Aussie Australian Japan Japanese japanese food March New experience Restaurant Tokyo Train

Old Friends, New Country

Chronologically, this post refers to the 25th of March, a Thursday, and a very enjoyable Thursday it was.

Nanami Komaki and Tsubura Kobayashi were two friends of mine in high school. As you have no doubt guessed, they are Japanese. If you were brave, enough to attempt to read their names aloud, you may have found 'Tsubura' difficult. Fortunately, Tsubura went by Becky whilst at this Australian high school.

When I arrived in Tokyo many things happened. One of which was this; Tsubura messaged me on facebook, shocked to think I was in her country. Consequently, we arranged a meeting, to prove my existence. That was this night.

Taking the familiar yamanote line from Shinagawa to Shinjuku, I slowly walked towards the exit where we were to meet. The area was incredibly busy, and I wondered how I was supposed to distinguish two Japanese girls among a sea of black hair. Fortuitously, as I walked through the exit gates Nanami and Tsubura had just walked down the stairs, so we met easily.

Walking through Shinjuku it was decided to dine at Arabian Rock, a nearby themed restaurant. As we came upon the entrance of the said venue, Arabian style music was playing, specifically, some music from the sound track to Aladdin. We ascended a staircase and came to an elaborate door. Upon entering there was a voice suggesting we say 'open sesame,' however, a Japanese couple had entered soon before us, and the door was still open to the restaurant proper, so this was unnecessary.

An attractive Japanese woman dressed remarkably similar to Jasmine (also from Aladdin) greeted us. After some quick discussion in Japanese, and some theatrics, which I will not spoil, we were lead past many booths shrouded by a hanging curtain of gold thread. We had arrived early, soon after opening; a good thing as by the time we finished eating our dining location was packed.

All staff present were in at least some sort of costume, but none so much as the first waitress, dressed almost identically to the movie. Two other remarkable things happened during the meal though. The first was this: Whilst we were eating, suddenly the light above our table went out, and a voice over the loud speaker came on, quite loud. Obviously, it was all in Japanese, however I did understand one word: tanjoubi (birthday).

It turns out that they were impeding everyone's meals to wish happy birthday to those who were there to celebrate the anniversary of their birth. Interesting right? I said to Nanami and Tsubura how unusual this was for me, unheard of even! The other fascinating experience at Arabian Rock was one dish we had. At first site it appeared to be small, fried... somethings, tiny, barely a centimetre wide. I was thereafter informed that each piece was the soft bones from chicken, fried. Further information insisted that this was quite a popular meal.

How did it taste, you ask. Pretty good actually, I recommend it. If nothing else, it was interesting to eat. An especially attentive reader may have noticed that in the previous paragraph I specified 'Arabian Rock' when talking about this interesting experience. This was intentional. Cast your mind back to before we entered the restaurant. As we approached, some other eateries were pointed out to me. One was 'Mysterious,' apparently a space themed venue. The second was 'Lockup.' As the title suggests, it was a prison themed restaurant.

As we were deciding upon places to dine, Lockup was one of the options, and after some discussion, it was here we headed after finishing our meal at Arabian Rock, just to 'check it out.'

And this, my friends, was an even more intriguing experience.