10-03-2002, 06:41 PM
A chance to see the best of Michaelangelo and Michael Owen
By CAI EVANS
Major Sports Bar #23 in Takadanobaba is a real sports fan's sports bar.
While several other Tokyo establishments in this sector are strewn with strippers, karaoke machines and other moral hazards, genial owner Kazuyuki Yamauchi keeps things simple at #23.
For a start, the bar has four wide screens; it is not unusual to be simultaneously entertained by action from the NFL, the Premiership, Major League Baseball and the Super 12.
Moreover, every table is armed with a bountiful array of free peanuts, banana chips, chocolates and those crescent-shaped spicy brown things that no one seems to have found a name for. With beers costing a mere 500 yen, you get the feeling that Homer Simpson would be rather fond of the place.
My local host for the night was Paul "Biffa" Bacon, professor of international relations at Tokyo Jogakken Daigaku in Minami Machida. (I wonder how many other academics are called Biffa?)
"This is a great place to come for the Premiership, especially on a quiet night when you don't want to be surrounded by baying idiots," declared Biffa, never one to mince his words.
Yet the quiet appeal of the bar is also the bane of its owner.
Located on a secluded path beside the Kandagawa River, a 10-minute walk from the Waseda exit of Takadanobaba Station, #23 is not the kind of place you wander into by chance.
"I was very busy during the World Cup," said Kazuyuki.
"But it has been much quieter since. Now I just want to let people know that they have the chance here to see international sport that you can't see on Japanese TV."
At the other end of the scale, one local building that is virtually impossible to miss during a cursory tour of the town is the towering Celes Takadanobaba wedding complex.
Both the external facade of this extraordinary orange structure and the impressive interior layout of its wedding "cathedral" are said to be modeled on Michaelangelo's Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome.
This is probably why it looks a bit out of place in between a Family Mart and an izakaya.
Actually, when I first laid eyes on the place I thought less about Michaelangelo than I did about Mary Shelley and "Toccata & Fugue in D minor."
But if the Gothic resonances of the architecture are startling, they still technically honor the firm's pledge to provide its clients with a European-style wedding experience. Just don't go watching "Bride of Frankenstein" before you get married there.
In terms of the Takadanobaba experience as a whole, it's fair to say that the place has its share of drawbacks. The area around the train station, for example, is overwhelmingly grimy, even for a student town.
But there is no denying that Takadanobaba has a subterranean, hedonistic energy that draws a person in and doesn't let go very easily.
As Biffa said: "There's a lot going on here -- if you're willing look for it. It's not in your face and overtly hectic like Shibuya or Shinjuku. But there are some great little places. It's up to you to find them."
Notes from the Smoke introduces readers to the hidden delights (and peculiarities) of Tokyo neighborhoods. Anyone who wants to show Cai around a favorite haunt should contact community@japantimes.co.jp to arrange a meeting.
The Japan Times: Oct. 4, 2002
(C) All rights reserved
By CAI EVANS
Major Sports Bar #23 in Takadanobaba is a real sports fan's sports bar.
While several other Tokyo establishments in this sector are strewn with strippers, karaoke machines and other moral hazards, genial owner Kazuyuki Yamauchi keeps things simple at #23.
For a start, the bar has four wide screens; it is not unusual to be simultaneously entertained by action from the NFL, the Premiership, Major League Baseball and the Super 12.
Moreover, every table is armed with a bountiful array of free peanuts, banana chips, chocolates and those crescent-shaped spicy brown things that no one seems to have found a name for. With beers costing a mere 500 yen, you get the feeling that Homer Simpson would be rather fond of the place.
My local host for the night was Paul "Biffa" Bacon, professor of international relations at Tokyo Jogakken Daigaku in Minami Machida. (I wonder how many other academics are called Biffa?)
"This is a great place to come for the Premiership, especially on a quiet night when you don't want to be surrounded by baying idiots," declared Biffa, never one to mince his words.
Yet the quiet appeal of the bar is also the bane of its owner.
Located on a secluded path beside the Kandagawa River, a 10-minute walk from the Waseda exit of Takadanobaba Station, #23 is not the kind of place you wander into by chance.
"I was very busy during the World Cup," said Kazuyuki.
"But it has been much quieter since. Now I just want to let people know that they have the chance here to see international sport that you can't see on Japanese TV."
At the other end of the scale, one local building that is virtually impossible to miss during a cursory tour of the town is the towering Celes Takadanobaba wedding complex.
Both the external facade of this extraordinary orange structure and the impressive interior layout of its wedding "cathedral" are said to be modeled on Michaelangelo's Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome.
This is probably why it looks a bit out of place in between a Family Mart and an izakaya.
Actually, when I first laid eyes on the place I thought less about Michaelangelo than I did about Mary Shelley and "Toccata & Fugue in D minor."
But if the Gothic resonances of the architecture are startling, they still technically honor the firm's pledge to provide its clients with a European-style wedding experience. Just don't go watching "Bride of Frankenstein" before you get married there.
In terms of the Takadanobaba experience as a whole, it's fair to say that the place has its share of drawbacks. The area around the train station, for example, is overwhelmingly grimy, even for a student town.
But there is no denying that Takadanobaba has a subterranean, hedonistic energy that draws a person in and doesn't let go very easily.
As Biffa said: "There's a lot going on here -- if you're willing look for it. It's not in your face and overtly hectic like Shibuya or Shinjuku. But there are some great little places. It's up to you to find them."
Notes from the Smoke introduces readers to the hidden delights (and peculiarities) of Tokyo neighborhoods. Anyone who wants to show Cai around a favorite haunt should contact community@japantimes.co.jp to arrange a meeting.
The Japan Times: Oct. 4, 2002
(C) All rights reserved