Twenty Years at a Hiroshima Bar｜The Anniversary I Told No One About
2026.8.15
Thank you to everyone who came to our 20th anniversary on July 13 and 14.
I didn’t invite a single person
For this anniversary, I didn’t invite anyone.
I only decided to hold it at the last minute.
A little over two weeks from that decision.
The only announcement was on social media.
So the only people who knew were those who happened to come in during those two weeks, or who saw the post.
I deliberately didn’t reach out to anyone personally.
Why do it that way?
Run a bar long enough and certain things become clear.
When you invite people, some are glad, and want to be there.
And some, who didn’t particularly want anything, end up feeling they have to buy something because they were asked.
However carefully you handle it, both happen at once.
How do you make everyone happy.
How do you make everyone comfortable.
Twenty years in, and I still haven’t found the answer.
So this time I told only social media, and whoever happened to be in the bar.
It took a long time to arrive at, and it’s the best answer I have right now.
Yesterday, someone told me they’d felt left out at not being asked.
That meant a great deal to me.
And I was just as sorry for it.
I don’t want anyone feeling left out because they weren’t asked.
I genuinely didn’t ask anyone.
There was no line drawn anywhere.
When I say there’s an event on, it can turn into something people feel they must attend.
A celebration becoming something you owe someone — I couldn’t stand that.
So I told no one.
You feel like coming, and you come.
That’s the best celebration there is, for me.
So come whenever you like. I’ll be here.
The flowers that arrived
Honestly, I thought there was a real chance no one would come.
I haven’t held a proper anniversary in years.
It would just be an ordinary night, like any other.
That’s what I expected.
But —
Flowers kept arriving.
With every one of them, I could see the face of the person who sent it.
They all arrived safely, thank you!
Some came all the way from Hokkaido. Thank you ❣️
Surrounded by beautiful flowers, and very happy 💐💛
And then, Kavalan, all of us together
Nearly everyone who came that night drank the “Traveling Lito” bottles — the Sakurao and the Ichiro’s Malt.
And at the end, we all drank Kavalan.
What I really wanted to pour was Komoro.
But there’s no release yet.
Komoro’s master blender is Ian Chang.
And Kavalan is what Ian raised, before.
So with Komoro not yet possible, I opened a bottle from the house he came from.
(For why Komoro matters to me, please read the recent posts.)
A bottle I picked up at the distillery itself in Taiwan — grand, almost holy-looking.
Everything I’d taken from the tasting evening, laid over that glass.
I talked about Ian, and my guests listened to me tell them how happy it had made me.
I wanted to share that feeling with everyone who came.
They came to celebrate with me, and I spent the evening bubbling over about my own news. Apologies.
It stopped being just Kavalan.
When Komoro finally releases something, I want to raise a glass with the same faces.
That glass was something like a promise.
Into our twenty-first year
Younger guests I’ve only met recently turned up carrying gifts, and that took me completely by surprise.
To everyone who came.
To everyone who thought of us.
Thank you, all of you.
Bar Little Happiness has entered its twenty-first year.
What whiskies and rums are waiting to be met from here?
Let me keep sharing them with you.
Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum & Whisky.
📍 Bar Little Happiness
5-14-1F Nagarekawa-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima
Mon–Sat: 19:00–24:30 / Sun: until 24:00
(Last entry approx. 1 hour before closing)
Open almost every day of the year
Reservations and enquiries via our official LINE 🥃
🔗 Online shop: https://shop.little-happiness.jp/
