I remove my shoes to take a step into my local sushi restaurant in Tokyo, excited to fill my appetite with the sushi dishes that are always a reward for me. The bamboo walls and wooden tables shape the restaurant, and its wa-fu (japanese cultural) vibes. 

As the dishes, mostly sushi rolls, arrive at my table, my eyes are fixated on them. They just look fresh and delicious. I used to talk about my Japanese culture often when I lived in the US in elementary school. Most of my peers would feel insecure when they hear of raw fish. It just doesn’t fit their taste buds. Although many foreigners tend to be disgusted with raw fish, sushi holds a significant share in Japan’s culture and market. Harry Styles, a Singer-songwriter and actor from England, had recently released his new album: Harry’s House. Harry’s House, released on May 20, consists of 13 songs and is illustrated in the top 30 of the latest Billboard Hot 100 on June 4. One of my favorite and most famous songs in this album would have to be Music For a Sushi Restaurant. With 10 million views in the audio video on youtube, Music For a Sushi Restaurant was a popular hit back in May and is still a song many of us tend to sing to brighten our daily lives. 

Have you ever listened to  Music For a Sushi Restaurant before? Would you say and imagine this as being your visit to a sushi restaurant? I would have to say that this song doesn’t yield any sushi vibes. The song starts off with a rather long intro leading to the song, and a sudden escalation. Soon, Styles starts off with “Green eyes, fried rice I could cook an egg on you…” which makes me doubt if this is actually music for a sushi restaurant. None of the elements listed in the first 1 minute and 22 seconds resemble that of a sushi restaurant, nor of Japanese culture. This is when I start to question if Styles chose the wrong name or if it was me pressing on the wrong video. The second verse starts with “Excuse me, green tea Music for a sushi restaurant From ice on rice…” which incorporates much of Japanese culture and is very catchy and memorable. 

When thinking of a typical Japanese song, I think of songs with the koto, or the taiko-- Japanese instruments. The wa（和）songs with the scraping of the strings in the koto or the strong hits in the taiko, is what usually play in a Japanese local sushi restaurant. Although this title, Music For a Sushi Restaurant, is different from the song I had expected, the background music is very upbeat as well as calm and steady at other times. In other words, this song is well-balanced. The melody is catchy and addictive, and personally, I fell in love from the start, when I first heard this song in an ordinary go-to cafe in New York. The sudden high “yeah” voices align perfectly with the lively tension of the music. In addition, the background music dominating the song in the middle is perfect and fits the vibes well. After the middle of the song, Styles mentions “Music for a sushi restaurant” repetitively 2 times, showing its emphasis, just like the song title. The perfect mixture of the “Ba, ba-ba” and the bass guitar and electric guitars for the background music is just satisfying and makes this song memorable among the others. 

Styles told NPR, “I was in a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles with my producer and one of our songs came on from the last album, and I kind of said, like, ‘This is really strange music for a sushi restaurant.’” This just shows how anything is possible and we have absolute freedom in music. This empowers citizens like us to feel a fascination with music. Without the creativity that Styles brings, music is the old and boring standardized notes that we may anticipate on a day-to-day basis. 

As a high school GenZ student living in Japan, this song title is definitely one that I would remember even while sleeping. Although the song was nothing like the music of a sushi restaurant that I have heard before, this might just be the new Music For my local Sushi Restaurant.