A Relaxed Used CD Journey: Wandering Through Saitama
The day of the ART-SCHOOL solo concert I went to recently was completely free, so I decided to visit some CD shops in Saitama that I had been wanting to check out for a while.
I bought a Holiday Outing Pass, a friend to anyone living in the Kanto region, at my starting point of Jimbohara Station, and spent about an hour and a half swaying on the train. First, I arrived in Kawaguchi City. Since it was a holiday, the area in front of the station was crowded, but it was still easier to get around than in city centers like Omiya.
After walking for about 10 minutes from Kawaguchi Station, the first shop was Yellow Pop Miel Kawaguchi, located inside the Miel Kawaguchi commercial facility. It is a new store that just opened this year. It seems Yellow Pop used to have stores in places like Shibuya, but now only two remain in Kawaguchi. It is not a large store, but the CD section has a decent amount of stock. Moreover, the Western music selection is quite interesting; there was even a section dedicated to Madchester and shoegaze that was perfect for me, and I found a fair number of albums I liked. However, the high pricing is a drawback. Especially for Japanese music, some items were 2-3 times the price of Book Off. In the end, I only bought Spitz's "Cherry"(300 yen) and left the store. I really wanted more, but my budget was quite limited this time, and if I didn't choose carefully, I would go bankrupt.
Next, I came to the Yellow Pop Kawaguchi store. Naturally, it has more stock than the Miel Kawaguchi store I just visited. But again, the price is a drawback. There are many CDs that I think would be cheaper if bought at Disk Union. I also feel that the Miel Kawaguchi store had a better selection of shoegaze. However, there are occasional bargains, so you can't overlook it. Also, it was interesting that they had almost all of the Spitz single archive (a series where singles originally released on 8cm discs were re-released on 12cm discs). Here, I bought Lush's "Gala" and "Spooky"(both 550 yen) because they were cheap. I also bought Spitz's "Yume Janai"(330 yen) because it was cheaper than the market price. I was happy to find it was unopened when I got home and checked.
Leaving Kawaguchi behind, I next arrived in Urawa. There is a Yaoko inside the PARCO right by the station, which makes it feel local (though they do exist in Gunma too). Located on the 4th floor of that PARCO is Disk Union Urawa. This store moved from Kita-Urawa this year. Digging through it, my impression is that this place is quite strong on Japanese music. It feels like a true Union, and you can find various CDs at low prices. I gave up on it due to budget constraints, but I was impressed to see Fishmans' "Kuchu Camp" for 880 yen. The Western music selection is the usual Union fare. Here I bought 6 items. For Western music, I got
The Brother Kite's "Moonlit Race E.P" and Ringo Deathstarr's "Shadow". Both are EPs, but at 280 yen, they are affordable. From the Japanese music side, I bought 4 items: killing boy's "Destroying Beauty"(380 yen), the pillows' "LITTLE BUSTERS"(380 yen), Maison book girl's "bath room"(480 yen), and NITRODAY's "Machine the Young"(480 yen). I am satisfied with being able to buy CDs from artists of quite a few different genres.
Next, I got off at Omiya. I went around to all the same shops as when I went in January. However, there were no major finds. The Book Off, which had a good selection in January, didn't seem as good as it was the other day, perhaps because the stock had been rotated. However, it was fun to see a few shoegaze-related albums that had just been released this year at Book Off, and imagine that someone had probably ripped the CDs they just bought to their PC and sold them off immediately. In the end, in Omiya, I only bought
the SHM-CD version of Spitz's 1st album(1,430 yen). There were a few other CDs I would have wanted if I had the budget...
After this, there was one more shop I intended to visit, but since it was past 15:30, I went to the ART-SCHOOL advance merchandise sale first. By the time I finished buying merchandise, it was past 16:00, and fearing I wouldn't make it in time for the doors opening, I gave up on the CD shop.
I feel like the haul was decent, and it was a meaningful dig since I was able to visit shops I had wanted to go to for a while. I would like to visit the Urawa Union and the Miel Kawaguchi Yellow Pop again if I have the chance.
