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Feb 07 2020 16 Comments

An old Tokyo video shop

Video may (or indeed may not) have killed the radio star, but what goes around, almost inevitably comes around.

An old and shuttered Tokyo video shop

Categorized: Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jenn says

    2/7/2020 at 11:17 am

    Hehe they sure went big on the sign! 🙂

    Reply
    • Lee says

      2/7/2020 at 8:51 pm

      They did. Very big!

      Reply
  2. DavidT says

    2/7/2020 at 1:00 pm

    This is so cool. I’d love to have that sign!

    Reply
    • Lee says

      2/7/2020 at 8:53 pm

      Yeah, never seen one quite like it.

      If you did, it’d certainly be a talking point!

      Reply
  3. cdilla says

    2/7/2020 at 9:00 pm

    What a wonderful find. A night time fully illuminated photograph would be perfect. I’d love to hear the ticking and hissing of rain on it too. Perhaps too late for that though.
    This one is tasking my location tracking skills – at the moment I’m wandering the streets west of Shinagawa.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      2/8/2020 at 7:50 am

      That is a lovely thought. It must have been quite something back in the day. But yeah, sadly way too late for that…

      I’ve been most impressed with your prior detective work, but this would probably top them all if you can find it.

      Reply
  4. john says

    2/10/2020 at 7:43 am

    Spirited Away! The timing is good. Just this month Studio Ghibli will be streamed and subtitled to a country not near you (but I have a DVD!).

    I originally though that was a parrot not a sizzling spotlight, but I can read the sign!

    Reply
    • Lee says

      2/10/2020 at 8:40 am

      Yes, read about that. Presumably it’ll open up the films to a whole new audience.

      Must admit I did a double take when I first saw that on my computer screen!

      Reply
      • john says

        2/10/2020 at 9:10 am

        Just like a video shop.
        It was immediately a parrot to you too? :o)

        Reply
        • Lee says

          2/10/2020 at 9:38 am

          Yes. Knew it couldn’t be, but I still had to zoom in to double check!

          Reply
        • cdilla says

          2/10/2020 at 6:23 pm

          Likewise, despite the incongruence of the notion my brain said parrot too. It must be some vestigial remnant of our jungle dwelling days. Why else would we all see the same thing?

          Reply
          • Lee says

            2/10/2020 at 9:04 pm

            I thought in part it was perhaps because we wanted to, as how great would it have been to see a parrot perched atop an abandoned video shop?!

            Reply
          • john says

            2/10/2020 at 9:52 pm

            Video shop owners last words “VHS sales; it’s a jungle out there these days”.

            Reply
            • Lee says

              2/11/2020 at 10:02 am

              Haha, very good!

  5. Rohan Gillett says

    2/11/2020 at 9:50 am

    I wonder what this place was like back in the day? In that residential area it was probably a good little business. I still remember my first time in one of those stores. Cramped little isles packed to the roof with videos. Ah … such good memories! Then Tsutaya came and wrecked everything 🙁

    Reply
    • Lee says

      2/11/2020 at 10:05 am

      I know eh? Not very big, but like you said, it was no doubt absolutely packed with goodies. And as far as Japanese video shops used to be, packed with all kinds of goodies too!

      There used to be a few smaller shops just about surviving near me when I first came here, but yeah, by that time the bigger chains definitely dominated.

      Reply

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