The Deep Groove Mono Guide to Jazz Record Shopping in Japan

Record store database: dgmono.com/2022/10/17/the-dee...
OSAKA:
0:12 Especial Records
KYOTO:
1:17 Jazzy Sport
2:07 Poco a Poco
2:57 Super Milk
OSAKA:
3:53 Waxpend
5:03 Morpho Records
5:46 Hanshin record fair
8:12 Disk Union Osaka
10:09 Jazz Record Seeed
11:33 Banana Record Osaka
12:44 Maru Ka Batsu
NAGOYA:
14:50 Disk Union Nagoya
17:47 Banana Record Nagoya (2 stores)
TOKYO:
20:33 Disk Union Jazz (Shinjuku)
21:44 HMV (Shinjuku)
22:53 Disk Union Jazz Tokyo (Ochanomizu)
25:18 Disk Union (Shimokitazawa)
26:26 Ella Records (Shimokitazawa)
27:31 Discland Jaro, Disk Union Jazz Rare Groove (Shibuya)
30:31 HMV (Shibuya), Tower (Shibuya), Face Records (Shibuya)
34:32 Disk Union Second Hand (Shinjuku)
35:14 Hal's (Shinjuku)
After over two years of waiting, I finally had the chance to visit Japan. I met my Japanese fiancé, Ako, through Instagram in November 2019. She visited the U.S. for extended stays twice in 2021 but due to Covid, I wasn't allowed to enter Japan -- not even as her fiancé -- until this past summer. Once we booked my flight, I immediately began researching record shops.
We spent a lot of time in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Nagoya. We went record shopping in all of them. During the course of two weeks, we visited over 35 record stores country-wide. At one point, Ako and I had a conversation about my frantic pace on the streets of Tokyo, perhaps a bit too frantic for her! Ako was my faithful cameraperson the entire time, documenting our exhibition at each stop.
Generally speaking, shopping in Osaka and Nagoya was surprisingly good while Tokyo ended up being a bit underwhelming.
Overall, my trip to Japan was full of incredible, memorable experiences; the least of which, frankly, was record shopping. I got to meet Ako's parents for the first time, ate local Wagyu beef, rode the Shinkansen train, stayed in a fancy hotel near Tokyo Tower, and of course, spent lots of quality time with my future wife.

[@leeherbert1525]

Wow! I'm so jealous. Trip of a lifetime. Love that you have your Revilla Grooves bag! I love his store in nj. Keep buying!!

[@mad4vinyl802]

I just discovered your channel through Ken's excellent interview with you. Awesome. I have a lot of catching up to do. I need to visit Japan. You lucked out at the record fair!! So many great shops.

[@derosa1989]

this is EPIC! thanks Rich for posting your experiences.

[@mikeoconnor7131]

Great vid - appreciate all the work that went into putting this together!

[@emilspec1227]

Good to see you two doing what you love!

[@BOBBRADLEYCHANNEL]

Cool video Rich, 2020 was supposed to be my year for Japan, but of course we know what happened with that 😐 Maybe now when I finally go I can use your experience as a bit of a guide. Cheers!

[@Budgetphile]

Can’t wait to see what you guys picked up! Love me some cheap OJCs! Cheers

[@Souldisco]

Great Video, loved it.

[@fixfury7494]

loved it.:)

[@s.t.e.r.e.o.]

Congratulations. Stoked for you. Someday would love to go to Japan to Snowboard and record shop.

[@voicesofvinyl]

Were you able to visit any jazz kissa while there? Japan is on the top of my bucket list for places to visit, mainly for the record stores and jazz kissa experiences. Great video!

[@dgmono]

Unfortunately no, Mrs. DG Mono elected to skip them this time (every time I showed her pictures of them they looked too dark and seedy and dirty for her haha). I would like to try some next time though!

[@AndreasSchmidtHappens]

hi there ...... any idea if the DEEP GROOVE version is the FIRST PRESS STEREO of the 2 "early" existing versions ? the both seem exactly the same. exept DG and non-DG. MOTION by lee konitz on VERVE V6-8399 ( i have deep groove + D cogs not have deep groove, only non-deep groove, but popsike has deep groove ) FUSION The Jimmy Giuffre 3 V6-8397 ( discogs + popsike have deep groove and non-deep groove )

[@fwrarejazzvinylcollector]

Hi Rich, great video! Super interesting. I can echo the Discland Jaro experience. That guy is very rude and difficult to deal with. I’ve done some business with him through the years and many times it has not been a good experience. The store has been around since the 70’s I think. He gets in crazy stuff all the time but it’s not cheap and the grading can be off. I’d like to visit Japan and dig for sure. Been there once, but I was only 11 at the time. 🤓👍🏻

[@dgmono]

I'm glad I'm not alone on that. I'm pretty sensitive and that guy make me feel really bad that day! It was so ridiculous that his shop was so messy and unprofessional and then he scolded me for not psychically understanding his obscure, nonsensical "filing system". Thanks for stopping by, Fredrik!

[@fwrarejazzvinylcollector]

@@dgmono I’m with you 100%. Visiting a record shop should be a fun and relaxing experience. It’s unacceptable to not feel welcome by the owner. Especially in a small shop like that. Keep up the great content Rich! 👍🏻

[@philmclaughlin8661]

Awesome video, looks like an epic trip. Did you say Sonny Clark Trio was going to be a TP? If that’s true, that’s awesome news.

[@dgmono]

Yes, it is! That was actually one of the albums Joe and Kevin were remastering when I visited Kevin's studio in summer 2021.

[@philmclaughlin8661]

@@dgmono that’s awesome!

[@edc.3761]

You should also drop by Recofan in Akihabara and Disc Union JazzTokyo in Ochanomizu.

[@dgmono]

I did go to Disk Union in Ochanomizu and I covered it in my video. :) Recofan sounds familiar, I believe I elected to skip it, they have jazz?

[@ricefieldrecords]

It sounds like you have a companion. If she reads Japanese, I’m pretty sure some of the magazine publishers have issued overviews of the majority of independent and chain record stores in Japan and what they generally stock. I appreciate the amount of work and walking you put in to go to these shops, but if Jazz was your target you owe it to yourself to figure out which Jazz specialist outlets you missed for your next trip.

[@alkebulansan]

Why didn't you go to Vox in Osaka, always an excellent selection of jazz. And Especial never had good records, even back in the day, a couple of bits but nobody went there for a good dig. They did use to do a good jazz night party though😉. And you also missed some good shops in Denden town! And Fukuoka also has some good stores, got Mal Waldron Spanish Bitch back in the day, for 11 bux!

[@irawong]

Between an OJC and a Japanese reissue (Toshiba, King, Victor) at the same price and condition, which would you opt for?

[@dgmono]

I think I'd opt for the OJC because the sound quality level is just as high and they are general much cheaper. If the OJC album art reproduction really stunk though, the Japanese art is usually top-notch so then I might spend the extra coin for the Japanese. Sorry for the late reply!

[@jlcougilljr]

Face records suck! i've had many NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES WITH THEM regarding way over-graded vinyl, scratches and/or warping, split seams/spines that was not described, totally rude service and did NOT and would NOT stand behind their product(records) what so ever.

[@7and12inchvinyl]

Otherwise very informative video but I would like you to work on your audio because if you're going to go through all this trouble to make a nice video we have to hear it without being annoyed especially since you're talking about audio file music trust me having collected records for over 50 years I have enough hearing to know what sounds good and what sounds crappy

[@dgmono]

Thank you for the criticism. I too felt the audio was substandard at times and will work to improve it the next time I do something like this.

[@7and12inchvinyl]

@@dgmono yes thank you for your trouble I've always had a thing about sound especially nowadays when the mics are so great and you hear people perfectly and then sometimes you hear people that sound like they're in the Batcave just saying appreciate the trouble appreciate the work you put in but just for a little bit extra I would really invest in the best sound you could possibly have because after all I'm probably listening to you more than I'm looking at it so the visuals are what they are audio has to be as good as it could be hope you agree love the channel

[@7and12inchvinyl]

Christ you think you could work on the audio a little bit on your videos are so all over the place just take a little time and you know try a little harder it's hard to hear what you're saying sometimes it's good and other times it's just downright awful please audio audio it's not that hard