After such a terrible boat crash, I think we all need to take comfort in the safest possible bathing experience that any walk-in tub can offer.
(meta, edit: just watched the latest episode - lol, turns out the sponsorship is as strong as ever)
I've made posts in other subs for the J-rock/visual kei/Eurobeat. Check my profile if you're interested. Other than that, look out in these photos for albums from, but not limited to:
- Anzen Chitai / Koji Tamaki
- Bialystocks
- Charisma dot com
- Clammbon
- CoCo
- Crispy Camera Club
- Daoko
- Gesu no Kiwami Otome
- Ikimonogakari
- Kana Uemura
- Mone Kamishiraishi
- Ogre You Asshole
- The Oral Cigarettes
- Oresama
- Pasocom Music Club
- Passpeid
- Salyu
- School Food Punishment
- Shiggy Jr
- Southern All-Stars / Keisuke Kuwata
- Spitz
- Super Beaver
- Superfly
- Wands
- Wednesday Campanella
- The Yellow Money
Heavy weighting towards Soft Ballet, a Japanese EBM/electro-industrial group that you should check out if you don't already know them. Check out "Body to Body" and "White Shamen".
I discovered this place by complete chance on my last holiday to Japan, and it is now my happy place. When I'm in Tokyo, I genuinely go there almost every single night. The place is GLORIOUS, no more than 20 seats in each of its two rooms, with walls absolutely covered in cut-outs of 80s Japanese pop music magazines.
Despite the name, Showa Boogie plays music videos from both the Showa and Heisei eras. It's split over two basement floors. The top-most basement (B1F) pays a real mix of music videos from the 80s/90s/2000s. One minute they're playing Anzen Chitai or Chage & Aska, next they're playing Arashi or AKB48, next some city pop, next some X Japan or Janne da Arc, next they're playing some Ayumi or Utada. Then, the next level down (B2F) focuses on even older (Showa) music - though, each floor isn't too strict on the choices. They even give you pieces of paper so you can write down your requests.
It's got a genuinely local feel. Not many random tourists there, because you're greeted with a sign explaining that it's a bar that plays Japanese pop music. I find that 95% of tourists walk away after seeing this sign, which seems mad to me - but it means that the remaining 5% are super-chill, and have a wonderful time there.
It's extremely close to Shinjuku train station, on the north side. They're open until 2am most nights, midnight on Saturdays, and closed on Sundays. I'm back in Japan until the 25th May - so if you go during that time, and you see a 43 year old guy sat on his own singing along to the music, come and say hi!