30 seconds over Tokyo - the vinyl solution, by Peter McLennan
published in Real Groove Magazine, December 2001

( Peter McLennans visit to Japan was made possible with the generous assistance of Asia 2000 Foundation. )

In Japan, technology is everywhere. From the huge billboards blasting Japanese pop down at you from the sides of buildings, to teenagers emailing each other on their cellphones while riding the subway (yes, their cellphones work underground), its easy to get the feeling that in Japan, the future is already here.

In Aotearoa, when we finish work we relax by going to the beach, or to the park. In Japan, people relax by going shopping. Consequently, they are extremely well catered to on every retail front imaginable. From the high fashion boutiques in Ginza, to the department stores in Ikebukuro, to the 300+ record shops in Shibuya. Music is everywhere in Japan. When you walk through their department stores, each section of the shop will have their own stereo, playing everything from Naughty By Nature to the Go Betweens.

Japan is the second biggest music market in the world. Last year the Japanese spent 540 billion Yen ($NZ 10.5 billion) on music, mainly on cdís (523.9 billion Y/$NZ 10.2 billion). Of that total, 424.7 billion Y was spent on local music. Cassettes accounted for 14 Billion Y ($NZ 274 million), and vinyl sales were a mere 2.1 billion Y ($NZ 41 million).Of the 1,914,000 records sold, 1,609,000 were by Japanese artists.

There's a record shop in Shibuya for any genre you can think of, and the format of choice is by and large, vinyl. There's record stores hidden up narrow flights of stairs and down alleyways, and there's also the big chain stores, like Tower Records seven floor store and HMV's six floor store in Shibuya, and Virgin Megastores equally large Shinjuku branch. Even the chains stock a basic range of dance vinyl, alongside every cd you could ever imagine wanting. Then there's all the Japanese only cd reissues with special bonus tracks, etc.

I caught up with Auckland DJ Manuel Bundy, who was over there to play a few gigs with Mark De Clive Lowe and his band, who flew in from London, where Mark is now based. It was Manuel's second visit to Japan. He came over for the first time last year with Mark.

"He (Mark) told me that I could find any record you want over here (in Tokyo), and I was like, yeah, sure", says Manuel. "And then I got here, and my god, you really CAN find any record you want!" Manuel says that he's been to London and New York, but reckons that Tokyo beats both of those places hands down, when it comes to record shopping, "and unlike those places, the prices aren't ridiculous." He's got a few records that DJ Sirvere had been looking for all over the world. "I found them too, so he's gonna be pleased with me!"

When you come out of Shibuya station, you are greeted by several video walls, blasting out Japanese Pop, or J Pop. Three million people go through Shibuya station every day, so as you can imagine, its a busy place. There's a vast number of record stores located here, but finding them is a mission. basically, you have to follow your nose. Most of them are tucked away behind Tokyu Hands department store.

There's Manhattan Records 3 branches; Manhattan caters to new and old school hip hop and funk, Manhattan 2 is techno and house, and Manhattan 3 is more eclectic, covering latin, reggae, leftfield, and broken beats. Cisco (www.cisco-records.co.jp) has several shops, catering to house, hip hop, techno and reggae, and also does a mail order service.

I had a rather amusing conversation in Cisco Reggae, trying to ask for some Japanese reggae. The surly young shop assistant looked down his nose at me and my appalling attempts at speaking Japanese, and then indulged me by spinning a handful of dancehall 45's by Japanese dancehall MCs.

In Vinyl Planet I saw a whole bin of original pressings of 12" on the Sugarhill Records label, including early hip hop greats like Grandmaster Flash. Then thereís Still Diggin (www.stilldiggin.com), Hot Wax, Beat Bop, View Records, Next Records, and a few hundred more that eluded me.

In DMR (Dance Music Record) they have rows of mainly hip hop releases, in shelves that have three records facing out at you, from top to bottom. Its more spacious than most of the shops mentioned so far, but what's interesting is they have 10 to 15 copies of every record, and they sell them all too. There must be a huge number of bedroom DJs in Tokyo, or some serious record collectors amongst the kids. But where do they store all those records? Most Japanese live in apartments about the same size as your average Kiwi family caravan. Thatís being a bit generous, actually, its probably smaller than that.

Near Cisco House and Manhattan 3 is a tiny place called Disc Jam. Its an apt name, as the shop is jammed floor-to-ceiling with every kind of dj mixer you can imagine, and of course turntables and assorted dj toys (the new Technics 1200 Mk 3D is only $900 NZ in Japan; they'll be about $1900 when they arrive here next year). There's even cute plastic replicas of some superfly dj's and their decks, just for your mantlepiece or desk (see photo above).

Every record is labelled with a neat little index card at the top so you can easily see who its by and what is the title. Some shops also include handy snippets of information, such as with AC/DCs Back in Black single - "dope beat, used by Beastie Boys - Rock Hard". The rest of the card was in Japanese, but included numerous exclamation marks. As they say, these are the breaks.

Tokyo Meltdown, a guide to Tokyo record stores

Welcome to Electric City.
Tokyo is a city that's divided up into zones. Roppongi is party central for Westerners, Harajuku is the hip young teens hangout, Shibuya is record shop heaven, Odaiba is the dating area and Akihabara is known as Electric City.

This area is covered with shops that sell every possible electric and electronic device you can think of. Akihabara accounts for 10% of all electronic goods sold in Japan. It runs for about 3 or 4 city blocks, and encompasses building after building that is full to the brim with goods, for 5 or 6 floors, minimum.

When you enter these shops, there is usually several salespeople on the street shouting out their sales pitch at the top of their lungs. Then you take 2 steps into the store, and thereís a stereo blasting away. Then you take another 2 steps and thereís a DVD player screening some Hollywood movie on the biggest TV you have ever seen. Every single shop is like this. The noise pollution is just intense. Some of these shops have their sales pitches prerecorded on mini-disc, and just set them on repeat. Retail deafness, anyone?

All of these shops have about a million fluorescent lights in them, and its almost blinding. There are rows of stereos, rows of tv's, rows of the latest cellphones, rows of computers, rows of air conditioning units, rows of washing machines, rows of hairdryers, rows of dvd players, its just endless. There's even a model toy shop that sells M16s and Glocks. Then there's the small dealers, selling electrical components, everything from tiny LEDs to big league computer parts.

The cellphones are incredibly small, and have all sorts of flashing lights and cute extras. The very popular i-mode phones all the kids are using there are 2.5 G phones. The new 3G phones have recently launched in Japan, the first place in the world to get them. They have been slow to take off however. The 3G phones are more expensive to buy and run than the existing i-mode phones, and their best feature is as a videophone, whereas the i-mode phone is best for always-on email (meaning that its constantly connected to the internet, so you recieve any emails sent to you instantly).

The 3G phones may take a while to find their niche, the way the i-mode phone has. Everyone in Japan seems to have one, and is equally adept at using them while walking, riding bikes, or on the train. As if all the shouting and hollering wasn't enough to get your attention, Akihabara is a sea of neon, flashing at you, demanding your attention. This is a bit more palatable however when it rains, as this gives Tokyo that whole exotic Bladerunner vibe. This is very very cool.

Osaka has a similar area called Den Den Town. It runs down one long street, with a number of smaller shops down side streets. While not quite on the same huge scale as Akihabara, its just as flashy and jam-packed with product. All this retail excitement just confirms the notion that Japan is where the future is already here.

© 2002 Peter McLennan