On arriving, I was guided by a man dressed in black through a concealed door in the wall to a narrow path on the other side. After passing a “waterfall for training ninja” along the way, I stopped to put my hands together in a ninja pose. When I said, “Nin!” a drawbridge appeared, and I soon found myself in a space that appeared to be a legendary land hidden far from human eyes.
Welcome to Ninja Akasaka, a theme restaurant in the Akasaka district of Tokyo.
Due to the dramatic way that guests are received and the entertaining menu, the restaurant is popular among foreign visitors.
Ninja are known across the world as exotic Japanese heroes widely depicted in anime and films. In 2015, nearly 20 million people from abroad visited Japan. Many of them wanted to see ninja, and some Japanese businesses are catering to their desire.
The Akasaka restaurant has 27 private rooms, each modelled after a stone house. The menu, in the form of a hand scroll recording secret ninja techniques, includes such ninja-themed dishes as crackers in the shape of shuriken throwing stars and turban shells whose operculum, or lid, is blown away when a fuse is lit. While eating, diners are entertained by a magic show performed by a magician dressed as a high-ranking ninja.
The restaurant was opened in 2001. As it has been introduced in many guidebooks and on TV programmes overseas, about 40 per cent of its customers are foreign tourists, and more than 20,000 people come to the restaurant from across the world each year.
“I heard about this restaurant from a friend of my wife,” said a man in his late 50s who came from Switzerland with two family members. “My daughter is thrilled to be here because she likes ninja.”
