record stores in japan...
 

hi,
i plan to go to japan for few weeks...
does any of you could recommend me good store? specially in tokyo?
i'm listining to lots of noise, psych, experimental, free jaz etc etc...
thanx
thomas

Modern Music is my favorite place to buy new stuff, despite being incredibly expensive. I think it's actually more expensive to buy PSF stuff at their own store than it is to buy it overseas. It's located near Meidai-mae station on the Keio Line.
http://www.psfmm.com/page/2

For used stuff Disk Union is my favorite. There are a couple great Disk Unions around the east side of Shinjuku station. Walk around there long enough and you'll find them. The Disk Union in Kichijoji is pretty excellent too, especially for used experimental stuff.

Some other places to look around are Shimokitazawa (Odakyu or Keio Lines) and Koenji (Chuo Line). I can't recall any names but there are definitely some good stores around there.

That's the store I was thinking of when I said Koenji.

is Warsaw still around?

Warszawa? I've ordered stuff from there recently so I guess it exists. Never been in the store, though.

Rather than looking for specific shops I think it's probably best just to wander around and pop into what ever stores you find. East Shinjuku, Koenji, Kichijoji and Shimokitazawa probably have the highest concentration of interesting record shops.
If you go to Kyoto look around the Shijo area. In Osaka look around Namba.

Warszawa is still around - they have a reasonably large store in Shibuya.

I'd echo exactly what hat and bread said. Shimokitazawa, Shibuya and Nishi-Shinjuku are all good.

Disk Union may be a chain but it's very good and their used prices are normally lower than smaller stores.

Be aware that finding some of the smaller stores can be difficult even with a city atlas (no street names!). I have the current edition of Record Map listing every(?) record shop in Japan - you're welcome to take xeroxes of the relevent pages. PM me if interested.

Where can you buy that?

I got mine in the Kichijoji branch of Rare Records but I've seen it in Disk Union as well.

Bizarrely enough it looks like Juno in the UK also carry it.

you can even get decent stuff in the tower records store in tokyo, even though it is a massive massive commercial enterprise.

i think tower records in shibuya is the world's largest record shop

oh, i can't wait!
how expensive are the records in Japan, compared to, say, UK?

about the same

that's not that bad