Lock-Up

Louise, myself, Rob, Ken, and Haruka.

This evening brought me over to a dungeon themed restaurant in Shinjuku named "Lock-Up." I guess when you have a restaurant in a city as crowded as Tokyo, you have to find new and innovative ways to lure in customers. This one happened to have a lot of people screaming, and cute girls dressed as jail wardens who bring you to your seat by handcuffing you and dragging you in.
 Neither my companions nor myself had seen any of the place before, so the experience was quite fresh. I was in the pleasant company of a couple of people whom I had only met briefly beforehand: Louise of Switzerland, Rob of Australia and Haruka, a Chinese-Japanese half-blood, all of whom I had kind of met through Ken, who was present and who had organized the event.

A staff member jumping in to drink with us, briefly.

 The theme isn't taken so seriously, really. The place comes out as being quite goofy, but it's lots of fun to eat behind bars while the background music switches from death metal to birthday celebration songs. At certain intervals, the lights go dark and the staff don costumes and jump from prison cell to prison cell in an attempt to get a jump from the customers. It's easily anticipated, but you'd be surprised at the number of young Japanese girls who shriek in terrified surprise anyway. Rob tested them by yelling while sticking his face between the bars of the other customers' cells, something I regret not having a picture of.

The food itself is quite delicious, but, just like in most other restaurants in Japan, portions leave much to desire. There are also a number of interesting drink options, all of them somewhat obscure sounding and served in beakers instead of mugs or glasses. One item (pictured) had dry ice inside. I'm pretty sure solid nitrogen must pose some kind of a hazard to your health, but, meh. I was told this item in particular tasted like marzipan. Style over substance, I guess.
 All in all, Lock-Up was fun and had a lot of interesting things going for it. Of course, these places are as fun as you make 'em!