| Kayabukiya Tavern | |
| Current-Owner: | Kaoru Otsuka |
| Food-Type: | Japanese |
| City: | Utsunomiya |
| Country: | Japan |
The was a traditional-style Japanese "sake-house" restaurant (izakaya) that was located in the city of Utsunomiya, north of Tokyo, Japan.[1] [2]
The tavern's owner, Kaoru Otsuka, owns two pet macaque monkeys who were employed to work at the location.[3] The first monkey, twelve-year-old "Yat-chan", is dressed in a shirt and shorts while he takes customers' drink orders and delivers them to the diners' tables. The younger macaque, named Fuku-chan, is currently four years old and has the main duty of bringing the attendees hot towels to clean their hands before ordering drinks.[4] Fuku-chan had only two years of experience, while Yat-chan has been reportedly performing the job for a longer time.
Both monkeys received boiled soya beans from customers as tips for their service.[5] The monkeys' environment has been inspected to ensure proper treatment of the animals;[6] due to Japanese animal rights regulations, they are each only allowed to work for two hours a day. The restaurant was also featured as a reward for the winning team in the third episode of Season Two of I Survived a Japanese Game Show.
The tavern was abandoned after the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami. The monkeys still belong to the owner. The current state of the tavern and the monkeys was documented in a 2014 movie by artist Pierre Huyghe.[7]