Kaguwa

Plan a yearend party at Roppongi’s kitschy culture club

Photos courtesy of Kaguwa

Some people say that if you have only one day in Tokyo you should spend it in Shinjuku, because it’s got everything from modern skyscrapers to ancient shrines, and tranquil gardens to red light districts. There’s every facet of Japan, ancient and modern, squeezed together somewhat uncomfortably around the station, famously the busiest on Earth.
Well, if you had just one night in Tokyo, you could get a similar experience in just a couple of hours, and with a decent meal of traditional Japanese food and drink, at Kaguwa, located not in Shinjuku but Roppongi.

Kaguwa is a purpose-built restaurant/theater that puts on a gob-smacking show two or three times a night, six days a week. Patrons eat and drink just meters from the stage, either at tables at the front or on the second floor, or on raised tatami mats in a semi-enclosed space at the back—perfect for large groups.

Photos courtesy of Kaguwa

It’s an impressive auditorium, but not half as impressive as the stage. This ingenious piece of engineering is divided into 24 rectangular sections, each of which can be hydraulically raised up to nearly two meters. By carefully controlling these sections, the producers continuously change the dynamic of the stage, creating podiums, platforms and stairs of different shapes and sizes throughout the 50-minute show. When all the sections are fully raised, a whole other dungeon-like stage opens up underneath.

The entertainment is similarly fast-paced: we saw 15 performers with as many as 12 costume changes in less than an hour. Some of the performers are boys, some are girls, and some are “new halves”—i.e. boys dressed as girls, or transsexuals. They dance, act, smile and occasionally mime, but they don’t sing and there is no live band—the music comes out of a sound system that would be more at home inside Tokyo Dome. If you want an encore, when the lights go up one of the entertainers will come and sit with you if you buy him/her a drink for ¥950. (Everything is in Japanese, but English narration is planned for some shows by mid-2007.)
When we were invited to Kaguwa last month we sat in a booth near the stage. We were given the all-inclusive ¥7,500 Take course that includes entrance, a deluxe two-tier bento box and all-you-can-drink beer, shochu, whiskey and apricot liquor (an orange version of umeshu). The bento box included a variety of cold delicacies such as sweet potato mixed with nuts, teriyaki cod, duck roulade, sticky rice and dessert. Normally, entrance costs ¥3,500 and customers are required to order one drink (from ¥700) and one item of food (also from ¥700), and pay a 20 percent service charge, so unless you really don’t intend to eat or drink much, a course seems like good value.

Photos courtesy of Kaguwa

We arrived 30 minutes before the show, just enough time to scoff our bento and have a quick chat. (A new show started at the end of November.) There was no single theme; rather, it was a mélange of concepts—like a day exploring Shinjuku at light speed. One moment the performers are dancing in traditional costumes and spinning parasols to shamisen music, the next they’re dressed up for S&M; then they’re French waiters doing a retro ode to cigarettes; then they’re decked out in sparkling silver and grooving to Madonna like cabaret at a gay club; then they’re in kimono acting out a folk story about a suicidal prostitute to the portentous opera of Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli.

Often in Tokyo we find ourselves questioning whether things we remember really happened. A night in Kaguwa is one of those surreal moments. And although the show is too eclectic to be “meaningful,” perhaps it does say something fleeting about the hollow schizophrenia of modern Japan.

Whatever. It’s really just a bit of fun, and there is nothing wrong with that.

5-4-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku. Tel: 03-5414-8818. Open Tue-Sat 5:30pm-4am (L.O. 3:30am), Sun 5:30pm-12:30am (L.O. midnight), closed Mon. Shows at 7:30pm and 10pm (also at 1:30am Fri and Sat night). Standard entrance charge: ¥3,500. Course meals (which include entrance charge) must be reserved a day in advance. Reservations strongly recommended over the holiday season and on weekends. www.kaguwa.com

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