Running a restaurant is simply monkey business

[skippy]

Restaurant turns to monkey business

Posted Tue Oct 7, 2008 12:48pm AEDT
Updated Tue Oct 7, 2008 1:29pm AEDT

A Japanese macaque monkey reaches to open a fridge at the Kayabukiya tavern. (Reuters TV)

Video: Watch the monkeys at work (ABC News)

A Japanese tavern has turned to two monkeys for help with its table service.

The Kayabukiya sake house, in the city of Utsunomiya north of Tokyo, is using a pair of uniformed Japanese macaques called Yat-chan and Fuku-chan to serve its customers.

The younger of the two, Fuku-chan, usually begins the first shift and is quick to give customers a hot towel to help them clean their hands before they order their drinks, as is the custom in Japan.

Twelve-year-old Yat-chan is the crowd pleaser at the tavern, moving agilely around the restaurant as he responds to customers' requests.

With only two years of experience, the younger monkey's workload is limited to delivering hot towels, but both are well appreciated by customers, who tip them with boiled soya beans.

"The monkeys are actually better waiters than some really bad human ones," one customer, 34-year-old Takayoshi Soeno, said.

The 63-year-old tavern owner, Kaoru Otsuka, originally kept the animals as household pets.

Mr Otsuka says it was only when the older one began aping him that he realised he could use them as waiters.

"Yat-chan first learned by just watching me working in the restaurant," he said.

"It all started when one day I gave him a hot towel out of curiosity and he brought the towel to the customer."

Once the restaurant's employees were properly certified by local authorities to work with animals, both Fuku-chan and Yat-chan clocked in for work.

A regular of the tavern, 58-year-old Shoichi Yano, says the animals are like her children.

"Actually, [they're] better," she said. "My son doesn't listen to me but Yat-chan will."

Some clients, like retiree Miho Takikkawa, say Yat-chan appears to understand their exact orders.

"We called out for more beer just then and it brought us some beer," she said. "It's amazing how it seems to understand human words."

The monkeys work in shifts of up to two hours a day due to Japanese animal rights regulations.

But the owner is hoping to bring up a whole new generation of furry waiters and waitresses after receiving three new baby monkeys this year.

- Reuters