shibuya: the japanese dispatch 5
nerding out in tower records & the haruki murakami library, kichijoji, last day in tokyo
saturday night 11.15.25
tower records
THIS IS THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP I LOVE TOWER RECORDS I LOVE TOWER RECORDS SO MUCH <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3
i could not take three steps without screaming1. you have to understand, 1) i have never seen any of this music in a physical form before, 2) i can’t talk to people in real life about it cause they don’t listen to these genres, and 3) i have been looking at these album covers on youtube since i was 17 so the album pictures are celebrities to me.
this place had the entire discographies of all my favorite jazz funk and city pop artists congregated together in one place with the artists’ handwritten signatures, placards explaining their album histories and life stories, and headphones for listening to any track on any album. it was like meeting twenty celebrities at the same time.
i had THE TIME OF MY LIFE in tower records. i know for my acquaintances who’ve been to japan 2+ times already, it’s like raving about pike place, they must be rolling their eyes in amusement at my choice to freak out about an overrated tourist trap instead of a niche record store in shimokitazawa or whatever but IT WAS A NOVEL EXPERIENCE FOR ME OKAY?
the resurgence of city pop really is an american/western phenomenon. i asked the cashiers, two pretty japanese girls, if they could help me find meiko nakahara’s “fantasy,” which is one of the most overplayed tiktok-famous city pop tracks, so i thought everyone would know it, but the japanese girls had never heard of meiko nakahara! at first i thought, this can’t possibly be true, i must have pronounced her name wrong and that’s why they look clueless, but they actually just had never heard of meiko nakahara before, they had to type her name into their computer and look it up in the directory.
and of course the next floor had all my favorite anime soundtracks. hiroyuki sawano, radwimps, joe hisaishi. they even had a live rendition of komm susser todd. so that was another floor to spend 7593487 hours in. we eventually got kicked out by a tower records employee who said we’re closed, you have to leave. b got mad at me that i made the employee do that.
sunday 11.16.25
at the haruki murakami library aka waseda international house of literature
this is the thing i’ve been looking forward to the whole trip. i’ve been saving it for the end, like you’d save the best morsel of cake for last.
when you first walk in, you’re greeted by this grand staircase with floor-to-ceiling shelves of books from multiple historical periods and parts of the world (mieko kawakami, lucia berlin, gustave flaubert, etc.), hence the name “international house of literature,” as well as murakami’s literary references. i wanted to save that for later, so i entered the left room first, which was a reading room with books organized in chronological order of murakami’s career, starting with hear the wind sing/pinball 1973 and ending with the city & its uncertain walls.
i didn’t know they had all these niche translations of murakami’s works, they’ve got a montenegrin translation of hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world, they’ve got an urdu translation of sputnik sweetheart, they’ve got everything in french, english, chinese, japanese, dutch… there’s even some murakami books i’d never seen before, like a tiny little short story called “the birthday girl” which i picked up and and finished in one sitting2.
i got a picture with The Sheep Man aka The Rat from a wild sheep chase ! i saw an air chrysalis from 1Q84 !!
i love the jazz. this place was only constructed in 2021. and miyashita park was constructed in 2020. so it’s a good thing i didn’t come to japan earlier. to-read: sentimental education by flaubert; to-finish: the master and margarita by bulgakov.
downstairs on the basement floor there’s a cafe, gift shop, and a recreation of murakami’s personal study. murakami used to run his own jazz bar called peter cat, so there was peter cat merch at the gift shop.
the real gem of the museum was the listening room on the first floor, there were people sitting and reading silently on chaises while classical music and jazz music from murakami’s audio collection flowed out of the speakers. i sat there and read 8 chapters of hear the wind sing. after all these years, i never actually read this first book of lore from the rat trilogy.
at moma design store in harajuku
harajuku inner streets are nicer than the main road. i stumbled upon a majestic rice exhibition while riding the escalator up to the moma design store. rice is a seed, rice is clothing, rice is housing, rice is art, rice is god, #amen.
b: tokyo is like a graph where the vertices are valley fair connected by edges that are santana row.
shibuya scramble crossing
we crossed this every day while we were in shibuya, we had to, in order to get from our hotel to shibuya station. super inconvenient. it’s a 24/7 crush of people.
at lost bar
as soon as we walked in, i couldn’t help but laugh. it’s white guy central in here. every single white guy in shibuya is in lost bar. I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING. the drinks are actually super tasty. we got the gummy bear and apple pie drinks. the green gummy bear flavor is amazingly good.
b: what a scam! i thought chris broad would be here!
in all seriousness though, it was wonderful. i’ve been watching abroad in japan since i was 16, so it was surreal to see the photos of the cast on the walls: chris, natsuki, ryotaro… and seeing the big GU sign outside and eating the infamous cheese plate that featured in one of the videos.
at family mart in shibuya
missing the family mart in osaka. that was the best family mart we’ve been to. it was big and spacious and plentiful. they had the fresh orange slices. and in such a quaint chill location. that neighborhood in yodoyabashi was so chill. just salarymen. no gangsters or idols, unlike here.
back in the hotel
watching a weird ballet on NHK. at first b didn’t believe it was a ballet because the movements were so stilted and avant-garde. he said it wasn’t a dance troupe, it was a cult. and why are we watching a yorgos lanthimos movie. i have to admit, it was hilariously similar to an absurd horror-esque lanthimos choreography, a la joe alwyn in the favourite. b was so intrigued he searched it up and found out it was a tokyo ballet performance about yukio mishima’s life. then everything made sense.
monday 11.17.25
LAST FULL DAY IN TOKYO SOO SAD
at inokashira park in kichijoji
the “k” is pronounced softly. in “kichijoji,” you can hardly hear the first syllable being pronounced. i need to go back to soymilk factory cafe someday and drink the soymilk shake and eat the soy meal. the vibes in there were immaculate.
there are a lot of herons in japan. i saw herons at every water feature we’ve been to, 1 at the kamo river and 1 at muruyama park in kyoto, 3 here at inokashira park over the bridge with all the swan paddleboats in the water.
i regret not buying a kimico yoshida bunny print from the cafe du lievre cafe in inoskashira park. i can’t stop thinking about those prints. i need one. i need one. i wish so bad that i took a picture of one of the prints. it was like creepy bunny-themed body-horror. but it’s too late now. i won’t be back there again for a long time.
ginza last minute shopping
itoya was not it. maybe i’ve just become desensitized to pretty stationery and asian pens, but i feel like the planners at mochithings and the pens at maido are better. itoya had all the same brands i saw at tsutaya and chain stores in train stations all over the country here. i guess itoya is the barnes & noble of japan.
there were 2 planners i considered at itoya, but one of them had wide ruled paper, and the other had a flimsy plasticky cover that couldn’t compare to the nice leathery cover of the planner i got from mochithings.
tuesday 11.18.25
last day in tokyo
i realized while at the beach in kamakura that the waves and sand and beach looked very similar to the beaches in northern california. the beaches on the east coast and on the mediterranean were clearly different. maybe because this (kamakura’s beach) is still the pacific ocean that i know and love, that i’m so familiar with, these beaches share the same water, they’re just on different sides.
reflections on friends’ advice
j and k were both right. j was right that i shouldn’t plan too many activities in the afternoon/evening cause it gets dark real fast. many of our outdoor activities were ruined by the falling twilight (such as kiyomizudera and arashiyama bamboo grove).
k was right that we absolutely did not need to book any shinkansens. and to take it easy with scheduling and go with the flow lest we have regrets—i ended up scrapping my entire itinerary in our last 5 days in tokyo, i planned day by day based on the weather.
j was right to scare me into preparing cash in advance, it saved us at the airport terminal when we were exhausted and buying tickets for the airport limo, the last thing we would’ve wanted to do was go back inside and look for a currency exchange counter.
at haneda airport
this is my favorite airport i’ve ever been to. so smooth, so uncrowded, so much staff, and so clean. what is an ostomate? (saw a sign saying the shower in the bathroom is only for those who have an ostomate)
in praise of shadows by junichiro tanizaki
letters from the ginza shimodo stationery shop
the story of a single woman by chiyo uno
on plane
too dark to see what i’m writing
materialists: 3.5/5
cloud: 4/5 → what is a ratel?
girl next to me watching fantastic mr. fox and the princess bride. good taste. arghhhh now i cannot watch fantastic mr. fox cause it’ll look like i’m copying her
what kind of degenerate keeps the windows closed on a plane, i will never understand. the worst.
on flight, 0:44 minutes to go
tried to sleep but failed. just impossible to sleep in a middle seat in economy. couldn’t get comfortable at all. tried to do some breathing meditation but gave up on that at 82 breaths. my materialists review for letterboxd: comfy in-flight entertainment, surface level stuff but still a fun watch. my cloud review: i liked it. the genre went from realistic drama to thriller to gun shootout, so i felt like it was the meme: never let them know your next move.
back home
b: did you not hear me? i’m not walking until i get some pocky!!! or yamyam!!!
at uwajimaya: wow now we can walk around without bumping into things and knocking things over! a mood of incredulous melancholy. same wistful feeling when i came home from paris. everything is so empty and deserted on these american streets. where are all the salarymen and high schoolers? also everything is so big and spread out!
tatsuro yamashita - for you, NUJABES - ARUARIAN DANCE, masayoshi takanaka - brazilian skies, casiopea - mint jams/take me, ryo fukui - scenery, junki ohashi, mariya takeuchi - plastic love, meiko nakahara - fantasy, haruomi hosono - pacific, yurie kokubu - just a joke, tomoko aran - midnight pretenders, anri - last summer whisper, taeko onuki - 4:00 a.m., kingo hamada - midnight cruisin… they also had american music too, frank ocean, daniel caesar, the weeknd….doja cat’s new album gorgeous and sabrina carpenter’s manchild had huge displays front & center.
it was about a young woman who works at a fancy restaurant and she personally delivers the restaurant owner (who is an old man, classic) his meal on her birthday. once the owner learns it’s her birthday, he grants her a birthday wish. but she doesn’t tell the reader what her wish was in the end, so it was anti-climactic.
just binged these— 10/10 parasocial experience
what does air chrysalis look like???