Cameron Lew knew he had made it in Japan while out for a late-night bite earlier this year.
“I was staying in Asakusa and it was really late. The only thing open close by was a gyōza (dumpling) bar,” Lew, the 27-year-old behind the California-based music project Ginger Root, tells The Japan Times over video chat. “There’s this guy there. He puts his phone down, and I see his ‘recently searched’ artists on Spotify. The top one was me.”
Lew tried to focus on his meal, but the two eventually started talking. Soon enough, everyone in the small eating establishment knew about the coincidence. The owner played Lew’s Ginger Root videos on a TV screen; a group of them ended up going out for drinks.