Paris may have the Moulin Rouge, but Tokyo now boasts its own distinctively futuristic cabaret experience: the Robot Restaurant, replete with giant robots operated by scantily clad women amid a dazzling profusion of lights.
"Foreign customers who come here all say the same thing — it's crazy!" Dai Tokutake, the manager, said with a grin.
Despite its name, the establishment, which opened in the Kabukicho entertainment district in July, is not a restaurant at all. Rather, it is an adult-oriented club where customers pay ¥4,000 to catch an hour-long show, and though they are served a small boxed dinner and green tea in plastic bottles, the meal is considerably less spectacular than what goes on around them.