Forget Cat Cafes; Japan Is Into Extreme Prison Restaurants Now
Where else will the waitstaff chase you with an enormous syringe if you act up?
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This article is part of our series on the 17 most unique things to have come out of Japan. Check out the other 16.
Japan's prison themed restaurants make Draculas look like a scene from The Sound of Music. One of the freakiest is Tokyo's Alcatraz ER. Yes, it's an eatery that, to all appearances, is actually a prison hospital.
Dishes include 'penis on lettuce' (a specially modelled sausage) and 'human intestines' (a really, really long sausage served up with kidney). Then, for cocktails, there's the 'brain buster', complete with fake human head, and the 'play by yourself', which, as the name hints at, comes with a vibrator or two. Make a wrong move and one of the 'nurses' will attempt to inject you with an enormous syringe.
Then there's The Lockup, which is all prison, no hospital. Diners are handcuffed by a policewoman from outer space and led to a cell, where the eating happens behind bars. The food is less human and more regular than at Alcatraz ER, but the cocktail list includes the 'human experiment', which arrives as a set of test tubes containing coloured liquids, with a beaker for mixing.
Once the meal's over, the lights go out and the scary stuff starts. The team behind The Lockup also runs Arabian Rock, a restaurant housed in a glowing pyramid and inspired by Disney's Aladdin.
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