Zen and the art of managing train commutes?
Photography
Homeless ex-yakuza?
The missing little finger strongly suggests that this man was once a member of the yakuza, and his current predicament may also suggest that the reason for losing said digit eventually resulted in him losing an awful lot more.
A traditional Japanese wedding
There’s no way to turn the clocks back, but the timeless nature of this wedding, and perhaps more importantly the complete absence of any smartphones, means it’s still possible to get a glimpse of the past. Or at the very least, a recreation of it.
A lost Japanese gambler?
Lost, or he simply lost?
Yasukuni Shrine strangeness on the anniversary of Japan’s surrender
On August 15th, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender, it’s common to see the extreme right doing their thing at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine. The same is also true for National Foundation Day on February 11th — events I’ve photographed and written briefly about before. A few favourites being this uniform-clad old man last summer, a large gathering of like-minded extremists a few years ago, and further back still, some atmospheric scenes in the snow.
So, due to them being so oddly fascinating, I did the same again on Monday. Just as they did what they usually do too.
But that’s not the whole story of course. There were many thousands of ordinary people, very ordinarily paying their respects. Plus, it has to be said, a very select few doing something that one really wouldn’t call typical at all.
