Nonimmigrant: Catch it before you can cook it

Thursday 6 June 2019

Catch it before you can cook it

For some time, Tokyo has been the city that boasts the most Michelin Stars awarded to its restaurants. It's easy to see why; mixing traditional and cutting edge cuisine, the choice of food here is amazing. Walk into any nondescript eatery at random and you'll be blown away by the flavours and presentation, works of art on a plate.

Which is why we chose to eat lunch at the Pokemon Cafe.

To be fair, it may have been harder to get a table here than at many of the more celebrated venues. I had to sit online a month in advance, constantly refreshing until the day became available and I could pounce on the timeslot we wanted before it disappeared in a blink. As a result, three adults and four kids sat down to a feast of overpriced but not awful dishes shaped into the vague forms of fantasy creatures.

You only get to stay at the cafe for 90 minutes, and everyone has to order food for that privilege, but the highlight is undoubtedly when a "special guest" arrives midway through. And what do you know? Our guest was Chef Pikachu himself! Take a bunch of already hyper children, add a five foot Pikachu into the mix, see what happens. You can imagine.

We were informed in advance that we were not allowed to pose with Pikachu and could only shake him by the hand. This didn't stop Pete hugging his idol multiple times, but he also got a big public thank you from Pikachu's "minder" for bringing a picture he'd made (no joke) about six months ago when he first heard we were coming to Japan and kept for this very occasion. Many young children's minds were blown this day.

The cafe is in Tokyo's "Pokemon Centre" which is no more or less than a huge shop selling every type of Pokemon, and every type of thing on which a Pokemon can be printed. We spent a dyspeptic amount of money here too, and I waited for the credit card company to ring to check this wasn't fraudulent. They didn't, and I suspect they were too merciful to grill us with questions about how many fluffy imaginary monsters we'd purchased.

Thus everything Japan has to offer has been completed within the first few days, at least in the mind of a young boy I know. As for enjoying Michelin-starred food, we'll have to wait for Pete to grow up and leave home before we can achieve that dream...at a time when a pic of him hugging a giant Pikachu might be more embarrassing than it is now.