Tuesday - Robot Restaurant Tokyo

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I was up very early today to catch the 5.25am train to head back to Tokyo. It was the last day of my rail pass and I was heading back to Tokyo. I had to change trains at Okayama and had about 50 minutes spare to use the facilities and grab some food. The train got me back in to Tokyo around 12.40pm and then I had to figure out which line and stop I needed to get off for the hostel I had booked. I found it pretty easily and booked in. I did some washing and took a shower before heading out to the Robot Restaurant.



I had discovered this by chance an trip advisor and if you ever go to Tokyo you really need to go and see it, but be warned it's in Tokyo's red light district. I'd asked at the hostel about it And they had a business card with the website address on it. I took a photo of it on my iPad and a photo of the guys phone which had google maps on it so hopefully I could find my way. He said to take the east exit.



So I headed out early to make sure I had enough time to get there and baked in getting lost time lol. Two stops on the subway I was at the train station and headed for the east exit as advised. I stopped and asked a train official where the east exit was as I could only see west and south. Apparently it was through the shopping centre. I followed the directions and when I got to the police station I asked again for more directions. He made it nice and easy and I had to count the traffic lights turn right and count them again and turn right again and then I would have to ask.



So I followed the instructions and hot fairly close but just couldn't see it so I stopped and asked a couple of Japanese girls who were very helpful and hailed me a taxi as they thought it was far away. However when they told the taxi driver where I wanted to go apparently it was only a few minutes walk away! I followed the directions the taxi driver had given.



I kept wandering around and ended up nipping into a restaurant foe directions. They were very helpful and even gave me a map! So map in hand I followed the directions but the venue alluded me. It was so frustrating being so close but not being able to find it. I expected to see a huge neon robot sign outside but almost all,of the places had neon signs outside soot was hard to lockout one place from another.



I looked totally lost and of course was the only western woman walking around on her own map in hand! I didn't want to stare too much at any of the venues or the guys outside trying to persuade customers in. I decided all of them were working for the mafia lol. I had seen some big old black cars with blocked out windows and guys in dark suits, white shirts and shades on in the Main Street who I was sure worked for the mafia lol, or was my mind just working overtime?



I was starting to lose the will to live and to give up on my quest when I saw a sign and followed it and just by chance I came across it. I think I had already walked past it once but didn't realise that was the place. I think a guy in the street may have recognised me as I'd already walked past once and shouted hey lady but I quickly hurried by to the safety of the robot restaurant.



I was greeted by a male host who checked my name off the list and asked me to remove my sunglasses from my head, it's one of the rules along with no drunk people and no wigs! Random I know lol. :-) I was then show to the next check in person who took a photo of my booking from my iPad as I hadn't printed out the voucher. I was asked if I wanted fish or chicken option for my light meal and given a ticket and free drinks voucher and then made my way down stairs.



The stair case had brightly coloured walls and plastic see through stairs with pictures of the girls in the sow etc. Butterflies, geckos, robots, skulls etc all adorned the walls, assign of the craziness to come lol.



When I reached the bottom of the staircase my ticket was checked and I was led to my seat by a cute Japanese girl in a long back gothic wig and matching gothic bustier, I'm sure she has false boobs as I didn't think they were renowned for their boobs lol. Anyhow my allocated seat was as ate far end on the right as you walk in. I was sat next to a single girl from the Philippines, who I thought was a little odd to be honest, but nice enough so we had a little chat about getting there, travelling, Tokyo, what we knew about the show etc.



There were three rows of seats on each side of the room set up with two seats next to each other. The room wasn't as big as I thought it would be and I knew it would be interesting to see how they were going to pan out from what I'd seen on the internet. The show started and the compare Made sure ether were no bags or feet sticking out and advised people on the front row ( that was me and my new acquaintance) had to lean back at various points in the show so we didn't get our heads knocked off by the various props/vehicles used in the show. That would never be acceptable in the UK lol.



And then the show commenced. Now this is where I have a problem, as I simply cannot totally put in to words the chaos and craziness that ensued. I'm sure the ideas were created whilst people were on drugs lol. But here goes anyway, the photos may help but seeing is believing.



It started off quite sedately with two sets of drums being played one group in red and one group in white. The platforms they were on moved up and down the room as the beats and whoops and other noises erupted from the mouths of the performers.



The only other point in the show where it was subdued was when two girls sitting on top of silver unicorns sang a song accompanied by a two girls, one playing a flute and the other a violin. Later on in the show they sang Lady Gaga Telephone also accompanied by two robots playing rock guitar m/



The rest of the show was far more hectic, orbits boxing, the winner staying on and boxing a member of the audience who of course won and was given a prize. The we had jungle tribes people being invaded by robot aliens who then battled a giant shark, a giant spider, Kung Fu panda and his mates, Mr panda came out on a huge cow at one point lo. They also battled a giant snake and for some random reason a gorilla appeared hanging from a terra dactyl spouting flames!



There were dancing girls all introduced to the audience one at a time and we gave them around of applause, obviously the girls taking part in the show. We had huge dancing robots, a plane over head with girls hanging off it, segways, jeeps, crazy motorcycles, dragons, small dancing robots, huge fembots etc, the list goes on. And there were more neon lights and illuminations than the whole of Blackpool, loud music and during the performance which included the shark, gorilla and snake there was a voice over and it was like a science from a really bad Japanese monster movie or Godzilla lol. It was a crazy, fast paced, hectic, colourful, energetic show! I have never seen anything like it, and for the space they have to perform I have to take my hat off to the dancers, crew, management and geniuses for creating the show. If you go to Tokyo you really have to go and it's family friendly too, it's just the location is a bit of a dodgy location.



Before the end of the show we were able to get photos with the huge dancing robots and then we had the finale. It was crazy there was so much going on, the plane with girls hanging from it, crazy motorcycles a guy dressed in silver wearing a helmet and multicoloured wig, guys in darlek type vehicles whizzing around to the crazy dance beat music, the audience clapping along and shouting hey, hey, hey at the appropriate time and waving our glow sticks lol. How they don't crash into each other I don't know.



After the show we all filed out and I headed back to the subway as fast as I could, funnily enough getting out of there'd light district was much easier than getting in lol. Any how I got back safe and sound and got myself ready for my trip to Mount Fuji.





Xxx

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