Tokyo Times

Sep 13 2024 12 Comments

The life and retirement of an elderly Tokyo pickle maker

Regularly photographing in Tokyo’s older areas means slowly but surely documenting disappearing structures. All too often that sadly involves the loss of life as well. The latter in particular an aspect I didn’t really envisage when starting out.

Now, after so many years, it’s something I’m acutely aware of, especially when a business has closed, or yet another home is torn down. A change that begs all kinds of questions, such as did the owner finally retire, want a change, or worse? Getting answers, on the other hand, is sometimes easier said than done, and the fate of the pickle shop owner below was one such unknown.

His colourful little corner was a part of the street I always enjoyed seeing. Then one day he simply wasn’t there anymore. Gone. No sign indicating why. Nothing. Just an empty space and a new building where he had previously always been. That was 5 years ago, so as time went on, I presumed he had passed away, with only the faintest of hopes that he’d simply pickled one too many vegetables and decided to call it a day.

Then, when once again walking by his old spot just recently, there was an old man sitting there. A sight that stopped me in my tracks. It couldn’t be, could it? What would the odds of that be? Still, I had to check, but bringing up a photo on my phone didn’t convince me either way. The only option then was to go and see, and the smile that immediately spread across his face when I asked gave me the answer I was looking for. An absolutely lovely moment to say the least.

He had indeed retired, and living nearby, he was simply chilling out on his former stomping ground. Maybe he was even reminiscing about all the years he’d spent there. That though is the past, and now, having reached 90, he is happy to relax, watch TV, and perhaps more than anything, not work.

Sep 10 2024 4 Comments

The simple pleasure of old Tokyo scenes and personalities

There’s nothing spectacular or particularly unusual in any of these recently taken Tokyo photos. Quite the opposite really, as they are mostly everyday scenes that can be witnessed in some form or other all over the capital. They are though especially prevalent in the city’s older neighbourhoods, which is why I favour these locations for a lot of my photowalk tours, and my own meanders.

The decidedly ordinary nature of the images, however, doesn’t make them any less worthwhile, or indeed enjoyable. At least not for me, anyway. The commonplace and mundane all too easily end up missed or ignored, and yet when appreciated for what they are, these small moments and brief interactions often feel genuinely memorable.

Sep 06 2024 14 Comments

The life of a truly ramshackle Tokyo house and its owner

A key aspect of my photography is returning again and again to areas I find interesting, and with Tokyo redeveloping so rapidly, there’s invariably some demolition to document if nothing else. Yet notable changes or otherwise, the people, situations and various interactions make each and every visit unique.

Regularly photographing locations also allows me to piece together stories of sorts, and this almost shed-like Tokyo home is one such example.

It’s a place I’ve featured before, including half a dozen of the photos below. However, when passing by recently, I managed to capture several frames of the owner at the back of his property making use of some collected rainwater. A presumably daily practice that further highlights the truly basic nature of his life there. There’s also the first shot, which I took a few months ago, showing the old man looking out from his front door. He was possibly seeing how the weather was, or maybe even checking on his fish tanks. Whatever the reason though, it was a scene that felt particularly poignant.

Finally, as a bit of background information to add a few facts to the photos, the man has lived there almost his entire life, having moved to the property as a youngster. He’s now in his early 80s, which makes the lack of facilities and the difficulty of living in such an environment seem all the more shocking. Thoughts, along with so many still unanswered questions, that hit me each and every time I revisit.

Sep 03 2024 9 Comments

A dilapidated pre-war and wooden Japanese shopping street

Recently I’ve posted a few photo series of old and dilapidated Japanese markets. This one, however, is a little different. It’s pre-war and wooden, which is something of a rarity, meaning its ramshackle nature is hardly unexpected. In fact, the middle section has now collapsed, and the former homes above are in an even worse state, so despite somehow hanging on, its days really do seem to be numbered.

There again, a few businesses are still functioning, but on the day we visited, they were closed. Fortune still favoured us though, as a shop owner who still uses his shuttered premises for preparing orders was busy working away, and seeing our interest, he cheerfully invited us in for a look.

To say it was like stepping back in time is an understatement, and perhaps not surprisingly, the dark interior was similar to the rest of the market. The roof was falling in, and a structural beam in the corner looked like it was one small nudge away from disintegrating entirely. None of which bothered the man himself, and he continued to grill eel like he has done for decades — his kind and open smile evident even in the semi-darkness.

A brief but incredibly memorable encounter that made an already extraordinary place feel all the more special. How much longer the site will last is impossible to say, and an earthquake in the area only days after these photos were taken further emphasises its increasingly precarious existence. For now though, it provides an increasingly rare glimpse of how life was, and how it never will be again.

Aug 30 2024 7 Comments

The quiet and faded nature of an old Japanese town

Like so many old Japanese towns and resort locations, the best days of this place are long gone. Many of the businesses are now closed, and a good number of those still operating seemingly do so more out of habit than any real sense of commerce.

That said, such areas are almost always fascinating to explore, and despite only being small, this one was no exception. There were hints of the past round every corner, and in a region hit particularly hard by the nation’s ageing population, the sight of a long-broken condom dispenser seemed especially poignant. Well, at least as poignant as such a machine can be.

Aug 27 2024 16 Comments

An assortment of Tokyo summer scenes

The sets of images I usually post are invariably put together to try and tell a story, or tie similarly themed photos together. These, however, don’t really work that way, as the only things they have in common are their differences, along with the fact they were all taken recently in Tokyo. And in that sense at least, they provide a way to show the surprises a city on such a scale can regularly conjure up. Which, in a way, is a theme in itself.

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