Locked Up Abroad

Tokyo has the most Michelin starred restaurants of any city. They also have more theme restaurants than any other city. In fact, I can't name even name one in Los Angeles. Unless you count The Stinking Rose, but that would not be right.

We take an elevator to the 2nd floor of a building located in the district of hourly hotels. (Since housing is so expensive in Tokyo, most people share a house with extended family. Hourly hotels provide them the escape for trysts. Also, these places let business people catch some sleep before going back to work). Once we get out of the elevator, we have to identify our blood type. The door swings open for a quick diagnosis from our nurse. "Metal illness," she proclaims and takes us to a small cell in the mental ward.

Our drinks consisted of a graduated cylinder (chemistry alert!), a syringe, a needle, and, for me, a severed head. The nurse spoke no English and it wouldn't have mattered since there was obviously no explanation possible for what was to happen. As we snacked on our karaage and bean curd wrapped sushi, an alarm suddenly went off and the lights went dim. Footsteps grew louder and our locked cell didn't feel so secure anymore.

What looked to be an escaped mental patient ran to our cell and started to break into our room. He easily got in and attempted to remove our brains. The nurse stormed in and began to fire away with a revolver that didn't have much effect on the bandaged crazy. Then an orderly with a microphone roamed the halls singing J-pop tunes while chaos was ensuing. Mental patients, a bang-bang happy nurse, and a karaoke orderly were floating all around us. It was all too much to take in. With the mental patient hanging upside down and the nurse firing away, it all came to an end somehow.

We quickly asked for the check before another breakout happened. Still no English, but with our voices lost, all was understood. The nurse returned with our shoes (they take them away and give us slippers; as usual with Japanese restaurants).

It was frightening but theme restaurants are a must experience in Japan. Getting the crap scared out of us while partaking in delicious karaage is all par for the course in Tokyo.