In 2007 I made my first visit to Japan and was totally blown away by the people and their countless range of sub-cultures. Of course the rockabilly scene is of particular interest to me, and you if you are reading this. The Japanese cats are into the same music as we are and they have many ways of expressing their love of rockabilly and all things vintage Americana. If you didn�t catch last year�s review, please read my Cool Cats Rock Tokyo blog here www.robot.com.au/Japan_Rockabilly.htm to come up to speed. All I wanted after that visit was get back to Japan as soon as possible to witness their kustom auto scene.

Even though I�d like to, I don�t know the Japanese language, my vocab had grown from six words last year to about eight this year. Each day I was determined to learn a new word or two, but it simply didn�t work out that way. Pocket translation guides are of some help, but it makes communicating slow and complicated, when everything in Japan is fast paced. That�s what makes the trip an adventure, the challenge of getting through each day without speaking any English. Surprisingly the rockabilly dudes in clubs and shops speak very little English, other than obvious words such as �Elvis�. Even though we tap into the same 1950s culture, not being able to talk about it felt very weird. You can imagine me trying to explain to a Japanese rocker, my name is Lori Lee (rory-ree) & I come from a rockabilly festival in Australia called GreazeFest (glee-say-fust).  

The rockabilly shops in Japan are totally hip, stocking some way-cool ranges of clothing, but don’t expect anything to fit, as their sizes are petite. The vintage stores stock only the best 50s rayon shirts with top notch prices tags to match. In Osaka there are a handful of vintage shops within the American Mura (American Village) district, such as Samantha’s Vintage, a rockabilly gal who spoke some English and told me a story about how she danced with Big Sandy while in the USA. In Tokyo, the bulk of the cool clothing shops are in Harajuku and Shibuya, the record stores are in Shinjuku.

You have to keep a sharp eye out for the store signs, as the shopping areas are a multi level maze of tiny stores. With space being in short supply, you see the mainstream stores on street level, but the alternate stores are underground or above ground. What you would normally recognise as a block of residential units, is actually filled with compact retail outlets.

One night we stumbled upon a rockabilly record store, called R’n’R Music Garden, on the second floor in an apartment block in the back streets of Shibuya. The tiny shop had thousands of records, all bunched in as tight as possible, from 50s rock’n’roll through to 80s neo rockabilly and modern psychobilly, all alphabetical, it looked like a completist rockabilly collection, especially the 45s. The shopkeeper spoke little English, although he knew rockabilly band names back to front and once we mentioned Australia, he was quick to ask about the Preston label.
 

At the first ever GreazeFest in Kingscliff in 2000, I met Shige Suganuma from Moon, who published a review of the GreazeFest in the Japanese magazine, Cruisin Supreme. Ten years later I witnessed one of Shige’s own shows in his homeland of Japan, and what a great show it was.

This was the 17th Annual Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Car Show, the biggest of the many shows Moon holds throughout the year. The location was inside a modern convention centre alongside Yokohama Bay, certainly the most a-grade setting in which to hold a kustom show.

Lori Lee's photos from Yokohama Hot Rod Show and more

Songs by Japanese rockabilly bands (see links at end of page)

Saturday Night in Tokyo

Rockabilly is a healthy scene in the major cities in Japan and during the Winter, when we were there, the main night of the week to rock is Saturday. No matter where you are in the world, there is only one Saturday night per week, so you have to be lucky with your timing. I wasn�t so lucky on this trip and missed out on seeing the excellent Yuichi & The Hilltone Boys (sings like Big Sandy) as I was leaving town that morning, and then I missed a 'Rockabilly Tournament� in Tokyo that night, as Johnny came down with a heavy dose of the flu. Dang and double dang!

The gig featured The Gretsch Brothers (two piece), Hot Dog Buddy Buddy (neo trio), The Kool Burns (psycho trio) and Cutter Knife (neo trio) plus a bunch of djs. Entry was pricey, as most live shows are in Japan, working out to AU$60 with our dismal conversion rate, but you did receive a �free� beer! Arigato!

I tried to head to the gig on my own, but in the dense city that is Tokyo, it was just too chaotic. Japanese give directions by landmarks and pictures, not street names; have a read of these translated directions to get to the club: 

"Came a footbridge direction and a 10-minute walk to the left, Life, he said and Mark tetraphyllous I see a supermarket, Starbucks and Namiki bridge intersection difference there is a point and the like. To life, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Family Mart and Starbucks and the trees are pontine and exchange points difference. When it passes life, east the intersection which is called before the police box difference because there is a point, when the signal it has turning left, in the left hand the Seibu credit union".