Why is it that all of the most pleasant experiences of my life are surprises? The other day I was going out with an American friend to celebrate his birthday. With us were a Japanese and a Korean man. From the sign outside, it looked as though we were going to a Saizeria type restaurant. Roughly equivalent to a Denny's. A nothing special kind of meal.

The elevator doors opened directly into the restaurant. But the lighting immediately set the tone. There wasn't any, unless you count the black lights. White cloth and lint glowing on us, we gave our name and were directed to wait for a table down a dungeon hallway.

When our name was called we were led into what could only be described as a haunted house. After walking past rooms lit with strobe lights and occupied with zombies, negotiating dead ends and finally finding the only unlocked door, we were met by a succubus.

Understand that this was a hot Japanese woman. Thin, cute, sporting the ever popular long boots and short skirt look. I'd best describe her costume as:

After asking who the birthday boy was, and confirming his age via picture ID, she proceeded to talk dirty to us. In Japanese. I admit it would have been better if we could have understood her, but at least we had a native on hand to translate. "I'm going to chain you up and take you away because you've been a naughty boy." She said, proceeding to chain herself to my friend and pull him to our table. The view from behind as just as good, our succubus complete with horns, tiny black wings and a tail.

The tables in this restaurant were all in their own rooms, or cells. Prison cells, complete with sliding iron doors. They didn't actually lock, but they appeared to. I'm not sure if it was a mood killer, but you had to take your shoes off to go inside these cells.

The drink my friend ordered came in test tubes and Erlenmeyer flasks, which you can see in this pic:

Condiments poured onto our food were placed in syringes for effect. Waitresses, which aren't assigned specific tables as in America, included prisons in mates and pumpkin themed girls who I'm sure would taste as sweet as they look.

As the night wore on, we tired of waiting for whatever special thing they were going to do for my friends birthday. We opened the iron door to our cell and made a jail break. We didn't make it halfway to the register before there was a loud bang, and all the lights in the place went out. Strobe lights and all sorts of eye candy took their place, as zombies proceeded to over run the place.

We could hear the shrill screams of Japanese women as these zombies rattled the bars of their cells. The screams were getting louder, getting closer to us. But we didn't have the protection of our cell--we were in the hallway.

A Mike Meyers type guy appeared menacingly at the other end of the hallway. Snarling and screaming, he started for us. We were laughing throughout the whole affair, especially when the succubus girl came out and saved us by shooting the guy with a cap gun!

I must honestly say that the ordeal wasn't planned. We likely would have missed the zombie show had we stayed in our cage. But lucky timing got us front row seats to what we couldn't have seen from our table.

The Japanese friend of a friend explained to us that this wasn't even the special event being advertised in posters all around the place. Special Halloween events wouldn't begin for another few weeks.