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La Carmina Tours Astonishing Japanese Eateries in “Crazy, Wacky Theme Restaurants: Tokyo”
August 13, 2009
Contact: Adri Cowan
Telephone: 347-830-6271
New York, NY – August 13, 2009 – Even if you’ve been to Tokyo, you’ve never done a restaurant tour like the one endeavored by La Carmina in Mark Batty Publisher’s Crazy, Wacky Theme Restaurants: Tokyo. La Carmina, the mistress of the hugely popular Gothic Lolita website, has traveled all over Tokyo to document insanely themed eateries. With stories as quirky and singular as the restaurants she visits, illustrated with photographs of the food, menus, interiors and waiters, she reveals this sensational and utterly fascinating niche of dining in one of the world’s most vibrant cities. Along with La Carmina’s exploits the book provides details for readers to embark on their own bizarre Tokyo restaurant pilgrimage, providing practical information like phone numbers, hours of operation, websites and the closest train stations.
Traditional dishes like sushi, rice balls and curry get tricked out thanks to theme restaurants inspired by everything from religions to animals. Waitresses dressed as maids slap you if you lose a food version of Russian roulette that concludes with an unbearable amount of wasabi; a drunken Buddhist monk imparts wisdom; boy-toys dote on female customers; ninjas bring menus and throw food. If you’ve ever wanted to feel like you’re having a meal in prison or be served sake by a monkey, this book is for you.
“These eateries are on a different planet from their tepid Western relatives,” says La Carmina. “The theme isn’t suggested – it’s rammed up your nose. Only in Japan, as the saying goes.”
About La Carmina
La Carmina is the mistress of the popular, 2-million-hit-a-month LaCarmina.com blog (http://www.lacarmina.com), which revolves around wild Tokyo subcultures and morbid-meets-adorable Gothic Lolita style. An author, neo-Rococo outerwear designer, Japanese pop-culture expert and even a Yale Law School graduate, La Carmina thrives to share her fascination with kawaii and kitsch.
About Mark Batty Publisher
Mark Batty Publisher (http://www.markbattypublisher.com) is an independent publisher dedicated to making distinctive books on the visual art of communicating, showcasing the visual power and innovation of contemporary culture in all of its varied poses. Today, the visual comes at us from more places than ever, and its dissemination is faster and more advanced every year. Books from Mark Batty Publisher capture this acceleration on the pages of every book. Affordable, well designed, thoughtfully created, and produced to last, MBP books are artful products that readers want to hold onto forever.
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Crazy, Wacky Theme Restaurants: Tokyo
Mark Batty Publisher
96 pages
7 x 8.5 inches (17.7 x 21.6 cm)
Color throughout
Casebound
ISBN: 978-0-9820754-1-8
US $24.95 UK £18.00 CA $33.50
August 2009
