The expression “blood, sweat, and tears” is frequently used to describe the efforts of dedicated workers, but it is rarely meant literally.
After it was discovered that a server had poured her own blood into a customer’s cocktail, the café where she worked in Japan fired her.
Beginning in March, the Sapporo city’s entertainment sector saw the opening of the Mondaiji Con Café Daku, which loosely translates to “Problem Child Dark Café.”
Its ruse is to employ young ladies who are “problematic” and “mentally unstable” as waitresses while dressing gothic and donning black makeup.
But it appears one of the waitresses took her role a little too far and added her blood to a drink, reportedly at the request of a customer.
The café apologised for what happened in a tweet on April 2, saying what happened was ‘absolutely not acceptable’ and calling the incident ‘borderline terrorism’.
It confirmed the woman was fired 18 days after opening, and the café was closed for a day while it replaced all its glasses.
It apparently costs 2,500 yen (around $25) for customers to drink all they want at the café.
The owner of the café further tweeted: ‘I started the shop with the idea that if I could give a little bit of wages to a girl who would find it difficult to work in a normal workplace and stabilise her life, I would be mentally stable [for her]. I’m here.
‘However, as long as we gather people with this kind of concept, it’s fair to say that it’s the responsibility of the management who couldn’t anticipate it.’
Dr Zento Kitao told Japanese magazine Flash: ‘Drinking the blood of other people is an extremely dangerous act.
‘Cases of people getting infected from drinking another person’s blood are rare, but major diseases can be transmitted through blood, including HIV, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B and syphilis.
‘If there are wounds in the mouth, it is easy to be infected by blood transmissions.’
He advised both the waitress and person who consumed the cocktail to get their blood tested.
Japan recently also hit the headlines for introducing controversial vending machines selling meat from Asian black bears.