This site uses cookies to improve your navigation experience. By continuing you accept our policy cookie.

Close

Your cart is empty

Checkout Empty cart

Tokyo Vibes (Part I)

Nine addresses to discover in Tokyo to immerse yourself in some of the best BGM that animates the daily life of the city. Here's the first five.

by Nanban

What makes the atmosphere of a city special if not the music that flows through it? Tokyo makes no exception and has always been bubbling with music, wherever you go. The passions of the Tokyoites are the most varied and long before it became a global rediscovery they admit the cult of vinyls, cassette tapes and exotic, elusive sounds, which materialize in the most unexpected corners, in large but above all in small retail businesses, which appear and sometimes disappear in the blink of an eye.

That's why it is so difficult to fix places to explore on your wanderings in the city, where you can feast your ears with good (or at least highly selected) music. Today we suggest these nine spaces, in two tasty episodes. Passing through Tokyo? Here are ten flags to pin on the map.

Sundays Best

Sundays Best
3 Chome-5-30 Nakameguro, Meguro City, Tokyo 153-0061

At Sundays Best you can breathe an American air rather than a Japanese one, but at the same time it is the classic shop that could only exist in Tokyo, with a maniacal selection that starting from clothing explodes into a myriad of crazy objects, personally chosen by the owner, Yuki Yokose, who most of the time welcomes you on the relaxing notes of Chicano Soul.

Kiosco

Kiosco
3 Chome-31-19 Koenjikita, Suginami City, Tokyo 166-0002

If you pass by Koenji, here is another shop where you can reduce your credit card to ashes, accompanied by an unpredictable mix that can range from manic selections of Japanese rap, reggae and breakbeat, but also, especially in the hot season, to other latitudes, to the rhythm of salsa and cumbia, to cheer up the owner, Yuya Goto. Loud music and rare records that Shazam has never heard of.

Goraku

Goraku
3 Chome-25-9 Uehara, Shibuya City, Tokyo 151-0064

Good music and delicious sake, this is what you can find at this izakaya, whose motto is "don't stop the good music" and in which the trendy-looking staff set the mood with playing at the DJ booth.

Viva Strange Boutique

Viva Strange Boutique
5 Chome-1-4 Okusawa

Minami Yamaguchi as a teenager discovered the New Wave and since then, with a typically Japanese attitude, she has never separated from it. Her shop on the outskirts of Setagaya is a New Wave temple and in addition to selling clothing treats from bands that could often now be six feet under, she hosts exhibits and spreads the word through her shiny turntable.

Cactus Burritos

Cactus Burritos
1045 Chitose, Takatsu Ward, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 213-0022

Not only the best California "San Diego-style" burritos in Japan, but Naoko, owner and chef, seasons her dishes with a healthy dose of 90s punk music, with a fondness for female bands. A truly unmissable mix.

SHOP THE STORY