Bar Martha is one of the sternest rooms in Tokyo’s listening-bar orbit. The room is dark, close and serious, with 1960s Tannoy speakers and a house culture that gives the music more authority than the customer.
This is not a casual chat-over-records bar. Phones and photography are discouraged, conversation is kept down, and the evening is built around jazz, vinyl and attention. For some people that will feel severe. For others, that is exactly the point.