Music and Travel
A Tiny Afternoon of Tiny Record Stores in Osaka
One of the joys of life in a foreign city
I spent the middle two weeks of March on a school trip in Japan. It was a whirlwind of true tourism in most senses of the word, and even if it hadn’t been, you typically don’t get a lot of time to yourself on trips like these.
There’s always something. But if you pick your spots, you can find some moments that will mean something and maybe even stick with you.
On the last afternoon in the country, I found myself about to be disgorged from the tour bus with two hours of free time on my hands.
Out came Google Maps, in went “record store” in the search bar, up came the results, and I was off.
But sit tight. I’ll come back to that.
Do people still want record stores? Will they still go to see movies in a theatre? Do they need bookshops?
Or is Spotify better? Is Netflix as good as it gets? Is Amazon the way forward?
It seems inevitable. Or rather, it seemed. We are there now. Is there room left for anyone to push back on this inexorable trajectory? Not in a way that says down with everything, but rather says, hang on a minute here before we forever give it all up to…
