Asakusa Enka Store

Have you ever heard of Enka music? The slow, sentimental, old fashioned ballads that the older Japanese can’t get enough of? Here’s a speciality record store in Tokyo’s Asakusa district selling CDs, books, posters and VHS video of the latest and brightest stars on the Enka heaven. Recently there has been as close to a generation shift as you can get in this genre as many young artists have started out on their careers. The young artist who made the biggest splash in the media was Jero (or Jerome Charles White, Jr), the first black Enka singer! Unfortunately I couldn’t find his poster in this store. The enka stores are the last CD shops to have decent sales figures I think, as more and more big name record stores are going out of business, it seems that many of the typical enka generation seems to treasure their older media still. This store is called Miyada, if you ever need to ask for directions. Here’s one of my favorite Enka songs, the super famous classic Akogare no Hawaii Koro from the 1950 movie with the same name with the legendary Haruo Oka (岡晴夫).