Laying Low in Osaka — Music, Maps, and Denim
Japan has been such a fun time- but also exhausting. We finally made it to Osaka for a 3rd and final week, a sharp turn from the sightseeing frenzy of Kyoto, Himeji, and Hiroshima. While it was a slow start, and Osaka does not have the same tourist appeal that the aforementioned places have, it’s been quite a treat to take a slower, more methodical approach to our last week in Japan.
In many ways, Osaka has a lot of the same feel as Tokyo, but where metro Tokyo is a city of 30 something million, metro Osaka is a more humble 9 million. In Tokyo, Jaywalking is a big no-no, but Osakans don’t take heed. Tokyo dresses conservatively and professionally; streetwear in Osaka dominates. Where Tokyo is polite and curtious, Osaka is in your face and brash. It’s fun seeing a Japan unhinged, and brings me to some parallels on the chaos of Miami that the rest of the US seems to lack.
Beyond the two main attractions in Osaka (The Gilco running man and Dotombori where it’s found, and Osaka Castle), my first true day exploring became a treasure trove of music, denim, and maps.
Having read a lot online of the allure of Japanese denim, I researched some stores to see it for myself, most of which was concentrated in Amerika-mura (roughly, “Americatown”, but it didn’t feel like it). My eventual goal after perusing the selections was to end up at Flake Records, Osaka’s ubiquitous record shop.
After stumbling in a couple stores, and recoiling at the price tags, the owner of U.E.S. Denim (made in Okayama, the birthplace of Japanese denim), I start speaking with him, explaining what I was up to, and he hands me a map — one labeling all of the boutique denim shops in the area (20+ in total!). Besides being a huge map dork, I really appreciate when small shops band together to help each of their brands’ visibility.
But before I went onwards, I stopped into a local record store advertising 100 yen house/techno CDs outside. I grabbed some cool records between the early 2000s Ibiza mix and old Chemical Brothers CDs — though I found out they were too cool once I got home. My laptop doesn’t have a CD player and none of the three were able to be streamed online, so looks like I won’t be listening to them until I get back stateside.
Moving on, I purchase my CDs, and the cashier hands me another map! This one was of all the local record stores in Amerika-mura, what seems to be 30 or 40 in the area! She then circles a shop called Newtone records, as they specialize in electronic music.
I mosey on over to Newtone records, and marvel at the crates and crates of vinyl of so many subgenres, including one for grime and dubstep (just about the best piece I’ve ever written was a musical history of dubstep). Three floors above was *another* record shop, Root Down records, which had specialties in reggae and old-school hip-hop, which I checked out briefly.
Thoroughly derailed from my original denim-related plans, I decide to take my final stop at Flake Records, a short 10 minute walk south. I see why Flake is the most recommended shop in Osaka — it nails current music, playing Anderson Paak as I walked in. But what impressed me the most is their vinyl selection that I noticed, namely, they had Brockhampton’s Iridescence, two albums from the late XXXTentacion, and Swimming by the late Mac Miller. One could say I felt right at home (which would be my beloved Plan 9 Records).
But my favorite part of Flake was their headset machines for sampling new music. I think these were really popular back in the day before you could listen to music online, where you could sample 5 or 6 CDs in a machine that the record shop selected. I listened to several Japnese Records, including Nahavand’s Vandalism (rap-rock hybrid), only to find out later in the day that the album released early only at Flake Records, and comes out May 8 online. My favorite song was the opener ( マルセロ, or “Marcelo”), but I’ve linked the already-available title track, Vandalism.
Next post I’ll be covering Nara (Japan’s old capital, now overrun by deer, for some reason). :)
