Founded in 1903 as an electronics store in Tokyo’s Asakusa neighborhood, Denkiya Hall transformed itself into a café after its skilled workers went away to fight in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Back then, electricity (or, in Japanese, denki) was considered a trendy thing. Asakusa’s famous liquor, Denki Bran (electric brandy), invented in 1882 at Kamiya Bar, attests to that. As it turned out, Denkiya Hall was more successful as a café with a quirky name than as a dime-a-dozen electronics store. Lit by an antique chandelier and soundtracked with 1950s music, the…
