Tuesday, 22 May--Robots

Lynda was gong to visit her friend today and leave me to my own devices, so I took the opportunity to do my halfway-through-the-trip laundry. For those of you who are novices to the blog: Wherever I am halfway through the trip, either needs to have a laundry facility or a laundromat close by, because this girl doesn't travel with suitcases.

I was going to meet Kayoko and Albert later that afternoon so we could attend the show at the Robot Restaurant, a totally over the top affair, which almost puts Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede to shame, but only almost. I managed to get us tickets online for the first show at 4 p.m.

But first,  I wanted to go visit the emperor's garden. You can't go visit the castle itself, because the man actually lives there and tourists gawking through the window would probably inhibit his ability to empor.

I'm going to start posting more videos to give you a better impression of things and because it's less tedious than posting so many pictures through the blogger app.

The Imperial East Garden

So many different colors prepared me for what was to come next--the robot show. Or did it?

Nothing could have prepared us for this. It was like Vegas on steroids, more dramatic than the Jerry Springer Show, glitzier than a bathtub full of Swarovski crystals, loudl oud more fun than a People of Walmart video! Only in Japan can a robot dragon spit fire and smoke, eat someone and then have a cute oversized panda bear in Ninja gear enter the stage and get away with it! See for yourself! Kay made the video of the entrance, the second video is snippets of the show, shot by me. The video doesn't do it justice!

Before the show; sunglasses are advised. We waited in a lounge, where drinks were to be had. And we did. 

Kay took these:

The show--best viewed with volume turned to max

So much tackiness needed to be counterbalanced by some history and we visited Godzilla and then Golden Gai, an area near the shrine. It used to be the black market in the 1940's and prostitution a flourishing business until a stop was put to that. Not a problem--the tiny houses along the tight alleys were just converted to bars and food places and boom--tourist attraction!

The evening was rounded out by Korean BBQ, before K & A headed back home.

So, you didn't really think you'd get by for one day without looking at food pics, did you? Lynda had messaged me that she was back in town, hungry and at an izakaya close by the hotel. It also happened to be right on the way back from the subway station. So I sacrificed myself and had dinner number 2 with her, so she wouldn't have to sit there by herself. 

This time we got to order via tablet, straight into the kitchen, in English and with pictures.