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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Better Ideas From Japan: Monkey Waiters (Macaques, Actually)

"Monkeys work in Japanese restaurant"
BBC (October 6, 2008)

"A restaurant in Japan has some unusual waiting staff on its books - two macaque monkeys.

Yatchan and Fukuchan serve customers hot towels and drinks, and are given soya beans as tips....
"

The BBC micro-article also has a 41-second video of Yatchan and Fukuchan at work.

Don't worry: the two are family pets, and Japan has animal-rights laws: so someone has come to see that the monkeys aren't mistreated. And they're only allowed to work two hours a day.

#1 daughter (irish_brigid on Twitter) gave me the heads-up on this new wrinkle in restaurant staffing. The macaques are modestly famous: they've been on CNN, apparently, and there's a YouTube video spot about them - with decent image quality.

"Monkey waiters"

itn, YouTube (October 6, 2008)
video 1:38

The narrator has tongue solidly in cheek. Enjoy. (And note: you may see a brief advertisement before the video. Don't worry: the one I saw only lasted a few seconds.)

More ideas - good, dubious, and strange - at "Better Ideas From ... "

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