Tokyo robot dancing to Lady Gaga music draws crowds at cabaret
Purchase this article for republication
Buy SPH photos-
A customer (right) is seated on a 3.6m-high custom-made female robot at the newly opened Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, Aug16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
-
Bikini-clad women (left) sit as they operate a 3.6 metre-high custom-made female robot as customers take photos, at the newly opened "Robot Restaurant" in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best-known red light districts, Aug 16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
-
A customer reacts as she sits on a 3.6m-high custom-made female robot at the newly opened Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, Aug 16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
-
Bikini-clad women (left) sit as they operate a 3.6m-high custom-made female robot at the newly opened Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, Aug 16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
-
A customer gives a thumbs-up as he is seated on a 3.6m-high custom-made female robot at the newly opened Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, Aug 16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
-
A customer gives a thumbs-up as he is seated on a 3.6m-high custom-made female robot at the newly opened Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, Aug 16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
-
Bikini-clad women are seen on a mock tank decorated with lights, during a show at the newly opened Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, Aug 16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
A customer (right) is seated on a 3.6m-high custom-made female robot at the newly opened Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, Aug16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Bikini-clad women (left) sit as they operate a 3.6 metre-high custom-made female robot as customers take photos, at the newly opened "Robot Restaurant" in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best-known red light districts, Aug 16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
A customer reacts as she sits on a 3.6m-high custom-made female robot at the newly opened Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, Aug 16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Bikini-clad women (left) sit as they operate a 3.6m-high custom-made female robot at the newly opened Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, Aug 16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
A customer gives a thumbs-up as he is seated on a 3.6m-high custom-made female robot at the newly opened Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, Aug 16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
A customer gives a thumbs-up as he is seated on a 3.6m-high custom-made female robot at the newly opened Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, Aug 16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Bikini-clad women are seen on a mock tank decorated with lights, during a show at the newly opened Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, Aug 16, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
TOKYO (REUTERS) - In a restaurant down an alley in one of Tokyo's best-known red light districts, four massive female robots wink and wave as they lumber to the beat of traditional Japanese drums and a Lady Gaga dance tune.
It's show time at the Robot Restaurant, a new and high-tech take on the city's decades-old cabaret scene that puts a friendly, if unusual, face on the robot technology in which Japan is a world leader.
More than half the world's industrial robots are used here, but the featured performers at the brand-new venue, which owners say cost 10 billion yen (S$158.9 million) and took three years to build, are 3.6m-high, custom-made female robots with facial features controlled by the club's women dancers.
The lower half of each robot resembles the iconic Japanese character Gundam on wheels, while its curvaceous human-like upper body is clad in a futuristic gladiator outfit.
