Shibuya, a high-strung, fast-paced district of Tokyo, is the birthplace of countless consumer and pop-culture trends. Shibuya Crossing, the area directly in front of Shibuya Station is the world’s busiest intersection. With its multi-story Starbucks, fifty-foot high television screens, and bright neon, it is one of the most popular images of Tokyo.

Predictably, such an area draws many young people and features countless trendy boutiques and shops. In addition to their respective main department stores, Shibuya’s Tokyu and Seibu also own a number of other properties around Shibuya:

• The hip Shibuya 109, operated by Tokyu, a trend-setting complex aimed at young women and featuring ten floors and over 100 different boutiques.
• Tokyu Hands, a “lifestyle store” offering housewares, hobby supplies, stationary, and a variety of other items.
• Parco, a large, multi-building Seibu-run complex hawking all the latest styles.
• Loft, Seibu’s take on a Tokyu Hands-style store.

Of course, there are also countless independent shops not affiliated with either of the two goliath department stores.

I didn’t head to Shibuya to buy the hottest clothes, though. In addition to the hip boutiques and enormous department stores, Shibuya is also home to two of the biggest record stores in Japan: HMV and Tower Records, both names no doubt familiar to most westerners. Since I’d heard good things about it, I headed to HMV.

There, I found six huge floors filled with CDs (and even actual viynl records) of every genre of music imaginable. On the first floor, the latest Japanese releases were prominently featured at listening stations and special displays. Further inside, long aisles held tens of thousands of rock, pop, dance, and other releases. An entire section was devoted soley to independent artists. I was amazed at the wide selection: in Cleveland, a “record store” was a chunk of the local shopping mall barely bigger than my bedroom or a small corner of a Barnes & Noble bookstore. At home, if I looked for practically anything that wasn’t a #1 hit, I would be told that the disc would need to be ordered in. Here, though, I was able to find every single artist I looked for, popular or not.

I quickly filled a shopping basket with way too many yen worth of merchandise and headed up to the second floor. Every bit as big as the first, it offered popular and rock music from American and dozens of other countries. This came as a shock, considering that most places in Cleveland offer either no imports at all or only a handful of English or Spanish-language dics that are left lying neglected in some back corner. Here, though, music from around the world was displayed prominently. A small cafe served up Starbucks-style drinks and pastries at tables which each had a pair of headphones and a selection of music to listen to while you enjoyed your coffee and cake and looked out over the bustling streets of Shibuya.

The remaining floors in the building were no less amazing: an entire floor was dedicated to jazz and classical music, another to DVDs released both in Japan and elsewhere. An entire wall was devoted to documentaries and was lined with thousands of discs from the genre that barely gets any shelf space in American stores. There was a stage for live performances and an on-site radio studio where live FM broadcasts were occasionally produced.

Eventually, though, I knew I had to leave before I spent every yen I had on me, so I paid for my basket full of purchases and left with my wallet a few 10000-yen bills lighter. Before, having nothing to compare it to, I thought the selection at the new fye in my local mall was pretty good. I don’t think I’ll look at it in quite the same way anymore.