Photography

Well, it’s a stationary shop that also stocks toys to be exact, but when a place looks as wonderful as this, what it actually sells seems almost irrelevant.

When looking for abandoned bike photos to put together the previously posted, long-forgotten Tokyo bicycles, I found the picture below and opted for a re-edit. It was taken just over eight years ago, but I can remember the scene like it was yesterday. They’d been diving in the sea, so were enjoying the well-earned warmth of their back-to-basics hot spring — the old lady casually, and very publicly, swapping a wetsuit for her birthday suit before getting in.

“Come and join us,” they shouted. “There’s plenty of room. It’s a hot bath!”

Surprised, and suddenly very flustered, all I could manage was some muttered, half-baked embarrassed answer, which heightened their spirits even further. Thankfully I managed to just about regain enough composure to take this one frame, but looking back, I don’t think I could have looked or sounded more British if I’d tried.

Bicycles are still incredibly popular in Tokyo. Whether it’s merely popping out to the shops, or rushing to make a train, the trusty bike is invariably what people turn to. Pretty much all people too, regardless of age, gender or social status.

At the same time, these environmentally friendly workhorses are often deemed as dispensable as they are indispensable, and the long-forgotten machines below are a mere fraction of the many thousands discarded each and every year.

My favourite photo from this location is in black and white — the composition and subject matter seemed best suited to an absence of colour. This young woman’s striking eye shadow, on the other hand, and the vivid splash of red from the inside of her coat, made the inclusion of colour a similarly obvious choice. Two images that have such a lot in common, and yet at the same time feel absolutely worlds apart.