There was a time when phone booths stood on almost every corner in Japan. People ducked inside to make a quick call before rushing back into the crowd. Then cell phones took over. The booths went quiet, slowly disappearing, or were left standing like forgotten glass boxes.
Now, some of those booths are back, but not the way you remember.
In many neighbourhoods, they’ve been turned into aquariums. Glass panels filled with water, bright tropical fish swimming and bubbles drifting up from tiny pumps. What used to be a place for words and wires is now a little world of colour and calm.
The idea started as a quirky art project, but it caught on. Instead of tearing the booths down, communities decided to repurpose them, creating something that people would stop and notice. You can find these “aquarium booths” in parks, near shopping streets and even in a few tourist districts.
Passersby often slow down when they see one. Kids press their hands to the glass. Office workers pause mid-commute, just long enough to take a picture or stand there for a quiet moment. In the middle of a noisy city, it feels almost like stumbling onto a piece of the ocean. They’re small, simple things. But they say a lot.
Cities change all the time. But that doesn’t mean they have to lose their soul. There’s beauty in things we almost leave behind. Even an old phone booth can feel alive again when someone decides to reimagine it.