I thought I got more pictures at Round 1 than I did, but I must have been busy playing "all you can play video games". It was like Chuck-E-Cheese without the tokens.
Elin and the Denny roller skating. Savannah is off to the right somewhere, but I missed her in the picture.
They have an indoor fish pond... yes, there are real fish in here. Denny and I each caught one. Denny's was bigger so he won. Savannah really wanted to catch one, but they just would not take her bait. There will be other times.
This is the claw game area. They also have slots and other gaming machines. It has to be gambling because there were a lot of people playing.
After we were done with Round 1. We went to the Utsunomiya Monkey Restaurant. Yep, you heard me right... a Monkey restaurant. This is Elin, Denny and Maddie outside the restaurant.
Savannah, Emma, Denny and Maddie waiting for their grub. When we showed up, the owners seemed really concerned. We tried to understand, but never did quite figure things out. The only thing we could think afterwards was that they were serving a set meal. Basically, the menu was already set and they knew the kids would not come close to eating a full serving. We think they were trying to tell us that they should eat from our plates. After a 10 minute struggle, we were seated next to the stage. Whew! I thought we were going to have to go somewhere else.
I don't usually put food on the blog, but here are a few pictures of what we had. This is shashimi - raw fish. I think it was tuna (maguro), but there were two distinct colors so I am not sure.
They served a large cast iron pan with cabbage, onions, chicken and sauce to cook at the table.
These are gyoza. I think I may have put a picture of gyoza on the blog at one point, but I can't remember. They are like pierogies or pot stickers. These were deep fried and they had vegetables and meat inside. A little like spring rolls.
This is nabe (na-bay). I think it is more of a method of cooking rather than the ingredients. This pot had pork, vegetables and broth that you cooked at the table.
This is edamame (ed-a-ma-may). Basically soy beans. I think you boil them and then add salt. I don't think you are supposed to eat the pods. We just eat the beans inside. They are surprisingly tasty. This is a typical dish that they provide as a free appetizer.
For those of you who have never seen a squat toilet... here you go. Take a look for a while. See if you can figure out the best way to use this thing. When you figure it out, simulate it. I bet it is harder than you think. If you do figure it out... LET US KNOW!!! I had the pleasant experience of needing to use the facilities on a train one time. I was not happy to see the squatter as I entered the toilet room...
What would a monkey restaurant be without monkeys? Just another restaurant... We were fortunate enough to find out that they had babies. One was a baby girl and one was a boy. Every time the boy got out of the cage... he took off and hid. The girl allowed everyone to hold her and feed her apples. You can see the excitement in their eyes, can't you?
Denny with the baby monkey.
Savannah with the monkey.
A close up on the baby girl.
Elin with the monkey.
And yes... they got bing ones too!!!
At the end, they allowed the monkeys to jump on our backs so we could get pictures. Most of what I took were movies so there are a few below.
The owner kept telling the monkey to smack me on the head. She must of hit me about 15 times. It was hilarious.
Denny has the monkey on his back. She is just about as big as he is...
I was surprised that Savannah allowed this. She was nervous the whole time about the monkeys. You could tell she wanted to do it. After everyone took a turn, she felt brave enough to allow it to jump on her back.
Some of their decorations.Bull riding at Round 1 - Denny's turn.
Savannah's turn at the bull.
Baby monkeys in their cage. The one freaking out is the boy.
The girl monkey eating her apple (ringo).
Monkey on a basketball.
And she can use stilts too...
The sexy dance is what they said... Not sure who found this sexy...
This was a skit that the big male monkey did. Basically, he was fishing. He went through several items - fish, eel, bananas, etc and threw everything back. The man says "iranai" (ee-ra-na-ee) each time he threw something back. Iranai means "I don't need it". The last thing that he went fishing for was 1000 yen ($12). He stuck this in his pocket. It was funny.
The girl monkey smacking Denny on the head.
Since it was a set menu, we were not really sure what we were getting into. The bill ended up being about 9000 yen ($110) per family. A little expensive, but we all ate as much as we wanted and Elin had 2 or 3 beers on top of the food. I am sure the beer made the show all that much better.
Hope you enjoyed this as much as we did.
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