Tokyo puppet master?
Close up and personal at a traditional Japanese festival
Japan happily adopts new trends and customs, more often than not blending them so effortlessly into the culture that in no time at all they are part of the culture. But, as rapidly as things change, in many ways they also stay very much the same. An impressive feat that is particularly noticeable when it comes to traditional festivals.
Almost always boisterous and packed affairs, it’s immediately clear that many of them haven’t altered much in the countless decades they have been held. Something that’s especially true when it comes to Asakusa’s Sanja Matsuri, which dates back as far as the sixteen hundreds in its current form. Plus many more centuries earlier in regards less organised celebrations.
An event that, along with the same customs, is clearly just as much fun as it has always has been.
Of a very similar intensity too.
The only real change being the faces on show — both of those involved, and those not.
Shibuya glamour on Shibuya Crossing
Late at night, Shibuya Crossing is a heaving mass of half-cut humanity, with absolutely ludicrous numbers of people heading towards the station to squeeze on to even busier last trains home. But, if judged correctly, there should still be just enough time to quickly capture a captured memory.
Colourful urban art in a filthy Tokyo alley
There was rubbish all over the place, and the smell was positively rank, but thankfully just as striking was this very colourful piece of urban art.
A figure that has intriguingly appeared in other parts of the city too — namely on a now demolished old love hotel.
Wheelchair bound in a Tokyo backstreet
Waiting. Patiently. In the quiet of an urban backstreet. Presumably for his companion to wheel him on. Possibly homeward.
