Kill Bill Christmas

Kill Bill Christmas

In the Quentin Tarrantino movie, "Kill Bill", there is a famous scene where Beatrix Kiddo (played by Uma Thurman) storms into a two-storied Japanese restaurant, and kills the Crazy 88 samarai body guards of O-Ren Ishii (played by Luci Liu) in a mad, impossible, incredible sword fighting smorgasborg of demented rage. The movie scene was shot at Gonpachi restaurant in Tokyo, and it was one of the places we wanted to visit. And, since we would be in Tokyo for Christmas, we decided to have a non-traditional western Christmas dinner, and call it the Kill Bill Christmas.

That's the background of the story, but the foreground was just pure fun. After having a few too many beers at Geronimo's on Christmas eve, we woke up late, and started our day at the crack of 1pm. Our first stop was Shibuya to shoot our video (see link on the blog) at the craziest intersection of any place on the planet. When the car traffic stops, and the pedestrians take to the pavement, they can go in any direction or all directions for the next 30 seconds. Then, when the whistles start to blow, and the lights flash, the cars have domain again, and tardy pedestrians are left to make a mad dash to the nearest curb. It's awesome!! Which is why we wanted to shoot our Christmas greeting there.

Since the Japanese only tentatively celebrate Christmas, we had a really hard time finding santa hats. I was pretty adament that we 'have to show our our Christmas spirit', and Cat went along, even though it took several days of looking for hats. In the end, a local from Baskin Robbins ice cream directed us to a department store, and we found the small display with santa hats on the 3rd floor next to the Household Items department. Properly outfitted, we shot 3 videos, and had a ball doing it. Interestingly, several people smiled at us, and a few people kinda payed attention, but for the most part, two people shooting a video in the middle of the intersection wearing santa hats was not an extraordinary event. Only in Tokyo.

After our "shoot", we walked up to Yoyogi park to a glimpse at the cos-play/anime girls. Theirs is such an amazing, artistic, dynamic display of self-expression that has turned into a sustained subculture. We are going back tomorrow to see more of them, ask a few more questions, and for good reason take more pictures.....which they are more than glad to accomodate.

Leaving Yoyogi park, we walked down Harajuku Street, and down some random off-streets, by innumerable funky shops and stylish boutiques. On our way back to Shibuya, we had to pee, so we stopped at a mall, and enjoyed a one-man piano concert playing classic Christmas songs. Being more than a tad homesick, it was good therapy for our souls, and we hugged tightly in our seclusion.

A short subway ride took us to the Midtown Tower in Roppongi. Two days ago we had met Cat's friend, Tomomi, at the building before going to a noodle bar lunch. After lunch, we enjoyed a formal tea ceremony at the Suntori Museum - a profoundly beautiful Japanese tradition steeped in ritual and symbolism. Walking around the park after the tea ceremony, we saw that there was a large Christmas light display, and vowed to come back. Christmas was the perfect day to revisit the light show. It was spectacular on a cool, crisp winter night in Tokyo.

Our final stop before dinner was to toast Christmas at one of the two "ex-pat" bars in Tokyo. Having enjoyed Geronimo's the night before, we combed the side streets to find Mugambo's, and its famous bell. Geronimo's has a drum, and Mugambo's has a bell. When someone buys a round of shots for the bar, the loaded patrons know what bar they're in by the sound. If you hit the drum, then you are buying a round of shots for everyone in Geronimo's. If you ring the bell, you buy a round of shots at Mugambo's. The current shot-buying leader at Mugambo's (according to the neon ticker tape machine) is some rich bloak who has ponied-up for 432 rounds......THIS MONTH. I ordered a beer, and Cat had a shot to honor the bell-man of 432 rounds.....whoever he is.


We had an 8pm reservation for Gonpachi, and showed up 15 minutes early. The staff was sooo nice, and the place was packed. The Maitre De, Kenji is from Venezeula, and he fawned over our hats and Christmas spirit. He has two baby boys, and is married to a Japanese woman. The hostess, Yuma is from Los Angeles, and she looked the part of hollywood starlett, dressed in an elegant form-fitting black dress. After spending some time at our table, she volunteered to take our picture outside to get a true Kill Bill portrait. She was so sweet and down to earth. We loved her. And, we LOVED the food. We ordered the set menu, and it included all the most popular items from each course of the ala carte menu. In the end, we salivated over the beef skewers, and just HAD TO have more......and better. So, we ordered the house specialty Kobe beef skewers - a taste bud altering gastromical extravaganza. In the end, we washed down the 7 course meal with a scoop of french vanilla ice cream drizzled with caramel sauce, and counted our blessings. Yes, we were away from family, from the familiar, but we were still with family, with each other, and that made all the difference in the world.....even on the other side of the world from home.

Merry Christmas. Remember the reason for the season.