Photographs from a small group of islands
There are sadly plenty of car park photos on these pages, as all too often they replace old buildings and businesses. This one, however, is very different, as it’s downright comedic rather than disappointing. Unusually for a simple parking space, it also asks questions galore. None of which, it has to be said, are easy to answer in any way whatsoever.
Japan’s shrinking population is well documented, but while it’s hard to appreciate such societal changes when in and around Tokyo, once away from the capital or the country’s other major hubs, the resultant decline and distinct lack of people very quickly become apparent.
Closed businesses, abandoned homes and general decay are often the norm, and the images below are an example of that. A small selection of the photographs I took during 3 days driving round a relatively small area several hours north of Tokyo.
I’ve posted photos of this lovely, long-closed liquor store before, but its signage and no longer functioning vending machines mean it’s impossible not to take pictures every time I see it. And this particular time worked out better than most, as in the space of a few minutes, an interesting mix of people passed by, adding a bit of life to a place that shut up shop many moons ago.
For a while now I’ve mostly been posting small sets of photographs as it’s often easier to try and tell stories, or at the very least hint at them, over a short series rather than just a single image.
This photo, however, feels different. It doesn’t really tell a story either. Instead, it seems to perfectly sum up the sometimes extraordinary nature of what is merely the ordinary. A man walking home through a Tokyo suburb is about as unremarkable as it gets, and yet the scene that presented itself felt, for me at least, quite the opposite.
When leaving home the other day, the weather forecast predicted the rain would have stopped by the time I got off the train. The forecast, however, was out by quite a margin, meaning the first few hours of my walk were considerably wetter than expected. Those conditions, however, helped create a few scenes that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise, so here then are photos of some older, lesser seen sides of Tokyo in the rain.
