[Everything Is Meant to Be] One Night Connected by an Article from Nine Years Ago (20 Memories, Vol. 4)

2026.10.05

In short: Vol. 4 of “20 Memories” for the 20th anniversary of Bar Little Happiness in Hiroshima. On a day the bar was only open because a trip was cancelled, the newspaper reporter who wrote about owner Mika Tanimoto nine years earlier walked back in — the article that won her parents’ respect, and a glass of Balvenie to mark the reunion.

Thanks 20th Anniversary — 20 Memories, Vol. 4　Vol. 1 is here　Vol. 2 is here　Vol. 3 is here

“Do you remember me?”

The moment I saw the face of the person who opened the door and walked in, the hands of my clock were pulled straight back nine years.

Early this month, I was supposed to leave Hiroshima for Shikoku.

It was a day the bar was meant to be closed.

But at the last minute, the plan was cancelled because of the other side’s circumstances.

“Well then,” I decided on short notice to open the bar after all… It was a day that began with that strange blank space.

If I had gone to Shikoku as planned.

If I had kept the bar closed.

This reunion could never have happened.

Nine years ago, as one “guest”

I first met this person about nine years ago.

At first, they were simply a guest who happened to walk in while passing by.

They listened closely to my thoughts on whisky and on my work, and came back day after day.

A few days after we had enjoyed talking together,

they revealed, “Actually…” — that they were a newspaper reporter.

“I would really like to write an article about you.”

The article that took shape from that is an irreplaceable treasure for Little Happiness.

But my feelings at the time were a little complicated.

Back then, more than as a craftsperson or a bartender, I wanted above all to be fairly recognised as “a business owner,” and I was trying very hard to look the part.

For me at that time, the article may have been a little different from “the context I wanted.”

But leaping over my pride and my fixations, the reporter’s eyes had captured something more essential.

My pure feelings for whisky.

Even now, it still has such power that guests keep coming to see me because of that article.

↓ About the article (in Japanese)

2017年2月20日の「朝日新聞」に掲載されました。

The words of an outsider that opened my family’s hearts

Above all, the greatest gift this article gave me was “a bond with my parents.”

Until then, my parents had complicated feelings about my work — a sense of “the night trade, of all things…”

But when they read my thoughts written through the eyes of a reporter, an outsider, I felt that for the first time they recognised me as a professional and became interested in what I do.

Without that article, the relationship I have with my parents today — and the me who has kept running for 20 years without hesitation — might not exist.

The aroma of Balvenie, arriving at our 20th-year milestone

What the reporter ordered, meeting me again after about nine years, was Balvenie.

That is the precious whisky that first drew me into the world of whisky.

“I still include that article in the bar’s pamphlet.”

When I told them that, their senior colleagues and co-workers who had come with them warmly said, “You did a good job!”

With words alone, you can add colour and shine to someone’s life.

It was a moment that showed me once again how precious the work of a reporter is.

Everything is meant to be

The change of plans, the interview nine years ago, and the timing of this reunion.

Just before the big milestone of our 20th anniversary, I cannot help feeling that someone up above gave me a push: “Go on as you are, and believe in yourself.”

To you, who picked up my feelings for whisky so directly that day and shone a light on them:

with heartfelt gratitude for the inevitability of meeting again at this counter, across nine years.

Thanks 20th Anniversary — 20 Memories, Vol. 4

Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum&Whisky.

20 Memories, Vol. 5 ↓
A Shameful Memory from My Arrogant Days (20 Memories, Vol. 5)