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| Kingyozaka: Hongo | |||
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Just steps off busy Hongo-dori, bustling with hungry Tokyo University students seeking out the last cheap bowls of gyu-don left in Japan, is a quiet, quirky place. A place where you can sit in a sunbeam nursing a cup of coffee topped with whipped cream, while you contemplate what to put in the aquarium of your dreams.
As the name - literally "goldfish hill" - suggests, Kingyozaka sells goldfish, and in a serious way. Brilliantly colored, bulbous-eyed prize giants wriggle lazily in show tanks, and the ground is packed tight with rows of clay pots, each meticulously aquacultured into a miniature garden for its piscine inhabitant. In the back are big concrete ponds, each seething with diminutive fish in every shape and color imaginable. And for all your new fishy friends' needs, there is a small store selling basic aquarium supplies. For those who are just looking, which is the case for most of the people who visit, Kingyosaka also has a cafe where you can get a light lunch and pastries. The airy, gracious Swiss-chalet-esque building is full of cozy little tables, where you can sip strong coffee in delicate bone china with flower patterns or sample their respectable Chinese tea service. On evenings and weekends, the lace and trinket-covered baby grand piano is pushed out of the corner for classical-music recitals. There are also regular lectures and readings, such as a talk by a biology professor from the nearby U of Tokyo about the killifish that were sent up into orbit on the space shuttle (and whose descendents are now living in a pond in Roppongi Hills). For those who really want to get into the spirit of old-style literary societies, a humidor at the entrance contains a large selection of Cuban cigars. Not in the market for a goldfish? Feeling ambivalent about how badly you need that cup of coffee? You might enjoy playing for free drinks by hooking a goldfish in specially stocked ponds of ominously murky green water. For a small price you get a fishing rod, bait, and half an hour to catch all the fish you can. Most of the fish in the pond are standard grayish-brown carp, but a few are orange nishiki koi and these are, literally, the ticket to a free drink. But don't get too attached to your catch - all the fish go back into the pond, to be hoodwinked by the next customer when you are done. by I-han Chou |
Kingyozaka
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