Vinyl Shops in Tokyo, Japan and Japan in General

Enjoy! We stayed very close to Shinjuku and it was great being so close to the subway. I'm so jealous, I was just going through my pictures...

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Thanks, I saw a few copies that were north of $500. I can't remember all the exact titles. I saw a UK Mono Sgt. Pepper that was expensive!

 

$500 for a Pro Use Abbey Road? No, that is quite off, no matter where it's being sold!

 

Near mint? $200 tops.

 

if you're talking about Shinjuku, the soul / funk store is on the same side of the street, just walk towards the train station a block and look for the sign, it's downstairs, the metal and J-music store is another block down.....the jazz store is a few stores down the other way..and if you go all the way to the corner, there's a big record only one upstairs..in fact, all of the DU locales (5 or 6?) are on the North side of this street,
except the biggest one, which is north of this street a few blocks, across the big street on the 3rd floor, you gotta check that place out !
DU closed their different locale prog and metal stores and consolidated to these locales in the past 6 months...(except the punk store)...it's overwhelming !

 

No, no I just saw lps in that range. I didn't see the or look for the Abbey Road Pro Use. I saw the UK mono Sgt. Pepper but I don't even remember the price but it was high. I figured the AR Pro Use went for $75-$100.

 

Okay, that makes much more sense now. Right, in the old country, that should be the range for Abbey Road. Stuff from the UK can be priced like truffles in a Japanese store!

 

I made into Tower today. Not much in there for me but it was cool to see. I may go back and get 1-2 cds.

I'm about to head back out. We had some major difficulties with the ATMs earlier. Finally found one that would work for me. I think I saw the soul / funk store along with the hip-hop store last night but I figured I would save those for today.

 

I enjoyed seeing all these great UK pressings but most were just priced so high. This is why I figured it was advantageous to mainly search out desirable Japanese pressings.

Also, the store has what looks like 10-30% off signs but I can't tell what it is for.

 

I would imagine that one of the staff members will speak fairly decent English. Worst case, could you use a translating website via phone?

 

Yes, I figured the same but sadly last night I was a little too exhausted to bother. I was either being lazy or didn't care at the time. I enjoyed getting a glimpse of everything though.

 

One thing I've never thought about until now - maybe record stores out there have dollar bins/bargain bins like we do over here!

 

At DU the discount records/CDs are color coded. Just match the color on the discount chart to the record/CD.

 

yeah those are confusing, I don't know if I'll get the discount until I pay...sometimes they have color coded price tags
which match with a certain % off for that color..and sometimes they have certain stores on certain days, and sometimes they give out Y1 off coupons
at the register...Golden week is also a big sale time....btw, Recofan Shibuya has Y2 bins, but I only checked out the J-Rock section, and I
still need to buy a record player and system...that place is WAY cheaper for records, I've seen some cool stuff there w/ obis wicked cheap...

 

Ok, so I went from buying nothing to (going a little crazy) picking up the following:
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde Mofi - On Sale for - $35
The Who - Who's Next - Cat #2408102 A1/B1 - NM - $25
Bad Company - S/T - Cat #ILPS9279 1U/1U - NM - $15
Pink Floyd - Animals - Cat #SHVL815 2U/4U - NM - $50
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon - Cat #SHVL804 A3/B3 - VG - $10
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust - Cat#SF8287 1E/2E - VG - $12
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides - $21
Jeru the Demanja - Wrath of the Math - $12

I'm thinking of returning DSOTM and Ziggy because the condition is iffy and they were priced fairly for condition, just not sure if I'd play them in that condition. They were rated "B" and I had some with the same rating that were NM with this rating...a bit confusing.

Not much English was spoken when I was asking about things but they were very helpful. I felt bad for approaching them but was thankful for their graciousness. I saw lps with green dots and wondered if they were discounted but nothing was conclusive. I saw a few I really wanted but held back. I may go back to get a few.

I saw Led Zeppelin II RL German pressing for 189,000 Yen, which is a lot, but I even thought about it. I may go back and grab it.

I saw some of the best records ever in a record store, just not as many Japanese pressings as I originally expected - actually much less.

 

if you haven't made it there yet, the Shibuya Tower is much bigger and better than Shinjuku Tower.
the "B" grading at Disk Union is a total lottery. i've gotten used to it meaning "bad". i only buy "B" graded vinyl there if it's priced accordingly or simply collection filler.
all staff will understand the word "check", and most will ask if you want to. not too many english speakers in my experience, but with a little effort you can make yourself understood.

 

yeah, the Shibuya Tower is the biggest record store on the planet..the Shinjuku one kinda sucks, they used to have a GREAT jazz floor
but reduced it by a fourth..I don't think you can return anything in Japan, they don't do that here, it's considered in bad taste (????)..
save your money for Recofan, hope to see you tomolo in Shinjuku !!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, that sucks. Unfortunately, it's standard business practice here, so buyer beware. You can only return defective products, not products you don't like.

 

I went to some shops in Shinjuku Monday where I saw a foreign couple. But I don't think they were not mikemoon since they didn't speak English. And I bought DCC's Ram and the Artisan/MO vinyl of Stone's Exile there. Both were reasonally priced.

 

Yeah, the B rating meant NM on 5/7 records and VG on 2.

At the hip-hop store, they did allow me to check because I wasn't sure what the condition meant. He wrote out A,B,C...NM, VG+, Poor - which makes sense.

 

I was wondering that about returns. I will just hold onto them and be more careful moving forward. They were only $10 a piece. One just has a scratch I'm sure will affect playback. You live, you learn!

 

Yes not us! I saw a copy of Exile too for about Y12,00. I wasn't sure which pressing it was and took notes on it to research.

The Rock Store seemed to have some really rare things and I was pretty happy with my haul.

 

7-11 convenience store ATMs are best bets here..most banks won't accept overseas cards.

 

Thanks for the info. Yes, they kept spitting them out and telling me to 'Get On' in Japanese!

We found a CitiBank thankfully.