About us and this bar

 How I came to start this bar

In March 2014, I left the company I had worked for for the previous 26 years to create this bar. I personally opened this bar and now my wife and I are running it together.

We celebrated our 11th anniversary in March 2025. With the support of many regulars and everyone, customers who come from all over the world. Even during the pandemic, we almost didn't comply with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's request to close or shorten our hours, we didn't receive any compensation money, and we continued to operate as usual with the support of our wonderful regulars and newly regular customers. I spent my days then, before that, and now for those who still love this bar.

I met my wife in 2017 as a customer, we were married on November 1 of that year and we work in this bar together, we have a black cat coming to live with us in May 2022 and a tortoiseshell cat coming to live with us in September 2022 and we live happily ever after. I am now 62 years old. My wife is a secret.

As for records, my father bought me the stereo system of my dreams when I was 14 (in 1976) and I have been hooked ever since. I will describe my record collection and the history of the music I fell in love with later.

First of all, let me describe what I did when I started this bar: I started going to bars that played music after 1989, when I was in my late 20s, and vaguely started thinking that I would eventually like to open a music bar. This was due to my experience at a restaurant and bar where I worked part-time as a college student, and at the same time I discovered the fun of DJing when I organized a disco at a college festival. However, I also felt that I could not stop halfway while my work at the company was still lacking in my ability. Furthermore, I had no assurance that many customers would come to the bar. I had the feeling that one day I would open a bar, and I continued to buy colorful pyro records, thinking that I would play this kind of music at that time, and that Anna's music would be good, too. I met various friends and started listening to different kinds of music under their influence.

Then, when I was almost 50 years old, I finally thought I had accomplished the 10-year mission I was working on and made the decision to quit the company and start this bar. Japanese companies give you a severance package after you work for a certain period of time, so I decided to spend almost all of that money to start a new life. I also decided that if I was going to have a bar, I wanted to enhance the beautiful interior. I discussed the idea with my designer to make the inside of the door a place where another world awaits, and we settled on the current design. The building I used as a model is in London, where the old Decca Studio was located.

I have been buying records since 1976 (when I was 14 years old). At that time, the only music software available was records, cassettes, and open-reel tapes. CDs became common in Japan in the late 1980s, and although the 1990s saw the heyday of CDs, the continued purchase of vinyl records, especially used records, did not stop until after the year 2000. I have always stuck with vinyl records. (I did buy some things that were only available on CD, but now I gave most of them away and used the money to buy records.) In the 1990s, I met a soul music DJ who only played records, and while talking with him, I realized how good records were.

I decided to start this bar because one day in 2004, I happened to buy an original UK pressing of the Beatles in mono at a bargain bin (BEATLES FOR SALE). When I got home and dropped the needle, I was shocked to hear a completely different sound coming from the audio system in my house than the Beatles records I had been listening to since I was 15 years old. The Beatles I had heard before were different! Wanting to hear the real sound of the time, I spent a year scouring the expensive original Beatles UK pressings, acquiring every album, 45rpm single, and 4-track EP I could find. I was so impressed with the quality of the sound that I invited a friend over to my house and over drinks we talked about how much we wanted to listen to them in louder sound. I was 42 years old at the time. I could not give up my dream of opening a bar, and since I had been single for a long time due to money and lifestyle issues, I could afford to spend a lot of money even at that time.

Later, I was so impressed by the quality of the sound of the original recordings that I searched for and bought original recordings of British artists from the 60s and 70s other than the BEATLES (WHO, KINKS SMALL FACES ZOMBIES, etc.), and at the same time, I started to buy original recordings of American bands from the 60s and 70s, such as DOORS, SIMON & I have held many listening parties and events with friends and rented DJ spaces since around 2007, while searching for original pressings of 60s-70s American bands such as DOORS, SIMON & GALFUNKEL, BYRDS, and so on.

Of course I played the records I originally had at the event in DJ style, but if people were so happy, I came to the decision at the age of 50 that it was time to do what I had dreamed of since I was young: open a bar where people could play music and enjoy it.

At that time, records were not as popular as they are today, but I believed that many people would be able to relate to the quality of the sound. Of course, it took a lot of procedures and courage (in Japan) to quit the company, but I bought a first pressing of the Beatles' PLEASE PLEASE ME called GOLDEN PARLOPHONE for 100,000 yen (what an amazing sounding record!), which was too expensive for me to afford. I bought it for 100,000 yen (what an amazing sounding record!) and quit my job with the feeling that there was no turning back.

I met my wife and she was so impressed with the sound of the WINGS at this bar, which was so different from the CDs! She was so impressed that she started coming every week and eventually proposed to me during a DJ party at this bar when I was playing.

I am grateful to my father for helping me make this decision. My father didn't say much, but there are two things he wanted me to learn and realize. First, to think for myself and decide for myself what path I should take. And to have your own unique qualities. Although I was troubled, I went ahead with what I believed in, and as a result, I believe that I am now building a bar where I can make the most of my unique qualities. Looking back on my past, I love music, my friends, new friends, bar customers, my wife, my cats, and the wonderful customers who come from all over the world before and after the pandemic, and the things that are important to protect and love have expanded, I feel very happy.