Best Fishing Hole

The concrete heart of central Tokyo is the last place you'd expect to find a fishing hole that would do Tom Sawyer proud. But it's there, smack between the Iranian and Finnish Embassies in the exclusive Minami Azabu neighborhood, tucked away on a narrow dead-end street next to an elementary school. Shurakuen is quite possibly the world's unlikeliest angling haven. On any given day, a handful of old men in baseball caps and windbreakers sit around the perimeter of this dinky 230-square-meter pond, sipping vending-machine sake and casting their lines in the hopes of a nibble. As breezes rustle through the...