Underground Tokyo restaurant used in Kenshi Yonezu’s Flamingo video is a real hidden gem
Kenshi Yonezu is a tremendous pop sensation in Japan, and the lovely melody of his hit song "Lemon" has been high-inescapable since its release in 2018. That same year he released another song, Flamingo, which came with a striking music video. It shows Yonezu dancing erratically through a labyrinthine abandoned car park, eventually coming to rest in a hollowed-out restaurant.
It’s a cool music video, not least because of its incredibly striking location. There’s just something so compelling about underground spaces—they summon to mind dungeons in roleplaying games, or secret caverns with treasure held deep within. You don’t need to venture into the fictional world or even to faraway locales to find a satisfying dungeon, though. Our reporter Chie Nomura found a great example in central Tokyo, which happened to serve as the set for the Flamingo video posted above.
It’s located on the border between the Chuo and Minato districts of Tokyo, quite close to the Nakagin Capsule Tower, a mixed residential and office space comprised of tiny capsule rooms.
Chie just happened to catch sight of a signpost for Delica, a Chinese restaurant, hanging over one of the many entrances to the Shiodome parking lot.
Chie wondered, naturally enough, if this meant that there was a whole shopping precinct down there or something. Nope! Just lots and lots of spaces to park cars and one Chinese restaurant. How strange! How…compelling!
After asking both long-term residents and the owner at the Nakagin Capsule Tower, she found out that it was common in the before-times™ for Nakagin residents to hold drinking parties at Delica. The various people that she quizzed gushed about the restaurant’s value for money, the generous portions, and the speed with which the food was delivered to your table.
The restaurant is advertised at each of the four underground entrances to the car park, with a menu board and a sign hung enticingly at the nearest entrance to the Nakagin Capsule Tower. Clearly, Delica is something of a so-called “charm point” of the car park. Chie ventured into the depths to seek it out.
Source: japantoday.com
