Photographs from a small group of islands
There are plenty of photographs on this site of people playing music in parks, and a big part of why I like taking them is the subject’s obvious contentment: each and every one happily lost in their music, in a lovely location.
But as well as that, it’s also what they provide — which is a soundtrack of sorts. And this fella, playing his flute towards the end of the day, in a quiet area of the park, provided the perfect accompaniment.
Rainy season really doesn’t have much going for it: not only is it wet and dreary, but there’s the unwelcome return of some pretty horrible humidity too.
In fact the only thing worse than having to walk about in it, is working in it.
Rainy season in Tokyo may well have begun, but the damp, really quite dreary conditions in no way mean that fashion has to be neglected. Quite the opposite it in fact. It’s simply another season, and as such, one to be celebrated.
With their staggering array of sights and sounds, Tokyo’s entertainment districts are special places to be; locations where the possibilities are arguably endless, and the only real limits are money and imagination.
Yet now and again, it’s nice to get away. A long way away. And amazingly that is still achievable in the city itself. Head west, way out west, and along with the capital’s only village, there are views that are as far from ‘typical’ Tokyo as it’s feasible to get.
No neon. No people. Not even a vending machine. Just nature.
Quite why I don’t know, but there’s always something rather wonderful and relaxing about watching rice being planted in the capital’s western outskirts. A sight that, even with the use of modern technology, somehow still has a timeless appeal about it.
Although while watching may well be unwinding, actually doing the deed must be bloody hard work.
