A Tochigi Day Trip - Part 3 - Kayabuki Tavern

I confess, when I originally planned the whole Tochigi day trip thing, I planned it around the one place I knew I absolutely had to visit. I made my 7PM reservation for the Kayabuki tavern a week early, and then realized we would be traveling on train a total of four hours, which seemed a little excessive. It was only then I thought of filling the day with a whole lot of other activities.
 So what's so special about the Kayabuki? The food's good. Also, two of the waiters are monkeys.
 That's right. Two of the waiters are monkeys.

Fukuchan isn't exactly light.

The Kayabuki tavern's owner has had pet monkeys for over two decades. At some point it occurred to him to have his pet monkeys, which could already do simple tricks, bring customers items such as hand cloths and simple orders such as beer. The idea was a success, and now Kayabuki has been featured on television shows around the world. Having met the monkeys personally, I can assure that Fukuchan and Yacchan are both very real and have lost nothing of their wild demeanor during their years of service to the tavern. They're well-trained and know to behave in the presence of customers (though they do occasionally howl and scream and jump.) Their offspring, though present within the tavern, haven't yet earned the right to become waiters, and are still in training.
 In order not to put too much strain on the animals, the monkeys are only allowed to work two hours a day, during which they dress in uniform. As I wrote above, the monkeys are extremely well-trained and put on shows for customers at certain times, where they jump through hoops and do other similar tricks, though I haven't seen this for myself. Allegedly, Fukuchan is also 4th Dan karate practitioner - though I'm not sure how this is possible.

Millo notably unamused to be kept waiting.

 Our experience at the Kayabuki tavern wasn't all smiles and laughter, though. As it turned out, the tavern was unusually crowded on that day, and it was plain to see that they were short-staffed. Being that this was the case, there was no way for the staff to effectively bring out everyone's orders and handle the monkeys at the same time, so we didn't get to experience the monkey waiters firsthand despite having sat there for two and a half hours. We were quite disgruntled by the time they did actually bring out the family of monkeys, and when they did, they offered customers only private time with them and the cost of 1000¥ per person.

 Unwilling to leave Utsunomiya without making contact with the monkeys, we gladly paid for the private session, which almost every other patron in the restaurant did as well. No doubt we would have not even had a turn if Ken hadn't told the staff we were in a hurry to get back to Tokyo. Despite the shortness of the time we had, it was hard to stay disappointed after that. Not only did the monkeys not mind the presence of people, but they seemed to actually love it. We had barely even sat down with them that they were jumping on our shoulders and into our arms, with the children being especially affectionate. Fukuchan, head of his family and largest of the bunch, was eager to impress and constantly challenged us by opening his mouth wide and showing his teeth if we made eye-contact with him, but he remained docile and offered lots of handshakes. Meanwhile, the owner gave the monkeys a variety of masks, which they wore without much complaint but eventually took off when they grew tired of.
 By then it was already time for us to return home after our eventful day, satisfied that we had seen a side of Tochigi that we hadn't, until then, known existed.