monkey izakaya

You may or may not have seen this on YouTube, but in Utsunomiya (Tochigi Prefecture) there's this monkey izakaya (kind of like Japanese tapas) where monkeys actually serve you your oshibori (cloth wipes for cleaning your hands). I was worried about sanitation, but my friends really wanted to go, so off we went.

Turns out they don't bring out the monkeys until after you finish eating. Thank goodness! The izakaya owners keep seven monkeys (they're like their babies! or dogs...), and each monkey does something different. We saw three of them: one did "sexy" dances, another was a model and didn't do anything, and the last was a baby that the owner just left with us for a while. It was cute, but since it was only 6 months old, it was really scared of us and really spazzy.

Sorry for the blurry pictures!

Monkey staredown.

I wouldn't go again (food was mediocre), but it was definitely an experience!