The ghosts of Japanese gamblers past?
Studying form at a racecourse in Tokyo, this young man was sat all by himself, and yet at the same time he was also in the very visible presence of a long line of gamblers who have placed bets before him.
An old and cluttered Tokyo fabric shop
Tucked away down a quiet little side street, this man was working away on a Sunday. Presumably just like he has done on countless other traditional days off. But that didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest. And fortunately neither did a foreigner poking his head through the window to take a photograph.
Lunch in an old Tokyo alleyway?
Big and shiny buildings may well be sprouting up all over town, but even on dark, damp afternoons, Tokyo’s narrow little alleyways remain considerably more compelling.
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A bearded, schoolgirl uniform wearing Japanese man
Hideaki Kobayashi, or GrowHair as he is also known, has become a celebrity of sorts due to his love of wearing sailor suit schoolgirl uniforms. A man whose courage to hit the streets on his terms has to be applauded. Plaudits too for the city around him. There’s no judgement. No mean-spirited comments. Just enjoyment at the spectacle of a middle-aged man living life in a manner that suits him, not society.
Having seen photos of him online numerous times, I’d often thought it’d be interesting to get a picture of him doing something more pedestrian than his usual pose. And as luck would have it, the first and only time I’ve ever seen him he was doing just that. Inadvertently creating a scene that’s boringly ordinary, and also wonderfully out of the ordinary.
