Iconic Pufferfish Lantern In Osaka Taken Down After Nearly-100-Year Restaurant Closes Due To Covid-19

2020 has been a rather confusing year so far.

We stayed home for months, tried perfecting Dalgona Coffee / Milo / Teh Tarik, and the list goes on.

Also, we took some time to mourn the loss of many iconic brands.

Like:

And:

Well, turns out, even nearly-hundred-year-old sashimi restaurants are not immune to Covid-19.

Mention Osaka and this often comes to mind:

Aside from the famous Glico Running Man, the huge fugu lantern has also become an icon for Osaka.

Standing at three-and-a-half metres high, this huge pufferfish (fugu in Japanese) lantern belongs to Zuboraya, a restaurant at Osaka.

On September 3, people of Osaka said goodbye to this.

Restaurant closure due to poor business

Like many other restaurants, Zuboraya suffered huge losses due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The bustling Dotonbori and Shinsekai districts became a dead town after the pandemic struck Japan.

The pufferfish sashimi restaurant has been closed since April 2020 and it was announced that the restaurant, which has been serving customers since the 1920s, will be closed permanently on 15 Sep 2020.

On the night of September 3, the iconic lantern was removed:

Spa World express interest to take over the spot

According to Time Out, Hanshinjuken, the company behind Spa World, has expressed interest in taking over the vacated spot.

Spa World is an onsen theme park located near the Zuboraya restaurant. It houses onsen baths of different themes, hotel accommodations and a theme park.

The spot might have been vacated, but that doesn’t mean the legacy of the Zuboraya restaurant will fade away anytime soon.

Though we’re not able to travel to Osaka to catch the last glimpse of this icon, we can still immerse ourselves in a tiny bit of Japanese culture in Singapore:

Trumpet flowers anyone?