Tam's Bar

Tam’s Bar is a tiny basement bar that seats no more than ten people at a time. As the sign brightly states, it opened in 1984 and features Jazz and Soul. I was a bit surprised to walk in and not see the usual one-thousand or so albums packed into a shelf behind the bar, instead there were just a couple dozen CDs and an MP3 player. The charming and chatty owner Oikawa-san informed me that she used to have a big vinyl collection but due to space issues, she converted to CDs several years back. This was not so encouraging but when the next random tune came up and I heard the first notes of ‘In A Silent Way’ by Miles Davis, my faith was restored.

Tam’s seems like a very ‘regular’s only/mostly’ joint but Oikawa-san was so friendly and welcoming that I won’t hesitate to drop by again when in the neighborhood. ￥1000 sit-down charge plus the usual beer and whiskey prices. Oikawa-san didn’t have any business cards left when I visited and said she ‘gave up halfway’ making a homepage. I’ll get the phone number and complete address during my next visit!