The Lockup

Last night, my friends and I decided we needed a little change of pace in our going out routine. One of the older teachers recommended we go to The Lockup, but wouldn't say more. We decided to give it a try. The Lockup is one of many "theme" restaurants in Japan, and this one in particular is supposed to resemble a dungeon like jail. As you go through the entrance made of fake mossy stones covered in fake dirt, you will find yourself at the "jail entrance" were Japanese ladies in S&M police girl outfits handcuff you, yell a few things at you in Japanese, and take you to your "cell". Now, at this point you might be thinking you've found yourself some kind of sex club and start looking around for the whips, but no, this place is a family restaurant. After walking through a confusing series of dungeon pathways you are shown to your cell and the handcuffs are taken off. Your cell is a tiny room with a dingy table. At this point though all of us were highly amused, because this was the strangest restaurant any of us had ever been in. A waitress in a prisoners costume came to our cell and took our order. We got our drinks in a flash. About 30 minutes later, all the lights in our cell went off, and a flashing red strobe light turned on. Mysterious music and an the voice of an irate Japanese man came on over a small speaker hidden in the floor. Then sirens went off. THEN, and I kid you not, a man dressed in a gorilla costume jumped into our cell and started dancing around. When the gorilla left the lights came on and everything went back to "normal" (a completely relative term in Japan). This little performance happened another 2 times that night.