A martini.
That's what Julia Momose ordered her first time at a cocktail bar in her native Kyoto. The bar was in a regular house, or so it seemed, with a staircase that traipsed down the side and led to an unmarked sliding door.
Inside, it was dark and smokey with velvet curtains. The bartenders wore white suit jackets and "almost floated behind the bar.” It was theatrical, and their movements were fluid and sleek, almost as if they mixed, shook and served a drink in one fell swoop — a dance, a symphony of movement.