Leprechaun Elvis - Week 43 (March 10 - March 16)

Tokyo Rock-A-Billys

Line Dancers? Yoyogi's got it all

More of em'...

The Elephant room



Leprechaun Elvis

Week 43

Posting again after a long Malaysia related hiatus.

This week started and ended without any serious hitches or problems. It’s the usual work week, powering through lessons and maintaining genki-ness.

But the weekend…

Now, this weekend was, of course, St. Patrick’s day. Fortunately for foreigners living in and around Tokyo, there’s enough foreigners of decidedly beer-oriented disposition to generate legitimate St. Patty’s festivities.

So off we go. Sunday I woke up late of course, it's kind of my M.O. at this point. I was to meet up with three different groups of people in Harajuku in the early afternoon on Sunday. Sean and Kayoko, Melissa and Seth (and others), and Miggy and a group of others down from Fuji-Yoshida to celebrate both the St. Pat’s and a stag party. In the end I failed miserably in spending time with the different groups. Instead, I first met up with Melissa, then crossed the street to deliver Miggy the old tripod I’d brought out for him. He informed me that he and his compatriots were soon to return to the mountainous Yamanashi prefecture from whence they came. I bade them farewell and godspeed. I then proceeded to spend the rest of the day in Mel's company, mostly by accident. I had intended to meet up with Sean but never had a good opportunity to peel off. Ah well.

Due to my late arrival in Harajuku I missed the parade that was held, which was a bit of a shame, but I did later meet the Irishman who actually led the parade. That was cool. Without much else going on it was soon time to leave our perch along the parade route and venture out to Yoyogi park. This was the first time I’d actually been in the park myself. I’d walked along side it before but never gone in. That’s partially because I usually visit the area on Mondays and it’s just not that kicking on weekdays. However, on Sundays (and Saturdays I assume) it’s absolutely kicking. The combination of close proximity to both Harajuku and Shibuya, towns known for their vibrant youth populace, and the lack of large open spaces in Tokyo assures a maelstrom-like confluence of visitors.

Most notably the Rock-A-Billy dancers.

Seriously.

We spent a good long time watching this greasers go through their moves. I was half expecting them to bust out into a rendition of West Side Story, but no dice. There were a few different groups of Rock-A-Billy’s set up as well as some line dancers and others. An interesting cross-section. I ran into Tuan, Alex and Alex’s girlfriend while out walking. It was only a brief conversation though, as I had to get going along with Melissa’s group.

We hunted around for a nice spot to set up and found one close to the fountain in the middle of the park. A few hours of easy conversation and drinking ensued. Melissa’s friends were all really cool and it’s always nice to meet a new group of people.

On a funny note, while walking through the park we stopped for a washroom break. While the girls were waiting in the incredibly long line, a rat the size of small football ran past the lot of em’, eliciting a few screams but, from the three girls in our party, nary a yelp. I was impressed at their hardboiled-ness.

After Seth joined us in the park (he’d been out with others earlier) we walked to Shibuya and found a bar to relax in. We tried an Irish pub first, but it was way too packed. Instead, we ended up back at the Elephant Room, a restaurant I’ve been to a few times before which is always excellent.

Everyone was pretty drunk at this point, and we proceeded to get more so. Ralph, a friend of Mel’s, had joined up to and it was cool to meet him for the first time. The next couple hours are a bit hazy, but it involved plenty of drinking, lots of good food and at the end, a slightly drunken ride home on the Chuo line.

The next morning went slowly, due mostly to hangover issues. Fortunately, I had no agenda, other than going over to Ben’s place for more Rock Band. We had a fifth member there that night, one of Mel’s acquaintances from her part of Japan. The night went well except when our fifth got a bit slovenly and spilled a full drink on Ben’s Tatami. Not good, those rice mats are expensive. That put a bit of a damper on the rest of the night, but it still turned out okay. As always at the end of the night it was back to my place and ready for another week!

Trying desperately to catch up...

Ian "Mello Yello" Cantello