Tokyo treasure-troves

Being a single-track minded K-pop fan is not always an easy feat when living in Japan. With J-pop idols constantly battling it out to win your heart, it can be quite the challenge to remain focused. This is not only because they are on nearly every television channel for some reason or another and in every other advertisement and magazine you see, but also because their fan merchandise leaves a trail in even the most conservative of stationary or book shops. You need only to turn too swiftly at the end of a book browsing aisle and you will send spinning a Hey! Say! JUMP sticker carousel, or fall full frontal into an Arashi display, photo books and all. Honestly, as a dedicated K-pop fan, all this J-idol attention can make you feel rather hard done by, and as though your own loves are a little neglected and thin on the ground, comparatively speaking. However, fret not, though it may not be so widespread, within Japan a K-pop fan idol world does exist. You may just have to work a touch harder to submerge yourself in it, and this is where Tokyo comes in.

On a recent trip to Tokyo with my original K-sensei (the one who first opened my eyes on to this perfect world), I finally realised that it is in fact a-OK to live in Japan whilst living for K-pop. To put it simply, we found the Shin-Okubo (新大久保駅) area of Shinjuku, best known as Tokyo's Koreatown. This wonderful, wonderful place is located one stop north of Shinjuku on the infamous Yamanote train line, and is in walking distance from Shinjuku Nichome (新宿二丁目) and Kabukicho (歌舞伎町). Positioned along Okubo dori, which runs east from the station, the K-idol shops of your dreams are a mere stone's throw from the station's exit.

However, sadly our joint discovery was not so smooth as the concise above description would make it appear. After trawling the Nichome area and finding our bearings via locating the familiar club Arty Farty, we meandered towards Kabukicho area. Having set out with only a faint mirage of a memory from my K-sensei's sleep deprived accidental original discovery of the Koreatown area, and mostly importantly it's idol shops, a month prior, we were not too confident about our chances of rediscovery. With this in mind, as we headed to Kabukicho and re-traced Love Hotels from the previous route, we thought it best to visit a koban and enlist assistance from an unassuming policeman. Needless to say, with a few helpful pointers we found what we were looking for just a short time later. Coming from Meiji dori, which is to the west of Okubo dori, we did not see the gold mine K-idol shops, which we had imagined to be everywhere, at first glance; there was just restaurant after restaurant. However, I assure you that they are there and we soon found them, and, boy oh boy, did we reap the rewards of our pilgrimage.

Even as we neared these places of wonderment, their facades totally put out. By this I mean displays and goods galore, before you even get the chance to step in the door. Posters fitted together so tightly that you would never even know they are supported by a wall, barely a trace being visible.


(Note the fantastic 2PM, Jaebeom inclusive, poster positioned pride of place and the charming suited a booted SHINee, centre.)


(And knee height UKISS, just in case you fancy crouching down to view the Cd's and you loose focus of the 2PM and SHINee above - your eyes are not left wanting.)

As it goes, on recovering a little from the initial and slightly disabling shock, and adrenaline flood gates opening, we stepped over the threshold and entered this place of worship in absolute awe and frenzy. This first shop we penetrated was full, literally brimming, with K-pop goodness, and fellow fans. Wonders yet unseen and unimagined abounded. Even a trip to a few small idol shops in Seoul a few months earlier did not prepare us for the extent of the treasure that we were to unearth.


(These small alcoves harbouring less than half of the gold dust we were soon to discover in Tokyo were hardly a disappointment but they do not quite compare to the latter discovery...)

Walls, ceilings, podiums, everything, covered head to toe in K-, predominantly pop, with a dashes of drama and film actors for goodwill. With club bangers blasting from the speakers (--t-shirts fresh, brand new sneakers--), the perfect shopping and gawping atmosphere was thus created. Recovering a small portion of our composure, we finally began properly exploring Hanryukan, this harbourer of goodies, methodically. The posters and homemade magazine cut-out displays enveloped every surface inside as well as out, and included bands that are yet to debut in Japan, in true K-style - they had it all (though not quite enough 2AM by my standards). The centre aisles were jam packed floor to ceiling with tessellated A4 plastic folders and shitakiji (plastic under sheets for placing writing paper on top of - very popular in Japan), featuring both entire bands and individual members, of course everyone of these items being double sided.


(The shitakiji I was eventually to buy can be seen here, among the other writing equipment I acquired, and is best identified by it's smoking SHINee farmhand photographic masterpiece.)

Along one wall was an array of various pads and notebooks, clocks and posters. As for the opposite wall, key rings and photographs, more larger folders and yet more posters. Towards the back of the shop Cd's lined the shelves, numerous hooks of sparkling key rings, and precious tins of sweets plastered with faces of Mickey/Yoochun (DBSK) and the like made the room an absolutely trilling challenge to navigate.


(Sadly a bit bittersweet for me - an example of "Bad Mickey" as far as I'm concerned.)

As if this shop was not enough, after painfully making decisions as to what to actually purchase and easing ourselves out into the cold light of day, we barely progressed up the road 100 metres and across the road the next K-haven lying in wait, K-star, whose name is no lie, came into focus. I was expecting the shop to be near on identical to the previous one and a little samey, though this made me no less excitable, but I was entirely wrong in my pretensions. The displays out on the street front boasted never before seen fans, and postcards sets a-dozen.


(Each and every one of the fans was crafted into the heart shape which is oh so apt.)

As we entered this shop, possibly even busier than the last, yet more surprises abounded. The whole rear half of the shop was dedicated to K-pop DVDs, and I'm not just talking the live concert kind. These DVDs are of all the TV appearances that our K-belles have made, in game shows, dramas and reality TV shows, in addition to all of their concerts too. Sold in simple white jackets, the only visual clue as to what these DVDs behold is on the screens positioned above the shelves, of which there are more than five or six. Simultaneously playing were live appearances by DBSK, performances by 2NE1 and Big Bang, and gags with the SHINee boys, grins galore, it was an ongoing audio visual crescendo. I didn't know where to look, which lyrics to mouth along to or when to even breathe. And finally, as if this shop has not wow-ed us enough, right by the till area, DBSK individually wrapped chocolates. If only I had known in time for Valentines day! And the cherry on the cake, staff sporting Hero/Jaejoong (DBSK) t-shirts. I felt I had finally found my rightful place within Japan.


(This shop not only covered it's vertical surfaces with posters, but the horizontal ones too boasted some real charmers.)

Moving reluctantly, yet equally keenly, onto IDOL Park, just 50 metres up the road and within sight from the door of K-Star, there were still more treats in store. Whilst browsing (again) unseen printed SHINee socks, Big Bang notepads and Rain postcards, and as I was handed a basket to collect my purchases together in as if in a market, Nuna Nomu Yeppo (SHINee), the song that started it all for us, burst forth in full volume. At this point anything that we had been holding back in an attempt at composure freed itself. Singing along and filming in the middle of an idol shop, entirely unabashedly; it doesn't get much more fan girl than that. How could each of these shops have different items yet be selling the same thing, and equally have the power to make squeals echo forth from a twenty-something girls lips in broad daylight? I call this effect the magic of K.

For fear of becoming repetitive, I will only make brief mention of the last shop we entered, whose name I have forgotten, which is located opposite IDOL Park, and is small part Korean supermarket and 90 percent idol shop. Set on two levels, this shop seemed the most upmarket of the four. Selling genuinely well-made ceramic mugs and chic glass-faced clocks, this shop also had a fantastic selection of poster books new to us. These high definition glossies featured some images that I have never come across; I, who consider myself a fairly well researched K-fan! The shock of it. And all this was set to the sound of Super Junior M's Super Girl. It's as if they read my slightly wearied mind and knew exactly how to remedy it. What a perfect end to the ultimate shopping trip. I knew I would sit on the seven hour train ride home happily, beside my four flush K-filled shopping bags, and believe me, I did.
I am assured also that there are more K-idol shops nestled in side streets all around this central area. I was maybe finished for one day, but I will be returning to hunt each and every one down in the future, especially because it seems that each trove has it's own individual charms and treasures respectively. Now a fully fledged fan girl, no longer in denial, this is what I have to show for it:


(And I have spared you the poster collection.)

For the time being, this will do for Tokyo and for me. But, one final point: it is a well known fact that the biggest Koreatown in Japan is not that of Tokyo, but Osaka. The potential this holds and the promise it will surely bring could almost keep me awake at night. With over 150,000 Korean inhabitants in Osaka alone, I cannot imagine anything less than perfection from such a place. Soon Tsuruhashi, soon.