Tokyo Times

Tokyo’s often brightly decorated streets are fascinating to explore. They are gritty, attention grabbing and absolutely littered with good bars and eateries. In fact so seemingly limitless are the city’s offerings that even relatively small areas possess more than enough stimulation for countless lives, let alone the measly one we are limited to.

But escaping the urban scene is good every now and again. Absolutely necessary sometimes. And yet even then one doesn’t need to leave the capital, as way out west it’s another world altogether. One where the colours are all natural.

Climbing is still social but in a very different sense.

And perhaps most important of all, relaxation is preposterously easy.

For both practical and financial reasons, it’s impossible to imagine Japan’s long gone trams ever making a reappearance. A shame really, as they are much more interesting than the admittedly convenient, but ultimately run-of-the-mill trains one sees everyday.

On the plus side, however, it does make those still in operation all the more special.

In affluent, generally acquiescent Japan, local punks have always seemed a somewhat incongruous sight, with fashion rather than any kind of real fervour appearing to be the main driving force. But with protests against Prime Minister Abe’s incredibly controversial security bill now practically the norm, and anti-nuclear groups still challenging the powers that be, it’s surely a good time for punk to regain at least some sense of relevance. Or if not exactly relevance, then to once again be a visual and vocal addition to anti-establishment sentiment.

Many of the clichéd images of Tokyo distort what the capital is really like, or at least what it’s like if you bother to look below the surface. But the scenes of horribly packed trains and heaving streets are mostly accurate, particularly so in the city’s more central areas and its commuter hubs.

Mercifully, however, there are areas of escape. Like below, on Tokyo’s northern border, where there’s silence, serenity, and only the slightest suggestion of so-called civilisation.