Tokyo Must: Robot Restaurant

Before living in Japan, I always imaged a combination of crazy, surreal and strange to describe the nightlife and lifestyle.  

Robot Restaurant definitely checks everything off that list.  With 10 BILLION Yen, this wonderous place was built and installed with every colorful light they could find and is sure to bring you short of an aneurism.  It's definitely a good place to bring visitors or tourist who are just up for seeing something that makes no sense and hype you up for a night out in Shinjuku, which is full of fun and sometimes downright bizarre. 

I think it's a bit of a misnomer...it's not really a restaurant or a bar it's a show that you NEED to call and reserve ahead of time.  There are typically three shows every night and they only seat about 100 people each time.  They serve you a bento (though I didn't eat it either times I went) and you can buy canned beer or basic drinks before the show. 

The show is a mixture of girls dressed in skimpy outfits with a random assortment of robots, dinosaurs, pandas and even furry creature outfits? I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but even with the steep cost of 4,000 yen, even I'm willing to dish it out once (okay, twice because I had visitors). 

I almost thought maybe they tried to salvage any and every left-over robot they could find from movies and TV shows.  But the bionic female robots are truly something special. I really wonder what the conversation was like when they got these special ordered.

"I want to have a dozen massive female robots made."

"Sure no problem."

"And we want them to have huge boobs."

"Of course."

"And we want to be able to control all their movements"

"Right."

"Including their facial expression, blinking, arms and boobs. In every direction."

"Hmm, that'll cost you extra."

"It's fine, we've got 10,000,000,000 yen to spend."

"WE'RE ON IT!"

I always have so many questions:

Why dinosaurs?

Why pandas?

Who choreographed this show?

How much is their energy bill?

How much money do they actually make to offset the costs?

Is this a front for some other "business"?

Why is this happening?

WHY???  

There are no logical answers and maybe that's the fun part.  I'd definitely recommend going here with a group but saving it for visitors because it's the same show each time. 

Address: 

B2F Shinjuku Robot Bldg

1-7-1 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

How to get there:

Shinjuku Station (Yamanote, Chuo, Marunouchi, Keio, Odakyu lines)

Telephone: 

03 3200 5500

Hours: 

Daily 6PM-11PM

Website: 

www.shinjuku-robot.com