Picture this: You’re at a busy bar when the whisper of a song comes trickling out of some busted speaker; you want to save it for future listening, but Shazam-ing it is pointless because it’s just too darn loud.

Well, that’s not a problem for the patrons of the Little Soul Cafe in Tokyo, because music is the focus here. As part of our Sense of Place: Japan series, we stepped inside this listening bar with an impeccable aura.

photo by Kimberly Junod

There’s soft amber light, a top-notch sound system and walls lined with more than 14,000 vinyl records. The collection belongs to bar owner Nobuo Miyamae, who takes the song curation very seriously.

“If some customers would like to listen to some tunes, sometimes I accept that request and play that,” he says. “But normally, what I put an importance on is the atmosphere of this space.”

In this session, Miya talks about how Little Soul got its start and how the bar has inspired other enthusiasts to start their own hi-fi listening spaces.

Many thanks to interpreter Konomu Suido for helping with this Sense of Place story. And make sure to stick around — we’ve got more adventures from Japan on the way.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.

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