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National Geographic
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- National Geographic
A music lover's guide to Tokyo, the city that moves to its own beat
If you're a record collector, a guitar nerd, a jazz head, a garage rocker, or a karaoke crooner, Tokyo is possibly the best place on the planet for music lovers. Before planning a trip to Japan's capital city, here's what you know about its diverse music scene for all types of musicophiles. Shop for your favorites at a record store Ask anyone who has visited Tokyo about record shopping and they will all mention Disk Union. The behemoth music retailer has been around since 1967 and has multiple stores across the city. In Shinjuku alone, we're talking four separate buildings within a three-block radius, containing various levels that cover 18 different genres. Music lovers will need a map—and fortunately, you can find one online or at the front of any of their stores. Tokyo is also home to several independent record stores. Shimokitazawa is a neighborhood revered by crate-diggers, and you'll find plenty to peruse at Pianola Records, Jet Set, Flash Disc Ranch (featured in the Wim Wenders' film Perfect Days), and City Country City—a bar, café, record store, and small venue owned by Keiichi Sokabe, the frontman of revered Japanese band Sunny Day Service. (Everything you need to know for the perfect Tokyo trip.) Perform onstage at a live music venue In Tokyo, music venues are called 'live houses.' Tthe best of them reside in neighborhoods such as Koenji (SUB Store and Sound Studio DOM), Asagaya (Club Heavy Sick and Forestlimit), Shinjuku (Space and Shinjuku Loft), and Shimokitazawa (Shelter and Live Haus). At Heaven's Door in Nishi-Ogikubo, I was the only non-Japanese patron. Within 30 minutes, I was onstage behind a mic with a guitar around my neck, performing The Rolling Stones' 'The Last Time' and The Who's 'The Kids Are Alright,' accompanied by regulars on lead guitar, bass, and drums. I received high-fives from everyone in the room and swapped Facebook and Instagram details by the end of the night. (Some of the nicest gardens in Tokyo are hidden behind hotels.) Attend a popular music festival Music fans can plan their vacations around Japan's music festival calendar. One of the biggest and most famous festivals, Summer Sonic was established 25 years ago and is held over two days every August in Tokyo and Osaka. Recording artists featured at previous festivals have included Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Strokes, Blur, Kendrick Lamar, and popular Japanese bands such as Babymetal. Electronic music fans flock to Ultra Japan, which is held on a man-made island in Tokyo Bay and has hosted all the biggest dancefloor-fillers, including David Guetta, Tiesto, and deadmau5. If you're a garage rock music fan, you should plan a trip to attend Back from the Grave's annual Halloween Ball. This is like a United Nations summit of the best acts in this wild, loud, and sweaty genre. If jazz is more your thing, then Asagaya Jazz Streets transforms the bars, venues, parks, and streets of Tokyo's Asagaya neighborhood into jazz nirvana at the end of October. All outside events are free of charge. (Don't leave Tokyo without these must-do experiences.) Relax at a listening bar Jazz kissatens are cafés or bars devoted to listening to vinyl records. In a city as fast paced as Tokyo, it's a contrast to step into one of these places, slow down, and immerse yourself in music, whether it's classical at Lion Café in Shibuya or soul, disco, and R&B at Little Soul Café in Shimokitazawa. Tokyo has approximately 100 listening bars—some have a no-talking policy during the day and become more convivial at night. In the heart of Shinjuku, Dug was opened in 1961 by photographer Hozumi Nakadaira, whose pictures of jazz greats, including Miles Davis and John Coltrane, grace the walls. This listening bar was also featured in Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood, the best-selling novel published in 1987. Visit a guitar lover's oasis in Tokyo Just 10 minutes from Shinjuku Station on a rapid express train, you'll find yourself standing on Meidai Dori also known as Guitar Street. The strip is lined with more than 50 musical instrument stores. Meanwhile, a temple to the guitar opened in 2023 in a building near Harajuku's popular Takeshita Street. Fender Flagship Tokyo is the renowned U.S. company's very first flagship. Every Fender instrument and amplifier is artfully displayed on four floors, and you can go in, point at anything you like, plug it in, and play. The store also features a custom shop (named 'The Dream Factory') for made-to-order instruments, a café (from California company Verve Roasters), and an apparel store. (8 family-friendly things to do in Tokyo.) Street musicians perform in Tokyo's Harajuku neighborhood. Photograph by Igor Kisselev, Alamy Stock Photo Visitors at Cozy Café in Tokyo can peruse its vinyl collection and listen to music. Photograph by Izumi Oki, Alamy Stock Photo Sing at these popular karaoke spots Karaoke is a popular pastime in Japan—after all, it started here. Unlike karaoke in the West, which is generally found in a bar or pub, most Japanese karaoke joints are hosted in private rooms for a half-hour, allowing amateur crooners an opportunity to sing along with friends, or even solo, also known as hitokara in Japanese. One of the most popular karaoke chains is Karaoke San, and their outlet in Shibuya is featured in Lost in Translation, where Scarlett Johansson sang a sassy version of The Pretenders' 'Brass in Pocket' and Bill Murray did a melancholic, jet-lagged take on Roxy Music's 'More Than This.' (How to eat your way through Tokyo.) Enjoy the nostalgia of The Beatles The Beatles's Japanese tour in 1966 is still spoken about in reverential tones. Fans can relive the nostalgia and phenomena by visiting vintage clothing shops to easily find Beatles t-shirts, and many record stores in Tokyo have an impressive section devoted to them. Be-In Records in Koenji is one of those must-visit places. This record store has every Beatles album, including versions from different countries, and also has full bins with the solo work of John, Paul, George, and Ringo. To witness the pinnacle of Beatles fandom, music lovers can book a ticket to Abbey Road, a club in Roppongi where The Parrots, a Japanese band, do note-perfect renditions of the legendary band's entire catalogue. The Parrots play four sets a night, five nights a week, and provide a joyous evening of nostalgia that's a must-see for any fan of 'The Fab Four.' (10 of the best hotels in Tokyo, from charming ryokans to Japanese onsen retreats.) Barry Divola is a journalist, author and musician from Australia, and his latest book is the music-infused road novel Driving Stevie Fracasso - follow him on Facebook.
The Hindu
17-05-2025
- The Hindu
Clean and lean Japan
During my visit to Japan on a family holiday, I was astounded by two features. The first was the pristine cleanliness across the country. As we travelled through big cities and rural areas, public spaces such as parks, markets and train stations and along the seashores, river fronts, ponds and even roadside canals, nowhere did we find any litter; not even a bottle, can, or piece of paper. Surprisingly, when we wanted to dispose of some coffee cups, we just could not locate a trash can. We had no option other than to shove the paper cups in our backpacks. How does the whole of Japan stay squeaky clean? As we travelled further, we realised that cleanliness has been achieved through a strong civic sense in every individual and social norms ingrained as part of the cultural identity. No one eats or drinks while walking on the road or using public transport. Shops that sell snacks request their customers to take the food away and not eat on their premises. In only very few places did we find trash cans that were labelled: plastics, PET bottles, bottles and cans, and combustible garbage. Such segregation is practised in houses, shops and everywhere. Trash neatly packed in white see-through plastic bags is kept on the roadsides and collected by the municipal staff. In most countries, waste disposal is done through land filling, but in Japan with a limited land area, combustible garbage is put in incinerators, with special measures to reduce the release of toxins in the air. 'Reduce, reuse, and recycle', the common slogan for minimising plastic waste is well known, though not widely practised. I was fascinated to learn about furoshiki, a traditional Japanese method of cloth-folding to gift-wrap and make bags. It eliminates the need for paper, plastic, tape, and ribbons. The second aspect that fascinated me was the toilets. The Japanese have combined the best practices of the East and West. It was really an awe-inspiring moment to find, on entering a toilet, a clean and dry floor, the lights getting switched on and the lid opening, automatically. The warm seat and gurgling sound as from a pool lent a feeling of calm. Toilets everywhere in Japan were clean, functioning and adequately stocked. Before the 2020 Olympics, renowned architects were commissioned to build unique public toilets in Tokyo. One such was the transparent glass toilet near the Yoyogi Park. On locking the door from inside, the glass would turn opaque! The Olympics were postponed due to pandemic and later held without spectators. But the Tokyo Toilet Project was shown to the world through a movie, Perfect Days. The protagonist who played the role of a toilet cleaner won the Cannes award for the Best Actor. A penchant for perfection in everything, considerate behaviour, and no PDA (Public Display of Affection) practised by the Japanese were quite amazing. In the 1990s, I was exposed to Total Quality Management that had helped the Japanese to improve their production after the Second World War. TQM started in a steel plant in Jamshedpur, and was implemented in the health sector and town division also. We memorised the 5Ss: sort, set in order, shine, standardise, and sustain, translated from the Japanese words Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke. But seeing the larger picture of an entire country kept clean through discipline, with social norms as the driving force was remarkable, though an impossible aspiration for elsewhere. Cleanliness in Japan is rooted in culture. Japan's oldest religion, Shinto is based on worship of nature and the relationship between humans, nature, and the gods. There is no supreme deity in Shinto and no single founder. Shinto believes in religious pluralism, polytheism, and maintaining harmony with nature. Most Japanese are Shintoist, Buddhist or both. As we visited some Shinto shrines and walked through the orange-colored torii gates, my husband wondered, half-whispering, 'We don't know who is the God of the Japanese. Nonetheless, the country is doing great. Let's pray and act towards cleanliness and prosperity for us too.' Truly, cleanliness is next to godliness. vijayacardio@
The Guardian
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Bog standard? Tokyo's spectacular public toilets
Public toilets are rarely thought of fondly – that is unless you're talking about those in Tokyo's Shibuya district. Commissioned in 2019, creatives including renowned architects Shigeru Ban and the late Fumihiko Maki designed 17 beautiful, functional, meticulously clean public toilets, some of which featured in Wim Wenders's 2023 film Perfect Days . Hong Kong-based photographer Ulana Switucha came across the toilets, each unique, while working on a project about Japanese architecture in 2023, and went back to photograph them the following year. 'These structures are works of art,' she says. 'They shine as beacons in their urban setting and demonstrate that public design can go beyond functionality to represent cultural and artistic value.'
