Baar Gattaca is reasonably easy to find -- thanks to the blaring red banners of the bar next door. But, just to avoid confusion, the entrance is immediately to the right of this garish splash of red -- straight down the stairs to the basement. There, you will see the bar's name on the door and the tag "Now or never utopia" scrawled across it in thick white brush strokes -- like rough graffiti. But don't worry about the "members only" bit -- that's just to scare off the weak at heart.

The master, Yoshimitsu Fukui -- whom everyone simply calls Boy (derived from Bowie, which is pronounced "bo-i" in Japanese) -- is a seasoned bartender. His adventures in mizu shobai (the "entertainment" world) began two decades ago at the legendary Bar Aoyama, where he worked for 10 years before opening his own place, the Aoyama Social Club. After five years there, he packed it in and headed for Europe. But, like a pigeon, he eventually came home to roost and, since he has, he opened Baar Gattaca almost two years ago.

"There's no deep meaning to the name," says Boy. "I just liked the movie."