-Please tell us what inspired you to open the store.

I’ve always loved LA street culture. When I went to LA for the first time in the late 90's I was struck by everything I saw. I loved how the liquor stores were this meeting point of different cultures. At the time I was working in architecture, but I was looking for a change. When our local liquor store closed a few years ago, I decided to take it over. We moved to our current location two years ago.

-So initially the idea to open a liquor store was not your plan, but you were inspired by what you saw when you were in LA?

Yes, I looked around at various of shops there and the ones that intrigued me the most were the liquor stores. At that time in Japan liquor stores usually just sold liquor, but in the states they were selling everything from clothes to knives to pipes. It was surreal to see the stores with bulletproof glass counters or to see people just ride into the store on their bicycle. I was like, "What the hell is this!? It’s so cool!”.

-Yes, anything is possible there lol. What is the concept of this store?

It’s like a liquor store in South Central LA surrounded by fences with murals on the walls and people hanging out drinking in lowriders. This is a scene I used to see from the 110 freeway and thought it was really cool. So I picked this location when we moved because there is a highway close by and the noisy and dusty vibe is so close to what I remember.

-By the way, who drew this mural?

ATELIER 036 who is an artist and does tattoos. He is familiar with the west coast culture and style, so he created this piece that fit the vibe perfectly.

-You’ve been to LA many times for both work and pleasure. How many times have you been there? Also, what do you usually do when you’re there?

I think I've been there 50 to 60 times so far. For work I go to buy items and personally I drive around South Central, East LA for the vibe. Sometimes I even take my customers from Japan who like LA with me. I want them to know the true culture there and where my inspirations come from.

-Have you ever gotten into any dangerous situations going to those areas?

There were few times I felt uncertain, but nothing bad happened. Sometimes I got to stopped by the police when I was taking pictures of beers on the street for the store’s promotion lol.

-How about positive experiences?

The lowrider teams get together for the car shows at local parks on weekends. Since we have our lowrider team in Japan, we always go and check it out. When I would talk to people and tell them I’m from Japan, they knew about my team and my store through our instagram. That meant a lot to me.

-That’s really nice! So tell us about your favorite items that you sell at the store.

BUD LIGHT, BUD LIGHT LIME, OLDE ENGLISH 800, and the other American beers that we import. We want to handle brands that are rooted in our favorite American culture. Right now we have about 10 licenses for distribution. When we go to LA we buy beers from different stores and drink them at the hotel. We only import the ones we are satisfied with. We could expand our business bigger if we wanted to, but we want to only deal with people who know the culture. We also have items like our original T-shirts, car air fresheners and the rare stuff we found in LA.

-What's the crazy thing that has happened in the store so far?

That’s something happened at the previous location, there are US Military base nearby so guys from there used to come in all the time. One day they stopped suddenly. Later I found out their colonel had ordered them to stop coming to our store. That made us feel even cooler lol. Now the order has been rescinded and they come in like they used to.

-What is the neighborhood like?

There are US military camps in Atsugi and Zama nearby, so the noise is pretty bad. Also it’s not that safe around here. At the previous store there were pick-pockets around, so helicopters were always overhead lol.  It's not that bad here. There is a truck station nearby so trucks come from all over the country.

-Please give a message to the customers who are thinking of visiting here for the first time.

It's about 5 minutes by car from Costco in Zama, so please stop by us when you come around for your shopping. Whether you are familiar with LA or not, we’ll be down to chat.