I've walked past Darwin Room in Shimokitazawa a dozen times and never noticed it. A friend who lives there has failed to notice it twice a day for the last three years. I'm not sure how we managed this: The outside is covered in hearty plants, and just inside the open front door is a glass case with a stuffed toucan, ostrich, and otter. The shop sells wonderful postcards and maps and notebooks, the walls are covered in used books, and there are comfy window seats. The woman who runs it has a kindly school librarian vibe. She shows anyone who pauses at the register the powerful little loupes for sale, offering samples of pressed flowers, fossils and preserved insects to look at under the lens. Basically, it's the perfect little shop.Unless you're against stuffed zebras. While I was enjoying my coffee and walnut cookie, a blonde woman came in and dragged over first one and then both of the women working there to the taxidermy cabinet and started interrogating them in a mix of Japanese and English. She said it was very cruel that they were selling the animals and demanded to know where and under what circumstances they had bought them and why they were selling them and they should put up a sign in English about how the animals hadn't been plundered and had all died from natural causes. She also said the name/tagline of the shop, "Liberal Arts Lab," was incorrect and they shouldn't call it that since it wasn't liberal arts, not liberal arts at all.
Give it a miss if you agree. Otherwise, do check it out.
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