Nihombashi was a small restaurant not far from Berlin's Rosenthaler Platz that existed from 2017-21 until its owner literally backed the wrong horse in a betting game. It served sushi, kushiyaki skewers and other dishes that were so good they could have come from Japan. It was colourful and flashy, but by no means ‘original Japanese’, as the place was playing with an eponymous fiction. ‘Nihombashi’ is a bizarre place in Tokyo, a picturesque bridge spanned by the six-lane Metropolitan Expressway No. 6. In Berlin, Nihombashi becomes a colourful utopia, reminiscent of the 1970 World Expo in Osaka or the Italo-Japanese design group Memphis. The specially designed furniture, manufactured in Berlin, deliberately blocks the way, is too heavy and too sharp-edged. The red bar table stands in the middle of the passageway - everything is anything but pleasing.
A huge red carp could be seen from afar on the street. In Japan, the koinobori is usually only hoisted on Children's Day. So it's no wonder that a small play world opened up under the oversized concrete ceiling of the mediocre 90s apartment building, inhabited by strangely creature-like objects, dangling pipes and colourful spots. The colourful and tasty delicacies from the kitchen came with and without fish from the world's oceans, which are just as colourful as the walls of the place due to all the drifting plastic and crude oil.
