Saki and Haruko – Tokyo Record Style

I hesitate to make a comment that could be so easily misconstrued as naive or chauvinistic …but throwing caution to the wind: record-collecting girls are just the coolest. I don’t know exactly why, but they just are. A girl with a record bag, in my eyes, is infinitely more stylish than one with a designer bag.

I met these two lovely ladies, Saki and Tomoka outside Coconuts Records in Kichijoji, which has become one of my favorite record stores in Tokyo. I’ve lived just down the street from Coconuts for more than a decade but only discovered it in the last year or so. Saki and Tomoka were super friendly and smiley and willing to pose for me. Saki scored Yuming’s City Pop classic Pearl Pierce (1982) in seemingly perfect condition with obi and beautiful green color to match the beautiful music on it – I just listened to the album for the first time and it’s fantastic – nice taste, Saki – I don’t know you but it seems to perfectly match your vibe! Tomoka hesitated to pose cuz she hadn’t bought an LP, but rather some essential Dream Pop listening from 1996 on the format of the day – CD! – Fishmans’ seminal Kuuchu Camp AKA Aerial Camp, about which my good pal and music aficionado James Hadfield wrote in a 2019 article for The Japan Times, that, along with Fishman’s album Long Season “are now undisputed landmarks in the Japanese rock canon.” So Tomoka, instant street cred for such a supremely excellent selection. Tokyo Record Style is really about loving music, not only about records! We don’t discriminate! LPs, CDs, Tapes – So long as they play, we love ‘em all! Hope to see you lovely ladies out there digging in the crates again!