2018 Japan Vacation, Day 2 (Part 2) - Robot Restaurant, Dinner in Jail

Kai had a fun morning of shopping for Nameko and Pokémon at Tokyo Station, but when he started to get agitated and saying how stressed out he was at lunchtime, we decided to return to my wife's parents' apartment where we took a nearly three-hour break in the early afternoon.

Then we were refreshed to see some of the crazy side of Tokyo.

First we went to the Robot Restaurant, which features a pop-culture show with robotic monsters, dancers, and lasers. We took this photo outside before we went in.

This place is located in the Kabukicho section of Shinjuku, famous for being the red light district of Tokyo. However, this show was billed as being family friendly.

A friend at work who is from Japan gently chided me for wanting to come here saying it was a place where only foreigners come. Sure enough, as we settled into our seats and scanned the audience, it looked like there were few, if any, native Japanese there.

Even before the show started, we could see from the decor that this would be a wild, crazy show. In the waiting room was a band dressed as robots entertaining the audience with songs. The stairwell to the main showroom was colorfully decorated.

And as we waited for the show to begin, we had these light bulb drinks, in our case filled with peach juice.

And then the show began.

It was loud, racous, over-the-top, and a whole lotta fun!!!!!

There was upbeat music throughout, from taiko (Japanese drums) to Michael Jackson songs to Bruno Mars.

There were man-eating lobsters (above) and a Godzilla-like monster (below). Did I mention that it was over the top?

The action was non stop.

There were lasers.

And singers.

And dancers.

Kai loved it!!!

It was so much fun, a perfect example of the crazy side of Tokyo.

And we weren't done yet.

After the show we went to the restaurant where we would have dinner, The Lockup, a prison-themed restaurant.

Kai was handcuffed and then we were led to our table, in a jail cell.

They had unique drinks including a concoction that you mix your own potion.

The food was all-you-can-eat and we ordered a wide variety of spooky dishes. The following photo shows Kai holding an order of French fries.

And the following shows pigs in a blanket decorated with eyes.

We also had shrimp, chicken, and other dishes, some of which were decorated to be scary.

Toward the end of our time there, the lights went out and you could hear loud screams and other sounds. Then various monsters came by our cell to scare us.

Kai did not like this part at all. This is a boy who does not like scary movies or haunted houses. He also is a boy like many with autism who like things to be predictable. He does not like fire drills at school as they are unexpected events. This show was the opposite of predictable. He got very elevated as the show went on and at one point slapped my wife.

That put a damper on what had been a fun evening.

As we took the train home, it dawned on me that in the hubbub of eating breakfast at a restaurant this morning, we had forgotten to give Kai his usual meds. And as we had lost a half day due to the time difference here in Tokyo compared to back home, we had not given him his meds since we left home, over two days ago. That may have explained why he felt so anxious and stressed out in the morning, and why the scary show at the "prison" had upset him so much.

We will have to be more careful not to forget his meds the rest of the trip. And to continue to schedule some breaks when we can.

We are changing our plans for today to allow for such a break, though it will be a long day otherwise as we have a special plan for later in the day.

Wish us luck!