Robot Restaurant: weird, but wonderful

It's hard to describe the Robot Restaurant in Shinjuku's Kabukicho district, but I'm going to give it a go. It was a combination of Starlight Express, burlesque, a local theatre production and a Daft Punk video. With more than a dash of cheesy Japanese, camp-as-hell pop culture thrown in for good measure.

And I loved it. It was, without doubt, some of the most fun I've had in Japan.

The pictures simply don't do the inexplicable series of visual explosions justice. Here they are all the same:

The waiting area, which Liberace would have loved.

Heading down two flights of stairs into the basement was like being in an arcade machine. Apparently, the whole venue cost 10 million US dollars. Money well-spent? I'll let you be the judge...

The girls playing the drums, with a couple of weird statues in the background. Followed swiftly by people in masks, carrying flaming torches:

I think this was a giant cannon: 

At one point, a giant panda, riding what I think was a horse, came galloping in from nowhere: 

And he came back, minus the horse, but with some other furry friends:

And there were girls straddling dalek-like robots:

Oh, and there was also a contraption on the ceiling that allowed the girls to circle above our heads:

  There was also a marching band:

How could I forget the girl riding a dinosaur?

 And a fight between girls riding a bigger dinosaur and some robots: 

Then there was a (victory?) parade/party:

  

Pepsi-flavoured crisps

Yep.

Bottled water

Why pay?

People the world over take a cheeky read of magazines without paying for them (or at least they did, before the world went digital). But, as is typical, the Japanese take it to new extremes. These same guys were stood there on the way to and from our hour-long lunch.

Dogs of Japan

This could/ should be a blog all of its own. Enjoy...

The dog whisperer.

Super-hero dog.

(Photo credit on the legendary 'Prince of Shibuya' below goes to my friend, Alex Goodchild)

Stripes are obviously a canine trend this season:

Photo credit on perhaps the strangest one of the bunch goes to my colleague, Saya:

Salaryman central

This is what it looks like on the streets of Tokyo's business districts. Picture courtesy of my colleague, Cuyler.

Discovering an ancient Buddhist monastery, hidden away in the woods

Here are some pictures from my visit to Koya-san, a tiny ancient Buddhist town, hidden in the woods a couple of hours from Osaka.

The extremely steep cable car that took us up the mountain. 

Making friends... 

Apart from the monks, nobody else was rocking flip flops/jandals/thongs (delete as appropriate). Trust the Englishman.