The Depths
A Summer Vignette from Japan
Shrieks reverberated from the bowels of the Shinjuku Washington Hotel, echoing up the escalators and across the shuttered shops. Despite the vaguely haunted atmosphere, the voices belonged to neither an apparition nor one of its victims.
How must the screams have affected the courtly Shōwa-era proprietor tending to his mildly dusty restaurant? Did the tipsy businessmen even register the terror amid their off-key renditions of enka standards? What torture must the hotel’s guests have imagined?
Brine and death hung in the air, suspended over swirling pools. All manner of sea creatures congregated below, circling slowly in their watery cages, awaiting their fate. Yet the shrieks came from elsewhere.
Children munched happily on tempura, celebrating a birthday at Zauo, the Fishing Boat Restaurant! Their table overlooked the fishing pond, where a gaggle of alarmed American girls and their bemused chaperone attempted to catch their dinner.
The conceit of Zauo is simple, if foreign: catch a fish with one of the rods, and the kitchen prepares it to your liking — as sashimi, grilled with salt or butter, fried, and so on. Like dogs who caught the car, the high schoolers were entirely unprepared for the trauma of hoisting their meals from the water. One attempted to take a selfie with her prey and took a tail directly to the face. Another chased her fish as it flopped across the floor. A third eyed her flounder warily, looking distinctly queasy.
The tour company likely imagined it was offering a lighthearted slice of cultural immersion; the girls — and fish — would probably describe the ordeal differently. Seafood is hardly a staple of the Midwestern diet, and the close encounter did little to convince the students of its merits.
The girls picked at side dishes and salads, casting concerned glances as I feasted on their catch. The grilled mackerel proved particularly contentious: it arrived whole. How could I resist picking the bones clean before such a rapt audience?
A few hours later, the girls were happy as clams, filming TikToks with Japanese variations on McNuggets and Quarter Pounders. There is no wrong way to consume Japan, whether it comes from a tank or a cardboard box.
A few more photos from dinner — too good not to share.
