I went to Ginza on a Sunday morning in November. Although living in neighboring Saitama Prefecture, I don't go to Tokyo too often, so it's been a while, but it felt good—nice to go to the big city sometimes.
I got off at Ginza Itchome station and was getting hungry, so I looked for a restaurant nearby. There was a large billboard in front of one of the buildings saying "Ganko Ginza-Ichome" and advertising lunch prices from one thousand yen. This sounded like a personal invitation to me and I went to the reception desk. It was ten past one. A friendly lady told me that there was a Japanese dance show about to start (at 1:30 pm), and if I wanted she would accompany me to a table straight away. I was a little unsure if this would still be included in my 1,000 yen lunch set; however, the friendly lady confirmed that the price would not change, and I agreed.
We entered a dining room with five tables. It was a very nice Japanese-style room, so the atmosphere was perfect for a Japanese dance. The dancers belonged to a group called Odori no kuukan (link in Japanese), which means "space of/for dancing". It seems that they started practicing at an early age, as I found they had very good skills.
There were four performers in total and they played four programs, which in total lasted for about twenty minutes. Every program had a title, and understanding the meaning of title, you could see how the gestures match that title. I have to be honest, I saw this kind of dance in this environment the first time. It was very powerful and motion was surprisingly quick. It was hard to get some nice pictures, but I did my best.
At the end, I received a small origami (folded-paper) crane and a candy and I had the chance to talk to the dancers for a moment. There were other guests of course, a good mixture of foreigners and Japanese people, of all ages.
I got a seat near the entrance; however, I advise to get a seat a little more in the center of the room, where the view is better.
My meal was fantastic; it was o-tsukuri teishoku (sashimi-set), I added some noodles and paid 1,300 yen. That was a really good deal.
The dance is given on Sundays only, twice a day, at 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm. It's is a great chance to experience a traditional Japanese dance for the first time, and if you like it, who knows, you might want to check out the schedule for a dance performance at the new Kabuki theater.
