Chad in ???

[Tony Takano]

I happened to find a picutre with autograph

I did not know that you were there Chad.

http://www.airs-online.com/data/backstage/visitor/chad_smith070605.html

[soulmover]

Oh that's me alright.
i always hit that place.
They have the best bootleg dvd's.

i get boxes boxes of them!
Not enough papa though

[SATAN]

It is a very cool place...


http://www.airs-online.com/data/backstage/visitor/alcatrazz070531.html

[Tony Takano]

OK guys !! I will be there tomorrow and tell them to stock more papa's and Howies'

[chrisloeb]

Tony,

I remember a little district in Tokyo with lots of Bootleg shops, but I don't remember how the place was actually called.

It was a 10-15 minute walk from Akihabara along the railway (I remember walking on the left side of the railway uphill - I think I might even have photos, because there was a storm coming up and the sky looked bizarre!) before you hit a little square on the left and a main road with a couple of music stores too.

One of the bootleg stores was a rather narrow building with 3 or even 4 floors filled with CDs!
The other one was right on that little square in a basement.

That was in 1995 or '96, gotta check.... Good times.

It's been way too long since I last visited your beautiful country...

Cheers,
Christian

[Tony Takano]

Hi! chrisloeb,

It's nice to know that GHCP know about Japan or has paid a visit to Japan

I don't know exactly which town you went but If you can walk from Akihabara, it may be Ocya-no-mizu or Uyeno. Uyeno has less CD shops so I think you went to Ocya-No-Mizu (literally it means "water for tea" where we could get clean water)

The one Chad and Howie visted is located in a town called Shinjyuku. There are more than 10 bootleg shops if they survive as used to. I don' know historically why there are same kind of shops close together but the first one was "Shinjkyuku record" if I remember correctly.

Anyway I have to go there today to tell them to hold more of Papa's ones and Howie's ones

[Mark Hoffman]

I was there (Shinjkyuku) in 1989... I don't remember the names of the shops... but I was in my glory! I snagged a bunch of vinyl- mostly Deep Purple and Beatles. Lot's a porn freaks shops out there too! I stayed in Negano Ken for a couple months (Ueda?)

That's been a long while ago.. in fact, that was so long ago- I was in management training for a typewriter manufacture! (Nakajima All) Still can't believe they didn't see it coming... (PC's)

Mark

[Tony Takano]

Mark san,

I tried to find any of Nakajima typewriters on the internet but all seems to have been gone. Even I used to use Olivetti

Porn shops are on the other side of railway I think. There are very tall business buildings and famous shrines. Porn shops and bootleg shops.. All are mixed and are living together... Strange town

[chrisloeb]

Nice map, Tony! Excellent research. Ocya-no-mizu is correct.
I liked the place.
No need to mention that during the month that I stayed the first time back in 1992 (when and even went to school for 4 weeks) I visited all the places you have pointed out on the map.
Shinjyuku with its tall buildings (there was a giant Virgin Megastore too, is it?) - I can't remember any of the bootleg shops though.... (and I swear, I never saw a porno store ), Akihabara, Ginza, Shibuya and of course Roppongi, where I lived during both stays in Japan.
Memories as clear as if it was only yesterday!

Christian

[captmidnite1962]

I read the last few posts and started flashing on the interview Todd did with Don Airey for The Fuze. Don was talking about the bootleg shops in Tokyo where he found a boot of Colosseum II on the BBC...he grabbed it up and was knocked out by the band's performance that day. I am wondering if some of those tracks are the ones that wound up on the expanded / remastered edition of Strange New Flesh. I picked that up recently and what a treat it is!!

I used to go to a record shop back in NY called The Music Arcade out in Westbury. They sold a lot of "grey market" recordings and sadly went out of business...Slipped Disc in Valley Stream had a lot of videos you could rent that featured hard to find performances...

[Mark Hoffman]

Hey Tony- Nakajima All's biggest American customer was Sears- We made machines for several others- They built a new assembly plant in Ottawa Illinois- taking full advantage of Ronald Reagan's Tax and loan incentives (plus avoided Tariff's for American customers). Built it, ran it, closed it and never had to pay much at all for it- all done in less than 10 years. But we all got jobs! Nakajima still exists, but in Japan and recently opened a plant in China - they did get into some computer stuff- but they are not the company they used to be.

And after reading my post... I need to clarify something! I was not "in my glory" because of all the porn shops! I was just surprised as to how many there were in a few areas. If I'm not mistaken there was video porn in several conveiniance stores too? Wasn't very common here in the States..back then. It was the record and tape shops that really impressed me! (honest!)

and yes... I sang Karaoke for the first time while there.. (never thought that would happen! damn Sake..)

M.

[Tony Takano]

Chrisloeb,
You are to come back again to refresh your memory You will be again surprised how it was changed

captmidnite1962,

Even Don Airey was there!! All of the musicians visiting Japan are found in Shinjyuku The shops should be proud of giving the chance for Don to listen to the old recordings.

Mark san,

Thanks for the Nakajima story. It is with a lot of info. For Sears, that's why we did not see many of those in Japan.

As you noticed, some parts of laws are not fully supportive to minors/children/old people here in Japan yet

CD shops are getting smaller in its business size I think. Maybe because of new style of music distribution. But the bootleg shops are still surviving. Then I think I can locate a bootleg of Mark singing Karaoke

[tony g]

i wish we had those shops -not for copyrighted or available video- just stuff that was hard to get - but in the usa they would try to put the shop owner in prison

[David]

Originally Posted by tony g

i wish we had those shops -not for copyrighted or available video- just stuff that was hard to get - but in the usa they would try to put the shop owner in prison

Think we do tony, it's called eBay

[Tony Takano]

Is Mark's bootleg available on e-bay?

When I saw "Transformers" (amazing movie though), "e-bay" was kind of an important word. Thank God I knew how it worked.