The OG. The one that started all of it.
Here’s the scene. Dad’s finally sat down. Record’s on, needle’s dropped, the good chair has accepted him. And then the house starts up. The blender, the phone on speaker, the dog going at the fence like it owes him money. So he says the one word that fixes it, loud enough for the whole street: うるさい (urusai).
That’s the word on the mat. It means noisy, technically. Or Japanese for shut up.
You’ll notice he’s gone full beet red. That’s the frustration coming through. The rest of the colours are an ode to the 1990s and 2000s, the era we keep going back to.
A lot of this mat comes from time spent in Japan. Tokyo is the record capital of the world. Tower Records is still one of the best spots going, and the smaller vinyl stores dotted around the back streets are where the real finds live.
Up a little north in a city called Kanazawa, one of our favourites was MOJA RECORDS 金沢幸町店, a beautiful little shop where we came away with some beautiful little jazz records, an old Takanaka Masayoshi 45 (Blue Lagoon still on high rotation), and of course some Japanese city pop. Save it to your Google Maps for next time you’re over that way.