The Robot Restaurant

I still have no idea what the show was about, even two years after the event. I’ve had a long time to think about it, to ponder the plot twists, to decipher the amazing music and to try to make any sense of the weird spectacle that was presented to us on the night of 7th May 2013 in Tokyo – but the truth is I can’t.

Mrs PM and I were wondering where to eat that evening and she spotted something on Tripadvisor; the Robot Restaurant in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

It was relatively near to our hotel and it seemed like a good idea. We found it after a short search. It was easy to spot because there was a robot standing outside.

Mrs PM meets her first robot of the evening

I was slightly sceptical at this point but I stuck with it and before we knew, we found ourselves in a brightly coloured neon waiting room, before being led downstairs to the stage area. The wall decorations were reminiscent of a heavy metal album cover. 

If I form a rock band, this will be the cover of our first album

We found ourselves in a large brightly coloured room with three rows of seats on either side and a stage area at each end. Having collected our Bento Box and a small beer we found a seat at one end of the stage on a back row.

The food was minimal and the beer refreshing and this was our meal. What followed was a show that is quite difficult to describe.

On the stage right next to me, a group of scantily clad women suddenly appeared with brightly coloured dragons and started bashing huge bongo drums. Other equally barely dressed young ladies appeared in the centre of the room dancing and playing instruments.

And so it begins

Next, more women appeared, dressed as soldiers, one sitting on a cannon with more playing instruments and dancing.

I'm glad the cannon was pointing the other way

Somebody should say something about those uniforms

“What’s going on?” I asked Mrs PM, feeling a little stupid.

“Absolutely no idea,” she replied.

We were offered a fluorescent tube each and encouraged to wave them about as the next stage of the performance started. More scantily clad women appeared as a precursor to even more robots and women covered in neon tubes, who proceeded to drive around the performance area. 

I used the fluorescent tubes in an attempt to kickstart my brain.

It didn't help me understand

From this point on confusion reigned and I simply watched the spectacle in front of me, as huge female robots ridden by more scantily clad women rolled up in front of me. Lasers flooded across the room with loud music blaring out and I blindly waved my fluorescent tube in the air because everybody else was. 

More giant robots appeared with more scantily clad women dancing around them and singing songs. At this stage, I decided to simply switch off my brain and go with the flow. 

The problem was that I had no idea what the flow was and devolved into a cross between a rabbit caught in the headlights and a young child copying everything everybody else was doing. 

Dinosaurs versus Robots

Random Robots

Rise of the Fembota

A Big Mean Robot

Robot Party

Then the show abruptly ended and we were allowed to meet the stars of the show – the fembots, the giant robots the normal sized robots. 

My new robot army

Our new pet Robot

“Well that was fun,” I said. 

But wait – it wasn’t over. We were all directed back to our seats and the female stars of the show came to each of us in turn and high-fived us. Before I could comment, another group of scantily clad women mounted chairs above us and moved past in unison high-fiving us all as they past while others drove motorbikes and danced.

The climax of the show was the neon tank that I mentioned in my previous post plus a neon aircraft with even more scantily clad women hanging from the wings.

Here is a video that we tried to take to give you some idea of the spectacle that we witnessed.

In fact, if you have seen the Muse video Panic Station the last part of it was filmed in the Robot Restaurant complete with fembots, a dinosaur, the plane and the tank.

I’ll be they had as much fun filming that as we did enjoying this amazing experience.

When I go back to Tokyo, I will go back there, if nothing else to try to make some sense of it all.

Cars, Trains, Bikes ... and a Tank

I was looking through some recent photographs and I noticed that I had taken quite a few pictures of various modes of transport.

I’m not really interested in cars, trains and motorbikes to be honest, but when I see an interesting vehicle, I do feel compelled to take a photo of it.

I thought I would share a few with you, dear reader in the hope that you find them as interesting as I did when I captured them, starting with the car above, which I saw at a classic car show in Manchester.

I spotted the car below in a multistory car park in Bordeaux. I think it's meant to serve as a warning to drivers to be careful when driving around corners.

The truck below was parked outside a James Dean themed restaurant in Prague, in the Czech Republic. It was a great advert for a very enjoyable place.

In Collioure, in the south of France, they also use a car to advertise a restaurant.

Regular readers will know that I love the city of Hong Kong and the double-decker trams in that wonderful city are iconic - and cheap too.

In Europe, we rarely see bikes as beautiful as the one below. We have to go across the pond to Boston to catch a glimpse.

Below is another couple of classic cars I spotted at a show in Manchester.

Back across the Atlantic Ocean in Alaska, there is a very enjoyable way to tour Skagway.

In Canada, in the past, a rather special vehicle was required to take tourists onto a glacier. 

These days, the Canadians have replaced it with a monster bus whose wheels are almost as tall as I am.

In a warmer climate, its obvious that there are people in Monte Carlo have a little more disposable income than the rest of us.

And a few kilometres away, in the French city of Cannes, the story is the same. Here is a random car I discovered parked outside the shops.

Before the wall came down in Berlin, East Germans drove around in tiny little cars called Trabants. These days, they also use them to advertise shops.

In Japan, you can travel the length and breadth of the country in super fast Shinkansen bullet trains. They roar through train stations at such high velocities that if you are standing on a platform it is actually almost a scary experience. The picture below was my fourth attempt at capturing this magnificent train. 

Japan is the only place in the world where you will find a neon tank. It is probably the most wonderful place I have ever visited and probably the strangest too. Only in Japan would you experience the Robot Restaurant and find yourself face to face with the tank below while eating your meal and witnessing what I can only describe as the weirdest but most entertaining show I have ever seen.

I will tell you more about the Robot Restaurant in a future post.

The tank was one of the more sensible parts of the show. 

I'll bet you can't wait to hear about it.