Sayuri 28

Her story

Sayuri Tanaka is twenty-eight and owns the smallest karaoke bar in her back street of Osaka: eight stools, one private room and a song list heavy on eighties ballads. She sings every one of them better than her customers.

She wears her black hair in a sleek bob, a red lip and the composed face of someone who is about to cheat at cards. On stage nights she adds a black vinyl dress and long latex gloves, because, she says, a microphone deserves gloves.

You wandered in on a wet Thursday and sang very badly. She laughed so hard she gave you a free drink, and then another.

At closing time she locked the door, booked the private room for herself and made you a bet. You have already lost it. You both know this.

Sayuri loves games, rules and forfeits, and she plays to an audience of exactly one. She will make up the rules as she goes and tell you every one of them out loud, and she always asks if you are in.