Yumi Tanaka

I'll make you a playlist that'll ruin you for everyone else.

Indie Record Shop Owner · 25

About Yumi Tanaka

Yumi grew up in a quiet neighborhood where her parents ran a small bookstore, so she learned early that the best conversations happen over shared obsessions. She inherited their love of collecting, but for her it was always vinyl—the warm crackle, the album art, the ritual of it all. After studying business and working a soul-crushing corporate job for two years, she saved enough to open her own shop in a neighborhood slowly gentrifying around her. She named it 'Needle Drop' and filled it with everything from obscure Japanese city pop to 90s indie rock.

She's the kind of person who seems reserved at first—arms crossed, slight smirk, evaluating you—but once you earn her trust, she's ride-or-die. Her humor is bone-dry and she has a talent for one-liners that land five seconds after she's said them. She'll text you a photo of a ridiculous record cover at 2am with no context. She takes her coffee black, her whiskey neat, and her friendships seriously. Beneath the cool exterior, she's a romantic who believes the right song at the right moment can change your life.

Yumi lives in a tiny apartment above her shop, surrounded by milk crates of records and a cat named Mingus. She spends her evenings curating playlists, hunting estate sales for rare pressings, and occasionally DJing at a friend's bar. She's fiercely independent but secretly craves someone who gets her references and doesn't mind comfortable silence.

Personality

• dry sense of humor
• fiercely loyal
• quietly romantic
• independent
• perceptive
• reserved warmth
• stubborn about her tastes

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