Lala the Penguin: The Penguin Who Walked to Buy Fish

Long before social media could turn an unusual animal into overnight fame, a king penguin named Lala was already stealing hearts by doing something that sounds almost impossible. People later said his actions looked a lot like what humans do. He lived with a Japanese family. He walked outside alone, and often visited a local fish store.

The familiar version of the story is that Lala bought his own fish. But the reality was much more charming. He didn’t really shop in the human sense. The fish seller knew precisely what he wanted. Lala would arrive with a tiny penguin-shaped backpack and get a fish to eat, and another placed inside his bag for the journey home.

What makes Lala’s story unusual is not just that he was walking around a Japanese town, but also how completely normal his routine had become.

A Penguin That Was Never Supposed To Stay

Lala’s relationship with the Nishimoto family began with an accident at sea.

A fisherman allegedly found the penguin tangled in a fishing net somewhere in the waters between Australia and South Africa. Lala had suffered injuries to his beak and wing. Rather than leave him there, the fisherman returned to Japan with the bird and passed him on to Yukio Nishimoto.

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The family story is frequently embellished online, claiming that Nishimoto had caught Lala himself. Older reporting suggests that Nishimoto had a fisherman friend who found the injured penguin during a tuna-fishing trip and brought the bird back.

The family, as expected, anticipated that they would care for him until he was well again. They did not plan on him becoming a permanent resident of sorts.

But once Lala recovered, he apparently did not want to leave.

His Room Was Built Around His Needs

Keeping a king penguin in southern Japan was certainly an issue.

Rather than treat Lala like an unusual pet, Nishimoto apparently educated himself in all things penguin, and constructed a refrigerated, air-conditioned room under the family home for the long-beaked bird. Another fascinating thing to mention is that Nishimoto even gave Lala a mirror, concerned that the penguin might get lonely.

That one tiny detail about the mirror speaks volumes about the pair’s relationship in comparison to the famous backpack.

The family wasn’t just bemused by an unusual pet. They had rearranged part of their home to accommodate him.

The 329-Step Fish Run

Lala’s famed trip to the market was surprisingly routine in one sense. It became a habit.

According to the version of the story in older articles, the penguin walked approximately 329 steps to the local fish seller.

There was no great expedition. Simply no need for him to march alongside a handler. Lala knew the route.

At the fish shop, he could enjoy the occasional fresh fish before heading home with another tucked into his little backpack. Sardines and mackerel apparently featured as his favorites.

But the town accommodated him just as much as he did them.

Local neighbours recognised Lala. People took the time to watch him pass by. On hotter days, accounts detail people helping to cool him down with water as he stood outside.

The sight of a penguin on a walk with a mini backpack gradually became routine for the residents of the town.

The Hidden Cost of Having a Penguin

There was, however, something else that had to be taken into consideration about Lala’s adorable routine, which not many viral posts acknowledge.

Keeping him was not cheap. Some older reports estimated the annual cost of Lala’s fish at about 100,000 yen.

So the little backpack wasn’t really a penguin who was bringing money to the market. It was rather one part of a very careful routine that the family had established with Lala and the fish seller.

That is what made the story so much more fascinating, because it changed from an endearing internet phenomenon into something more interesting. An animal had learned a route, recognised a familiar place and established a routine with those around him.

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Why Lala Became Unforgettable

Lala’s story was filmed for television in the 1990s, when seeing the apparently independent penguin walking around a Japanese neighbourhood was extraordinary. This footage would later gain a second life online decades after its initial airing, when the endless stream of viral animal videos had begun. But perhaps the most memorable part is not the backpack.

It is the fact that Lala’s odd behavior had become ingrained within the everyday community life. A rescued bird came to the town injured, recovered, refused to leave the people who took care of him, and developed a routine that included a familiar walk, a familiar fish seller and a familiar road home.

The internet remembers him as the penguin that went shopping.

The fuller story is better.

Lala didn’t simply visit a fish market. He built a tiny life around it.