Shimokitazawa Record Stores

Warsawa

Warsawa is a tiny record store with some rare titles. The prices are a lot more reasonable than even US prices despite the fact that half of them are imports.

I picked this up based on the recommendation from http://rdfrnds.blogspot.com/

They play one of the new release albums in the store and display it so that you know what you're listening to.

JetNet

JetNet is right next to Warsawa and has a slightly larger selection with much higher prices.

They have a lot of well-known indie titles, but they also have some rare stuff.

Unlike Warsawa, JetNet has various genres. I don't think I would come back to this store because it was really overpriced.

Found this Cold Cave album with 18 tracks that I'd never heard of it. I didn't get the name of the album in the picture, sorry.

Indies

This store doesn't really have too much indie music, but has a huge selection of 90's music. This store is also overpriced and has a lot of crappy albums, but they do have some good stuff.

A wall of EPs.

Cool album with fan remixes.

Unknown Record Store

This was a boutique style used record store. They didn't have a lot of great titles, but if you search through enough, you can find some great stuff.

Big selection of Brian Eno up on the wall.

Some cool books and stuff they had in the corner including a kid's book about Robert Moog.

Flash Ranch

This record store has a really huge selection of used vinyl ranging from the 1930's to the late 80's. All used vinyl is 800 yen ($8), but if you buy more than one, you get a huge discount. You can also haggle down the prices (if you can't speak Japanese) by writing down the price you want on a piece of paper. They have a pretty good selection of music books as well.

I picked these albums up for about $20 in total.

Shimokitazawa is the vinyl destination of Tokyo. Don't be fooled by big names by Tower Records which have poor selections and high prices. I would give Warsawa the highest rating of all the stores for its selection, prices, and atmosphere.