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There is a type of tourism, which is usually not mentioned in the guides, which is pillage tourism . That is to say: traveling to a site with the main purpose of buying something that, rather than entering the category of the first necessity - which is what a wholesaler would do -, would enter into that of vice.

For example, go looking for clothes, collectibles or, although it is no longer fashionable, also for records. There was a time when we were going to London, Berlin or New York to get us vinyl or CDs that didn't arrive here by mistake, or to probe the stores in search of oddities or old material that, at the time, we were I would have missed.

All this, as you know, began to collapse when the record industry entered into crisis, and ended up being an eccentricity of a nostalgic minority of the object when piracy in mp3 gave way to comfortable streaming with flat rate Spotify. Now, one goes to New York and the odd thing is to find an open record store, and in London and Berlin resist the specialized ones. The big chains gradually began to become extinct and, although the record industry exists, it lives on other things that are not selling (physical) records, while the second hand capitalizes Discogs. Total, that soon the botilleries will be more common than where one can dig the vinyl bucket.

These stores are Japanese quixotic companies comparable to former World War II fighters

But, as with the old empires, there are always vestiges that remain standing and that resist the maintenance of a withered old honor, and if one now wants to buy records - and do ad hoc pillage tourism -, the only thing that left is Tokyo . Record stores would fall into that category of Japanese quixotic companies comparable to former World War II fighters who were still in the jungle fighting the wind when it had been years since the signing of the peace treaty.

Surely, this has to do with a Japanese character that values ​​the physical object, the craftsmanship of the small and precious thing, and that despite not having much space at home, prefers to continue being able to touch his beloved things. Thus, Tokyo is full of records, stores are endless, prices are tailored to any pocket - expensive news, balances and second hand only available to collectors with a pocket the size of a sack - and if one is not controlled , get out of there with the shivering credit card.

When this humble chronicler went to Japan, he did it with several goals in mind: to eat until he was like the tongs, to visit places of deep spirituality, to soak up frenzy and modernity and, of course, to pick up records. One was spurred on a previous occasion when the bag returned to the point of bursting, and the problem of stepping on record stores in Japan - not only those in Tokyo, but also in Osaka and Kyoto - without having a specific objective is that you want everything

There was, of course, some objective: for example, one was curious to see if it is easy to find Hiroshi Yoshimura's records here, something like the Japanese disciple of Brian Eno, a pioneer of the environment in his country, which, following a rediscovery Recent has become fashionable in electronic circles. And, in effect, three vinyls appeared at the branch of the second-hand Disk Union chain in the Ikebukuro neighborhood, but at prices closer to spending a night at Shibuya Park Hyatt - the five-star hotel in the that the movie Lost in translation runs - that which one is willing to disburse: the most sought after Green (1986) was 85,000 yen -720 euros to the current change-, a mere example of the main thesis that we want to defend here, and is that in Japan there are not only discs, but ALL the discs that one is looking for .

For example, do you want those that Charles Manson recorded from jail, even in CD reissues that stifle pirates? They are, because these eyes have seen them. There are stores specializing in black music in general , such as Bootsy Record Shop in Kyoto, which even have a 7 '' singles section with collector's pieces for northern soul or Jamaican music hunters and that only charge in cash. The Recofan store, in Shibuya, may store more discs in its space than are currently for sale throughout Madrid - which includes FNAC and El Corte Inglés - and Disk Union not only has franchises open in at least six areas of the city, but, in addition, in Shinjuku or Shibuya it occupies entire buildings of five floors or wide spaces and lined with titles to the most inaccessible corner. In this country the music lives as in any other, but also the trade remains as buoyant as if the post-Napster revolution had never happened. Japan is another world, also in this aspect.

Japan is also the only country in which the Tower Records chain is maintained, formerly the greatest exponent of music megagasters - in competition with Virgin and HMV - and today died worldwide due to lack of clientele. On the other hand, the biru (building, as they say) that they keep in Shibuya is an emblem of the area, not only a reference point for orientation, but a buoyant business that dedicates an entire plant to j-pop, another to k-pop -the commercial and the local move the thing, as expected-, another to jazz, a fourth to rock, another to western pop and, above all, classical and electronic music. Concerts and record companies are organized, and the girls leave happy with their little bag, in which they treasure the latest fashion idol title. Tower's motto, in short, is the summary of why discs still matter here: no music, no life .

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