Like any typical college student, I miss the days where I studied the multiplication tables and got to go out for recess. However, I unfortunately never had the chance to experience being an elementary school student in Japan, having moved to America after preschool. I’ve always had the general idea from watching dramas and hearing stories, but since I wanted to try and see what it would be like to wear the randoseru and put on the cute little hats, my friends and I headed to the next best thing: an elementary-school themed izakaya. We found out about 6Nen4Kumi （６年4組）online, advertised as a restaurant with lunch-type foods and “classrooms” to eat in. The restaurant is only a few minutes walk from the station inside of another building.
The staff were all dressed as specific teachers, wearing jerseys and aprons and such, I could hardly contain my laughter as they actually spoke to us as if we were students.
We were led to one of the “classrooms,” with wooden desks and chairs and various artwork and posters decorating the walls.
The menu consisted of so many different dishes typically served in a school cafeteria or brought from home in a bento. We decided to order two interesting drinks, the strawberry mil-make (ミルメーク) in which you make your own milk(?) and the science experiment soda!
For our dishes, we decided to order the adorable octopus sausages, fried bread with soybean flour, and nikujaga! All were delicious, and definitely adorable.
After our meal, one of the “teachers” came in and handed us a quiz. (It’s all in Japanese though! We jokingly suggested to one of the staff later how they should have one in English for all of the tourists, but they laughed it off saying that kids don’t learn English in elementary school haha.. True..)
We all managed to get it all correct and treated ourselves to the “100 points parfait”!
All of the staff there were really friendly and let us take photos and such afterwards with the iconic randoseru backpacks. Definitely a fun, unique experience that you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else! ^^