MilkyWay (Milkyway Tokyo, ミルキーウェイ)
A fetish bar in Gotanda, open since 2002, that runs small bookable kinbaku classes every Tuesday and Saturday with a safety-first curriculum. Solo learners can take part because the bar can arrange a practice partner. On Mondays it hosts the English-language Toro Shibari Salon.
MilkyWay is an SM bar in Higashi-Gotanda that presents itself as a relaxed, beginner-friendly place where safety comes first. In the bar’s report on its 23rd anniversary in July 2026, the owner, Waka, described kinbaku as one form of SM that rests on trust, consent, safety and mutual respect. The Monday instructor Toronawa gives 2002 as its founding year (the bar’s own report calls July 2026 its 23rd anniversary) and says more than two thousand Japanese students have learned rope there.
Classes
Classes run on Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons and must be booked; bookings close two days ahead, and first-time students arrive early for an introductory talk. The program has three parts: a basic course and an applied course, each taught in steps, and a separate safety course on what is needed to avoid injury. Basic classes have one instructor for up to four students, while suspension is taught one to one, except suspension gote classes, which take up to two students. The class page welcomes complete beginners, people who taught themselves from videos or books, and people whose partners found their ties painful. Students without a partner can book a model through the bar, and the safety and applied courses need none. Drinking before class and smoking during class are not allowed. As listed in November 2026, a first basic session cost ¥4,000, the first session of each later step ¥3,000 and repeat sessions ¥1,000, with the bar’s entry fee on top and an entry discount for students who come back to practice within about two weeks.
The bar
The bar opens from Tuesday to Sunday, with afternoon hours at the weekend and an evening called VEGA on Saturdays. Guests must be 20 or older, filming is generally not allowed, guests may not swap contact details inside, and tying after drinking is prohibited. There is no sign outside, so visitors phone when they are close. On Mondays, when the bar is otherwise closed, Toronawa holds his salon there; his biography describes him as MilkyWay’s first non-Japanese instructor, appointed in 2023 after three years as Waka’s student.
Shows
Each July the bar marks its anniversary with a Tanabata festival. The 2026 edition included the second Seijōkai, an evening on which MilkyWay’s instructors tied their own partners, among them a student of seven years who now teaches and Waka with Umi, whose set included bamboo suspension.