancake, and in a great Japanese restaurant in Tucson they called it Japanese Pizza, but that's a total misnomer. It's basically a combination between an omelet and a crepe, heavy on the cabbage. I was first introduced to okonomiyaki at Burning Man this year. Someone in our camp made individual ones for everyone. Then Megan and I found the same mix that guy had used at Narija Market on Sawtelle in L.A., and Megan made it for me a couple of times.
We ordered three different kinds -- one with a bit of seafood, one with a lot of seafood, and the Meat Lover's, with salami, ham and bacon. Finally we ordered udon which you also fry up, and we were done. The total for 5 of us was 4400 yen, which worked out to about 9 bucks a person. Fantastic.
A drunk salaryman came up to me and gave me a Heil Hitler salute. That was pretty awesome. And I saw a guy in traditional dress -- robe, socks and sandals. I would have loved to get a picture with him but he wasn't paying me any attention. There was also two girls on my platform who were kneeling down to see their friends who were visible through a low wall that separated their platform from ours. While they were kneeling and waving, I ducked in so that the people on the other platform could see me, gave them a thumbs up, and they yelled, "Santa-San!" Then I backed up out of their view again. After getting off the subway I crossed the street towards the Oakwood, went down some stairs and took off my Santa costume. At the Oakwood I had trouble communicating with the security guard, and he had to call Mike and wake him up. I felt really bad about that. While I was walking through the lobby, the TV that's always tuned to CNN reported that Sadaam Hussein had been captured. Hooray for our side.
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ATM:
Keio Department Store, Surprisingly few ATMs in Tokyo accept American star symbols. Fortunately, there's one in Keio department store in Shinjuku, which is very centrally located. Keio is across from the east side of Shinjuku Station. The escalators only go to the 7th floor, and you have to find the stairs or take the elevator to go higher. Once on the 8th floor, try and find the floor's map or just ask the employees.
Restaurant: Sakuratei Okonomiyaki Restaurant 03-3479-0039 If you're looking for a place for traditional food and locals-only atmosphere, this is an excellent place to try something different. However, finding it and ordering once inside can be a challenge. But these directions should help. To find Sakuratei, get off of the subway at the Harajuku exit (across from Snoopy Town), cross the street, make a right and then make a left, heading downhill. Cross the big intersection (a Condomania store will be across the street on your right) and keep going downhill. Once you pass a Lawson's convenience store, look for a walkway that looks like this:
Keep walking for a good five minutes. You'll pass one or two cross streets, but keep going straight. Eventually you'll see this, which will mean you've arrived:
Turn to your left and you should see this, the walkway to the restaurant:
Hopefully your server will speak your language, or someone in your party will be able to communicate with the server. If not, as long as you order okonomiyaki (since that's why you went there in the first place, right?) you should be fine. Just keep in mind that you'll be pouring, flipping and carving your own food. Fun fun fun! Finally, if it'll help (i.e. if you have friends who can translate) here's a picture of the menu and what I believe to be directions for properly undergoing the okonomiyaki experience.
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