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Apr 20 2020 12 Comments

A colourful but bleak suburban Tokyo park

All the bright colours of the current season, along with all the bleakness of the current situation.

a colourful but grim Tokyo park

Categorized: Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. DavidT says

    4/20/2020 at 12:51 pm

    That’s one cool looking park. Such awesome colors! Kinda sad but I really like the guy sat in the shade. 🙁

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/20/2020 at 5:01 pm

      It’s definitely very distinctive, especially on such a bright, sunny day. And yeah, the fella tucked away in the corner was a very nice little extra. Didn’t even notice him at first as I walked up to take the photo.

      Reply
  2. Jenn says

    4/20/2020 at 2:45 pm

    Hey he’s outside the house in the sun. That counts for a lot these days! 😉

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/20/2020 at 5:02 pm

      That’s very true indeed. All those things we used to take for granted eh…?

      Reply
  3. cdilla says

    4/20/2020 at 6:01 pm

    I love the way you have captured the artificial, primary, blue/green/white/yellow/pinks used and their echoes in the natural colours that surround them.
    I wonder how long those concrete gazebos have been there. Though weathered they have barely changed at all in the two years or more since this you last shared them (https://www.tokyotimes.org/the-bleak-beauty-of-a-suburban-tokyo-park/).
    I wonder of the old folk who frequent them now played in and around them as kids.
    None of the play parks around us last for more than a handful of years before being revamped.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/20/2020 at 6:36 pm

      Thanks. Very fortunate with the surrounding colours. All lovely matches.

      In the background you can just see a bit of a rainbow. It’s a slide of sorts, and whenever I walk past — which is a lot more often these days — I always hope that there’ll be an old person resting on it, but alas, it hasn’t happened yet.

      I often wonder how long they’ve been there as well. And considering they have barely changed in a couple of years, for that kind of weathering it must have been a long while.

      Considering there are lots of danchi in that area, my guess is they very likely spent time there when their kids were little. That’s how I’d date the park if I had to have a guess. So somewhere around the mid-to-late 60s perhaps.

      Reply
  4. Steve says

    4/20/2020 at 7:20 pm

    I can’t put into words why but this strikes me as one of the grimmest photos here I can recall. I hope there is more greenery, some grass, outside the photo to take the edge off.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/20/2020 at 8:04 pm

      Out in the suburbs in particular, Japan has quite a thing for grim parks. Some that make even this one seem positively idyllic. And sorry to say there’s no grass. Some faded stone animals, but they don’t exactly brighten it up.

      That said, the rainbow slide thing you can see a bit of in the distance is quite popular with the local kids. There’s even some swings over there too. But still not especially appealing…

      Reply
  5. john says

    4/20/2020 at 8:01 pm

    Are they putting the world into order?
    You have the guy looking up and the cloud centrally placed, and those splashes of illuminated lilac as a bonus.
    On the right I noticed the shadows creeping across and then noticed the reality that is a shadow of what it used to be.
    It is such a shame the gazebo cleanup squad haven’t been around. It can’t be that much toupee?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/20/2020 at 8:14 pm

      Nah, just both sitting there, very quietly. The lilac and the solitary cloud were definitely nice little bonuses. If only it had a been a single dark cloud though. Now that really would have been something!

      They have swept the area by the looks of it, so that’s a start — of sorts…

      Reply
  6. Stephan says

    4/21/2020 at 10:00 am

    It’s an interesting scene. I think some children playing would make it look different but the old guy alone is sad.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/21/2020 at 5:01 pm

      Yes that’s quite possible, although the old fella aside, on such a bright sunny day, that’s about as good as it’s going to look!

      Reply

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