Crowds and neon in Kabukicho. Photo / Getty Images
Crowds and neon in Kabukicho. Photo / Getty Images
Good fortune leads Dean Parker to Abbey Road and the best night he's had in Tokyo.
Wellington cartoonist and Beatles fanatic Tom Scott told me: when in Tokyo track down the Beatles nightclub.
So I set about this. The nightclub was called The Cavern of course.
First, though, seeking the peace and enlightenment that had always eluded me, I went with my small family to Senso-ji, the oldest temple in Tokyo and not far from our hotel in Asakusa. At the temple, I coughed up a few coins for a box of fortune sticks. "Pray for wish, shake box politely."
I did this, withdrew a fortune stick and followed its number to a wall of drawers containing printed fortunes. I unrolled the small piece of rice paper inside and was shaken to the core.
"Your request will not be granted. The patient is beyond recovery. The lost article will not be found. Building a new house and removal are both bad. To start a trip is bad.
Marriage, new employment, both bad. The person you wait for will never come." I was speechless. And then it turned out to be right!
As we stood in the baleful temple of the mocking gods, my Tokyo-domiciled son attempted to phone this Cavern place and book a table. He couldn't get through. His Japanese girlfriend took over and suffered the same fate. She then checked further, stared at some text on the phone, looked up and solemnly said, "It is closed." The nightclub you wait for will never come.
But then I saw, above us like the Virgin Mary, a sign in English clearly directed at people with fortunes like mine: "You should tenaciously do your best."
So we persevered and found another Beatles nightclub. It was in clubland Roppongi and called Abbey Road. Turned out to be smallish, seated about 80.
On one wall was a large three-dimensional icon of the Fab Four. Other walls were autographed: Boz Scaggs, Sting, Robert Palmer, Jeff Beck. There were one or two gaijin (foreigners) around, but it seemed mainly a spot for the locals.
We were taken to our table where you order fish and chips or shepherd's pie and a full song list is circulated and you make requests. A screen shows documentary footage of The Beatles while all their albums are played.
Then it's time for the band.
The band is clearly not without a sense of humour and calls itself "The Parrots". It's billed as Tokyo's No 1 cover band; has played Liverpool. John Lennon has long hair and a bit of a resemblance to the original; a sort of cross between John and Yoko (inevitably).
Paul McCartney is suitably baby-faced. The drummer looks more like Charlie Watts. The band plays Roll Over Beethoven, Love Me Do, Day Tripper, Your Bird Can Sing. The drummer, who has Ringo's vocal abilities, ends the bracket with an alarming Yellow Submarine.
There's a welcome and introduction in Japanese before the next bracket: Hello Goodbye, Love Love Love, All you Need is Love and Get Back and Something. Then a really ace version of In My Life is followed by a roaringly popular Help.
The salarymen at a table in front of us erupt with joy and a bloke next to them buys a bottle of whisky and shares it round.
The band carries on. Eight Days A Week, It's My Birthday, Helter Skelter, Chains and Drive My Car. Then they do Hey Jude and the place explodes.
I'd been writing the numbers down in the notebook I carried and when I put it back into my pocket I dislodged a scrap of rice paper. It was the warning of imminent ill fortune from the temple. So wrong! Best night I've had in Tokyo.
A Beatles tribute band, Tokyo. Photo / Dean Parker
It's not that expensive, Ueno
I don't know why people say Tokyo is expensive. Survive Auckland prices and the world seems like a $2 shop.
You can find hotels in Ueno and Akasuka that are $100 a night for a couple. They're convenient to metro stations and fascinating in their own right. Ueno has a huge park with big art galleries and the city zoo; Akasuka has Tokyo's oldest temple. Some of them come with an all-you-can eat buffet breakfast that eliminates the need for lunch.
They aren't flash but they're always entertaining. And clean. And with Wi-Fi.
As for eating, you can go to a noodle house and get a good meal for 10 bucks. A large glass of rice wine is about five bucks. You could pay $50 for a large pizza and as much as you want for a bottle of French wine, but why would you? You can eat at an izakaya, a sort of tapas bar, noisy and friendly. They advertise with a large golden-red paper lantern hanging out front. Our Tokyo-domiciled son took us to a joint he'd sniffed out in Shinjuku, where you paid for drink by the hour.
It was a pour-your-own and he managed to get us a table next to the beer taps so we just had to reach around with our handles and fill up. Paradise. Three of us had nine handles of beer, six small flasks of sake, 15-20 yummy skewers and a big bowl of chicken drumsticks. And rice. Total came to something like $15 each. Go to a foodcourt in Auckland and sure you can get a meal for $15, but try getting a couple of trays of beer and a bottle-and-a-half of wine thrown in.
GETTING THERE Air New Zealand flies direct from Auckland to Tokyo.
To get to Abbey Road, go to Roppongi metro station. Use your Pasmo card, which is like a Hop card, to travel on the metro. You buy it for a returnable deposit of 500 yen (about $6) and load it up with, say, 1000 yen. You emerge from the metro at a big intersection and you'll see a signpost in English, National Art Centre. Face the way the sign directs and take the second lane on the right. Best to book.
