Well, according to one café in Tokyo’s otaku neighborhood of Akihabara, they can eat their hair. That’s right, for one day during Japan’s hot August summer, the restaurant Anison Cafe Stars lets customers order and eat their favorite character’s hair with the campaign “Let’s Eat Our Oshi’s Hair.”
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The term “oshi” is a newer one in the otaku dictionary. It comes from the Japanese word “osu,” meaning to recommend (you may recognize “osusume,” or “my recommendation” if you know some basic Japanese). Oshi is the latest term used to describe one’s favorite anime character, and is what Anison Cafe Stars used for their unique campaign.
Anison Cafe Stars is already an otaku paradise. Not only is it in Tokyo’s most famous otaku district, but it’s entirely themed after anime songs. The servers at the restaurant are usually dressed in cosplay of some kind, complete with wigs and make-up, and you can guess what kind of music is always being played. Anison Cafe Stars has locations not only in Akihabara, but also in Ikebukuro and Yokohama.
But only the Akihabara location, right in the heart of otaku Tokyo, hosted Let’s Eat Our Oshi’s Hair - and this time, it was only for one day. Though as much as superfans may have wanted to actually eat their oshi’s hair, well, it simply isn’t legal to serve. Luckily, Anison Cafe Stars had a solution. Instead of real hair, they served Japanese somen noodles.
Somen are the thinnest variety of noodles in Japan, and when cooked, do have the fine quality of hair. Just plain somen would not be enough to give the illusion of oshi’s hair, though, so this somen was dyed in a wide variety of rainbow colors. After all, rainbow hair has always been a huge part of anime character design over the years.
Customers that arrived for the event were able to choose from a variety of different colors of “hair” to match that of their oshi’s locks, and then had the chance of a lifetime to eat it. Depending on the color chosen, the price per bowl was around ¥400 to ¥500 ($3 to $4 USD).
While Let’s Eat Our Oshi’s Hair only ran for one day this time, and only at one location of the café, fans can hope that the event’s success will bring it back for another round (or more) in the future. After all, it’s not every day you get the experience of showing your devotion to your favorite in such a special way, and it is definitely something that can attract not only domestic but international anime fans as well.
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Sources: SoraNews24, PR Times
