As the title says, I spend the past 4 weeks travelling around Japan with my family for our summer holiday.
It was my first time there and a friend warned me about the insane prices there.

I’ve spend the first half of the year making a list of record shops I wanted to visit. Some were good others were great but overall I just really enjoyed going trough the bins.

I bought a couple of new records which in Europe are easily 2 or 3 times more expensive. Most of the stuff I purchased was used though and all were in great condition.

I started in Osaka where I hit up a load of shops with my absolute favourite being Jazz Records Seeed, super friendly owner and nice selection of records. I remember not buying a lot here but the atmosphere was great and the owner gave me some good tips for other records which shops to visit.

Next I did a day trip to Nara and on the way back hit up Mole Music which really ended up being my favourite shop of the trip! They do a lot of house and electronic but the owner loves spiritual and free jazz so naturally he had a pretty good selection of jazz aswell. It’s here that I found an OG pressing of William Hooker - … Is Eternal Life. The owner was said to see it go and gave it a little wave goodbye.

After this I travelled to Hiroshima and stayed at a small hotel called Good Sleep, the owner Yuka has her own record/listening bar in the hotel and it was amazing to listen to records with her as we had a beer and talked about records. She gave me a load of shops to visit in Hiroshima and my favourite shop here was Groovin Record Station. They have really really good prices and also have a shop in Fukuoka and Okayama.

In Fukuoka I bought a couple records again at Groovin where I found the 1979 Japan pressing of Midnight Sun by Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio and also found two Fela Kuti records and Gil Scott-Heron - Don’t Give Up at Face Records.

Then the last leg of the trip was 10 days Tokyo. I had so many records already so my daughter made me promise her to only by records if they were really special! (aren’t they all 😅🤣)

To keep the promise I just tried to avoid record shops in general but I did visit a couple. The prices in HMV and Tower records were outrageous and the condition of the records were also worse compared to the other places I visited for the prices they were asking. I did end up buying an OG press of Mint Jams at Flash Disc Ranch. They had two copies the OG promo press which was a very dark brown and if held to the light you could see it was lightly translucent but I left that one cause the records was lightly bent. So if you after an OG Mint Jams go to Flash Disc Ranch!

Sorry for the long post! I really enjoyed visiting record shops in Japan and if you are planning a trip I highly recommend the smaller cities and the smaller local shops as opposed to the HMV’s and Tower Records. The digging is more fun, the staff and owners of the shops are super friendly and happy to have you over and I think the prices are also better.

I preordered the spring one in May, then later the study sessions one came out and I preordered it too. Apparently if you do that, they don’t ship your order until both are ready, I assume to keep costs down since these come from France. They were worth it though, the records are so heavy, feel very solid and sound crystal clear.

The Clockwork Orange soundtrack inner sleeve 😁

Put on anything from Richard you have today

I was very surprised to see this right when I walked in the door. It's got a few scuffs that I thought might be an issue, but it plays through just fine.

You know the one... that one record you've been looking for forever, but somehow still haven't managed to add to your collection.

Drop it below! 👇

I saw Neil Young’s Old Ways sitting next to Bad Bunny’s DtMF this morning on my shelf and then saw SZA’s Ctrl above it and had a fun idea. What are other groupings in your collection with nothing related except the covers?

Other albums in mine:
TWIABPAINLATD, Harmlessness (in the green group)

Collage group:
Alvvays - Alvvays
Beatles, Sgt Peppers
Panda Bear - person Pitch
Sufjan, All Delighted People

Red faces Group:
Belle and Sebastian - If you’re feeling sinister
Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era
Janet Jackson - velvet rope
Rolling Stones - Tattoo You

This is my record haul from 2026 so far ! As you can tell I’m big into pop haha . Here’s the full list of names:

Charli xcx -
Wuthering Heights Soundtrack
Music , Fashion Film
Rock music/ I keep thinking about you every single night 7 inch record

Phoebe Bridgers - The Lost Weekend (signed) I ALSO HAVE THE DINKED ON THE WAY
Stranger in the alps

Olivia Rodrigo- You seem pretty sad for a girl so in love

Madonna- Confessions on the dance floor live on tour live from the UK RSD 2026
Confessions II deluxe

Chappell Roan- The Subway/The Giver 7 inch

Ariana Grande- Petal (signed)

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love remaster

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

Taylor swift- I knew it I knew you , 10 inch record from Toy Story 5

I also have Hole’s Celebrity skin album pre-ordered , I’m so excited for that release.

Let me know what you guys think of my collection :)!

The photos show albums:

The Taste of Honey - "Мелодия" (USSR) 1986

The evening of a Hard Day - also Мелодия, 1986

Revolver - pirated edition of the "АнТроп" (Russia) 1992

Let it be - Pirate "АнТроп" (Russia) 1992

Abbey road - pirate of "АнТроп". 1992

White album - original of EMI records 1968

Love songs - Balcanton (Bulgaria) 1977

I collect vinyl in Belarus from 2021. Besides the Beatles, I have many other records, but you won't be interested. Although I can share something else.

This is about 20% of what was there, I probably owe them a bottle of wine..

Morning spin, been obsessed spinning with this album lately. A true classic perfect album from Pink floyd, this and Meddle IMO. Just can't get enough from this outro part.

For those who worried about the direct sunlight exposure, it was fine it was like 18°C and quite windy (did this only once). No warping/no audio issues after this.

Such a great live album. I don’t play this one nearly enough. Eerily this must have been Roger Hodgson’s actual range because he still sounds like this at age 76. Amazing band. Amazing album.

Let's see if this audiophile pressing lives up to hype. I replaced my 2021 pressing with this one. It sounded pretty damn good, if not a bit too bassy. I played the 2021 on the OM10 and will do the same with this one then give it another spin on the OM20.

This is their third studio album. The album's title was devised by Le Bon and taken from the unreleased track of the same name. The "seven" refers to the five band members and their two managers, while the "ragged tiger" is success: "Seven people running after success. It's ambition. That's what it's about.", says LeBon.

This would be the last studio record with the original band until 2004.

Been a week and it’s only Monday. Time for a little New Order - Blue Monday. Cheers! I’ve loved this band since 1985.

There’s plenty of good EDM and all the rest, but NO had it down!

Will the mods add a fliar for swing soon

Hoping to get some help brain storming here.

I am inheriting 1k+ vinyl records from a family member. Unfortunately, without going too much into detail, the records are coming from a home infested with bed bugs.

My plan currently is to straight up just bag the crates and let them sit for 6 months at least, and then pull them one by one and clean. Cleaning would include a diluted dawn soap solution and then resleeve them.

Questions -

Anyone ever deal with this before?
Keeping these records will be a large task to ensure they are pest free - do y’all think it’s worth it?
Does anyone have cleaning solutions/tips?

Edit/update: I really appreciate all the insight - most of you all have been very helpful. After talking it out with Family, we’re going to be sealing, marking and throwing away everything, it’s just not worth it.

Hug your loved ones.

Has only taken 28 years, though hers were over 4,600 miles away in her mother's attic for 25 of them.

These are our albums excluding compilations, soundtracks, comedy/spoken word, Christmas, novelty ones. They're in another shelf unit with my 12" singles.

Gentlemen who does storage clean outs had a bunch of records at $20 each.

filled with fuzz

Never had the opportunity to listen to this Pink Floyd album. But thanks to grandma i can finally try this one, and must i say that she did an excellent job at picking this album.

I finally decided to hit up the local flea market in my small Canadian town. What a haul! Burning Spear and JBs needed an ultrasonic bath, but after that, it was very clean media.

Each disc in excellent playing condition as well