Ginza USA

I love going here!! There is lots of things to look at and lots of variety of cds to vinyl! It's definitely a stop you wanna go to while visiting LA.

A really interesting bit of synchronicity happened the other day while waiting in line at Amoeba Music in Hollywood. I was looking for some records of traditional Japanese koto music and found Amoeba sorely lacking. An Asian-looking guy behind me in line was telling his friends that he had gone to some record stores in Little Tokyo to get Japanese stuff that Amoeba didn't have. Hmm! A little light bulb lit up in my head.

A nice little sunny Saturday rolled around and I decided to make an urban hike to Little Tokyo in search of such exotic delights. Had a great lunch at Maruya Ramen and then I went to Ginza USA. They had tons of albums, mostly LPs, not just Japanese stuff, and I talked to the proprietor who directed me to exactly the type of traditional records I was looking for. Along the way, I found a great record by American synth wiz Patrick Gleeson, and another similar record by a Japanese group I didn't recognize.

But the real clincher was the compilation albums of theme songs of Japanese children's shows from the 1970s! That was a real trip down memory lane because I used to watch some of these shows as a kid, and I had the toys and everything! I got two of those. Manga seems to be huge now with the young'ns, so if you are one of those and want the vintage stuff on LP, I suggest coming here.

The shopkeeper is a bit of a "mother hen" and was politely bugging people about bringing drinks into the store, and the prices for these records were a bit high, but on the other hand, I walked out of there with a bunch of cool records that I was looking for and that I wouldn't be able to get anywhere else, even some of the hipster shops that are just a block away or so.

Lovely shop w kind owner and nice older lady working the front counter. I found some postcards that were from the Meiji era (just wow!) & my friend purchased some really nice chopsticks. p.s. I see the previous reviewers had bad experiences but no one followed us around (I'm Asian and my friend is African-American). Will definitely be coming back :)

Was almost going to walk by, but glad we didn't!

Stopped by and i was immediately drawn to their crystals. I've been practicing wicca more and more lately, and their amethyst stone called my name.

As I was paying for my crystal necklace I realized by bf wasn't behind me lol he was DITC (diggin in the crates). We spent the day going to different record stores around LA. Our best finds were from here, Ginza!!! I don't even want to write this review bc I want to keep it a secret, but this store deserves the credit. We found original vinyls from blondie, Tom Petty, and The Pretenders (just to name a few, seriously we got like 12 vinyls)

The owner was such a friendly man! He let us know the vinyls were from his personal collection. Wow, what a collection! He let us know he had way more at home and will keep replenishing the store.

Support small business! Stop here!!

Very kind staff. Excellent shop with real trinkets from Japan. Cant wait to come back.

Found some hella rare stuff ngl. Albums and records and like random trinkets. Pretty neat, hard to find shop like these nowadays.

Attention!!!! There should be no room for discrimination anywhere in the world. We're all human and that's all that matters.

This small gift store left a bad taste in my mouth after how one of our family members was discrminated upon. Unbeknownst to me and while our group was browsing and subsequently bought some stuffs, she was being followed around by one of the store workers who was female and elderly and was wearing a kimono as if she was there to steal their merchandise. It became more apparent when this woman ran from one end of the store to the other end just to keep a close watch on our family member. The only reason we could think of was because she was black. We weren't subjected to such a despicable behaviour because we were Asian. Had we been made aware of this experience, we would have dropped the merchandise that we bought from this store. No decent person should be treated this way. We were in LA on a pleasure trip and next time we're there, I intend to give the store owner a piece of my mind.

I posted a picture of the store.

Yoshi is the man! I was looking for a Shamisen to learn how to start playing and he hooked me up with one that feels and sounds great for a good price compared to what the options were to order online. He also gave a good deal on a Bachi and threw in some extra strings! Highly recommend this shop if you're looking to get into learning some traditional Japanese instruments!

This is such a great, little store for souvenirs. I've been eyeing this old padlock, in the shape of a turtle. But I don't need it. Sigh.

My friend got a pair of ninja trainer chopsticks for his kid here, and it was cheaper than that store next to Sanrio.

It was really cool, they have cool t-shirts, and the owner was playing classical guitar when we were in there.

It's a tiny shop with only 1 aisle and we were just browsing around for souvenirs. It was nice at first, but then we noticed this old Asian woman who works at the store following my fiancée (a black woman) and me throughout the store, weaving through other shopping customers just to get near us. We were at the very back of the store and my fiancée went to put back a parasol that we grabbed near the entrance; the woman literally chased her assuming she was stealing. That left a very bad taste in my mouth as well as the rest of my family. I will not support/tolerate this racial stereotyping and prejudice behavior and I urge others not to as well.