Photography

Before Christmas, my good friend Giovanni and I went on a trip a few hours north of Tokyo — the main aim of our days away being to check out some potential locations, as well as work out the logistics of an autumn workshop we have planned. A nicely varied 8-day adventure that’ll involve street photography, seasonal scenes, and the intriguing decay of old Japanese towns.

Below then is some of what what we saw. A mixture of things we wanted to see, along with plenty of nicely unexpected surprises.

Also, talking of workshops, a last minute cancellation has opened up one spot on the Winter Scenery and Old School Streets trip Giovanni and are running in February, so if that sounds of interest, the details are here.

With another year almost done and dusted, it’s time once again to choose my favourite photos from the last 12 months. Or perhaps more accurately, favourite photo series, as for a good while now I’ve preferred to put together sets of images. The idea being that such an approach is better suited to telling stories, along with documenting everyday life and locations.

On a more personal level, 2025 has happily been a busy one. My Tokyo Photowalk business continues to do well, with Osaka now very much a part of that as well. Doing the walks for so many years now means it’s also been really nice to welcome back customers for second, third or fourth outings. A lovely, unexpected extra that makes such work all the more rewarding.

This year also marked the start of my newsletter. It’s here if you are interested. Something I’d wanted to try for ages, and now it’s been up and running for a good few months, I’m happy I did. A medium that allows me to write about things and photos slightly differently.

In the 2024 round-up I mentioned a project I’d been working on that was expected to see the light of day in spring 2025. Well, it didn’t. Thankfully though it was just a delay, and it (a book I’m pleased to say) should be out by April or May next year. There’ll be a Tokyo street photography book I’m a part of released in the first half of the year as well. Plus on top of that my good friend Giovanni and I are doing an 8-day, Japanese old school streets and winter scenery workshop in February, with hopefully an autumn one coming soon. So lots to look forward to and be grateful for in 2026.

That, however, is the future. For now, these are the photo series I liked the most over the last 12 months. As always, some are simply down to the resultant images, whereas others are more due to the attachment I have to them, along with several that are a mixture of both. There’s no particular order. Just how I felt they worked best. I’ve also added links to the original posts and full series of photos, as only some from each set are included here.

All of which pretty much wraps up Tokyo Times for the year. Regular Tuesday updates will resume again on January 6th, so until then, enjoy the holidays and be sure to appreciate the people you spend them with.

More Tokyo citizens and their everyday surroundings

The inevitable end of a lovely little Tokyo building

The green and space of Tokyo’s far west

Old and dated scenes from a southern Japan city

Scenes from a traditional old Tokyo bathhouse

Sights from a search for a stunning old Tokyo Coca-Cola sign

The beauty of nature taking man-made objects back

An old Tokyo bar, its owners and a rare case of renewal

The end of a stunning old Tokyo bookshop

An 88-year-old man in his lovely old Japanese coffee shop

Abandoned arcade games and cable cars

Post-apocalyptic scenes from a long-abandoned Japanese hotel

Lost Tokyo lives and looks

Probably the only thing connecting these images are their depictions of everyday, normal life. Something that I increasingly find both important and fascinating to photograph. Little vignettes of daily existence that will never be repeated in the same way ever again. All of which is true except perhaps for the man in his bold gold outfit, although you never know, that could well be his regular, weekday wardrobe. Either way though, these were all taken over the last few months. Most of them in my favoured east Tokyo, but a few were also from further out west.

I took these photographs of this lovely old lady back in 2014, with the opening one immediately becoming an all time fave. Needless to say it was a completely unexpected encounter, which, after that initial shot, resulted in me lifting up all the remaining shutters, helping out with a difficult to move sliding door, and then being told in no uncertain terms to wash my hands after such dirty work.

Once cleaned up, I was then offered some instant ramen, along with a selection of alcoholic beverages in miniature bottles that were magically produced from a nearby cupboard. Offers I had to politely decline as it wasn’t the right time of day for any of them, but it was also clear that more than anything, she just wanted someone to talk to, even if that person grew up in a very different environment, and also didn’t quite understand every word she said. So we chatted for a while, and she told me a bit about her life. One that she now lived alone, in her former business, and where visits weren’t anywhere near as frequent as she’d have liked. She also apologised for the stuff piled up here, there and everywhere, but at 93 years of age, she was simply too old and too tired to do much about It.

Before I left and continued on my walk. she kindly posed for a couple of portraits, and then we said our goodbyes. An encounter that for me at least was incredibly memorable. Plus, as time passed, it became increasingly poignant, as I never saw her again. In fact, I never even saw the shutters open. Well, until just recently that is, when the building was being ripped apart for renovation. So I stepped inside one more time to take one last photo. This time though there was no conversation or offers of alcohol. No life either. Not even any signs of it. Just the silence of an empty building that was once a home.