Kangoku (監獄) means prison, and izakaya (居酒屋) is a Japanese style drinking restaurant.  So a kangoku izakaya is a Japanese restaurant/bar that has been styled to look like a prison! And if the thought of vicious felons and dirty prison cells doesn’t whet your appetite, I don’t know what will.

Kangoku Inshoku 42 Bou is the name of this peculiarly-themed izakaya, located in Sakae, Nagoya. With dinner courses ranging from around 2000 to 3000 yen and a nomihoudai (all you can drink) for 1000 yen, you can enjoy izakaya food similar to what you would find anywhere else, but from the comfort of a dark and spooky prison cell.

But why stop with just a prison izakaya when you can have a haunted prison izakaya! Kangoku 42 is decorated throughout with skeletons, chains, red blood-like splatters on the wall and other stereotypical haunted-house decor. It’s no wonder this place is so popular with the ladies, eh? (no, seriously, it is really popular with ladies)

At 8:00pm, there is even a nightly horror show. The entire restaurant goes dark (it’s dark to begin with, mind you, but once the show starts you can forget about eating for a while), and a spooky soundtrack starts playing. Gunshots fire off somewhere, flashes of light bounce off the marred concrete walls as an eerie voice narrates a deathly tale of… actually I was on the 2nd floor so I didn’t get a good view and I didn’t really know what was going on. Then the staff put on scary outfits and go around to the tables trying their best to spook all the customers.

It’s pricey (as are most izakayas), but an interesting experience. Might be good for dates. Definitely a great place for Halloween parties.

Come on, you know you want to… your table is waiting, prisoner! mwahahahahahahahahaaaaa!!!!

Here’s a google map for everyone:

View Larger Map
PS. For some reason they only have Heineken beer. Drink of choice for prisoners? (and exiles? *looks south*)

Japan Blog Matsuri

I’ve submitted this post to be included in the April 2010 Japan blog matsuri. This month’s Matsuri, about secret Japan, is hosted by Gakuranman, thanks!

Do you take some sort of sick pleasure in forcing me to drink these ridiculous concoctions!?!?!? Curse you, curse yo….. wait… This is… actually not half bad.

Suntory has done what Sapporo couldn’t: mix the flavor of chocolate into a non-coffee drink. Congratulations, Suntory! I don’t really think I needed 500ml of the stuff, I would have been happy with just a taste. Anyway, drinking this “Chocolate Sparkling” is like having a strangely flavored Jelly belly. The flavor doesn’t match the medium at all, but it’s mysteriously accurate and somehow good…

I think if I had any more than a bottle, the paradox of chocolate soda would wreak havoc on my mind… so I’ll make this my first and last bottle of the stuff this year. Maybe it’ll be back for next year’s Valentine’s day.

Translation: Contains no chocolate (chocolate was not used)

Finally, it’s interesting to note that the chocolate flavor, while strikingly accurate, uses no actual chocolate. If you’ve got a chocolate allergy but are curious what all the rage is about, this might be the drink for you!

See Suntory’s official Chocolate Sparkling page for more information (in Japanese, of course).

I’m a Sapporo beer fan. I prefer their brews to Asahi and Kirin, and generally rave about their special releases. So when I saw this on the shelf at my local convenience store, I approached it with an open mind. I like chocolate, I like beer, I like Sapporo. Therefore, I like this, right? right…?

Verdict

I don’t know whose idea it was to spread the ridiculous drink flavor wars into the world of alcohol, but they should be punished. This was terrible, just terrible. I hate to waste alcohol, I really do, but the only place in the world for this is….

…down the drain.

Good riddance.

Just noticed…

Apparently this beer isn’t as new as I thought. I guess Sapporo tried this last year too. Maybe it’s a Valentine’s day thing?

A bottle of Azuki-flavored Pepsi

Azuki is a bean commonly used in traditional Japanese sweets. I’m not sure if the bean itself is sweet or not, but it is nearly always used with a ton of sugar.

Azuki beans

Personally, I’m not really a fan of them. I like sweet things but Japanese candies made with azuki are usually just too sweet for me. But, since I have a blog about Japanese stuff I kinda feel obligated to try these things.

So, how is it?

Not bad. Better than the pizza-flavored instant yakisoba I had recently and the flavor does resemble azuki if you use your imagination a little. But something about it didn’t seem quite like azuki to me, so I checked the ingredients list for a hint…

Ingredients list on the back of the bottle.

A-ha! So that’s your secret: grapes. Actually, after reading that my mind picked up on the grapey-ness of the drink a lot better, and now I actually think it tastes more like grape than azuki. So, if you’re a grape soda fan, give azuki Pepsi a try! The drink contains no actual azuki, so it’s not like you’re drinking anything disgusting (well, not any more disgusting than a regular Pepsi).

Actually, Pepsi releases flavors that no one wants on a seasonal basis, probably in an attempt to try and build brand awareness and grab market share from Coca-cola, who is much more strongly positioned in the Japanese market. You can read more about stupid Pepsi flavors here: Shiso Pepsi and links to other silly flavors.