Bar Plastic Model, Tokyo

“It’s easier to say this is an 1980s bar, but actually we focus on the Showa fifties,” says Kei Sekine, owner of Bar Plastic Model. If you don’t know the difference, an education is waiting through a set of unassuming doors in Shinjuku’s Golden Gai.

The curriculum is a respectable selection of Japanese seven-inch singles mostly from 1975 to 1985 (the sixth decade of the emperor Showa's reign, known by the Japanese dating system as the Showa fifties). “I like to think of these as finger food,” Sekine says of the records which occupy a space on the bar where you’d usually find beer nuts. “I want people to browse and be able to connect over the records as they drink.”

At first glance, Bar Plastic Model seems to be an on the rocks kind of venture. Whiskey drinkers have a better than basic selection to sip on here with single malt scotches for around ¥1,000 a go. But with the usual suspects in the liquor cabinet, the bartender is happy to oblige those who can remember their favorite cocktail recipes (¥700). Revelers trying to economize after the ¥700 door charge can hit the Carlsberg or Kirin draft for ¥600, while those with something to celebrate can order a bottle of Moet et Chandon for a cool ¥10,000.

For a full interview with Kei Sekine, click here.