There really is no place like Japan for digging. With stores tightly clustered in most districts, it’s a wonderland where you can explore every alleyway, basement and above ground level for mint music across all genres and origins. Mine deep for Japan’s amazing domestic music as well as rare Japan-only releases of western artists, plus every other oddity that mysteriously found itself in common circulation and has been well treasured by this devoted audiophile mass community. Just picture a record sleeve and it will magically appear in front of you!

First things first – pick up a copy of Record Map. Updated every year, Record Map is the essential guide to shops in every city and district in Japan, with easy to follow maps and less easy to decipher descriptions of each store’s specialty.

The book will set you back a measly 2,000 yen but will pay immediate dividends as most shops marked with a ‘lucky icon’ will reward you with 10% off (or slightly less). Despite the language barrier, Japanese people are incredibly helpful and generous with their time. Feel free to ask a fellow shopper or the store owner to recommend other places within the area and they can simply mark the maps for your reference.

While I spent a lot of time and money at bulk second-hand chain stores like Disk Union, RECOfan and Yellowpop, I got a real kick out of supporting the smaller independents, which were all run by kind folk who travel abroad regularly, actively sourcing interesting stock for their unique stores. The following is a selection of my favourites.

Rumour has it that a new version will be released in late 2010. Until then, work your way through this one. It’s free and available where secondhand records are sold or downloadable as a pdf here.

B-Sharp closed in early 2010 after almost 22 years of supplying Adelaide with a top shelf selection of jazz, funk, soul, reggae, hip hop, house, world, disco, ambient and techno.

Rumour has it that the guy who started the shop funded it by importing a massive shipment of hashish in the early 80s. True or not, this rumour suits B-Sharp. It was always a shop that – while having a brilliant selection and expert staff – was always a little shambolic.

During my brief tenure as a staff member I was constantly amazed by what the management let happen in that shop. The managers themselves would routinely trade CDs for pizza at a nearby restaurant. Running a tight ship unfortunately wasn’t a top priority.

Antics like that almost sank B-Sharp but a change in management around 2004 put some true music lovers back at the helm. Thanks to them, B-Sharp was again one of Australia’s best record shops for the last years of its life.

B-Sharp’s fortunes were built on the World Music boom of the 1990s and more recently on the support of Adelaide’s always strong hip hop and disco scenes. But  the middle classes bought iPods, the b-boys bought Serato and the B Sharp bubble had to burst.

Photographs courtesy of B-Sharp staff, management and friends.