Esrock Meets the Harajuku Girls

« Return to Japan (Tokyo)

More shopping areas to bankrupt a billionaire, more sake to sink a sailor. Every building has floors of bars, clubs, restaurants, private lord-knows-what. My Accountant discovered one linen closet called the Joker Bar, in which the bar staff perform magic tricks for a tiny rotating clientele. The cover charge was only slightly more than a ticket to see David Copperfield in Vegas. “This could only happen in Japan,” explains the doorman outside a hostess club. Hostess clubs involve men paying $100 an hour to sit in a room, buying $20 drinks for pretty girls who talk to them. That’s it. The girls are dressed well but are neither lap dancers nor prostitutes. They just make conversation, and get handsomely paid for it. “Japanese men are shy, and this way they get to talk to girls, and then go home to their wives,” says the doorman, as if this makes sense. The only thing I can assess for certain is that Japanese men are rich. If you’re planning on a big night out in Tokyo, budget at least the market capital of a mid-sized gold mine in Ghana.

My final impression was the Emon ceremony. I cracked an invite to an AJALT Japanese Teacher Association party, and the highlight was a traditional dressing of a court lady. The art of clothing a woman in 12 to 20 layers of delicate silk is dying, so this was a treat for the Japanese in the audience too. Two assistants slowly added the layers of silk, which can weigh as much as 15kg. Only one string holds the ensemble together, and the 12th century court ladies would compete with colours, patterns and wigs. How she managed to walk or move without keeling over is beyond me, but the lady being robed, a Japanese teacher, stoically maintained her expression of serene calm. “The Japanese Emperor adopted western fashion and customs in the 1850’s,” explains the presenter. But that’s just it. While they have taken so many parts of the west and are clearly fascinated with American culture in particular, the Japanese have added their quirks and customs to create this bizarre culture unlike any I’ve ever seen before. The balance of progress and tradition, politeness and hostility, and rules and deviance makes Tokyo the most fascinating city on the planet.

United Airlines Flight 881
Tokyo to Bangkok

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