Tokyo Times

Recently I was asked to produce a series of photographs for a commercial display that would depict Harajuku. Not though its frequently snapped visitors and fashion extremes, but buildings, signs etc. Images that would still be identifiable as Harajuku, but together would hopefully create a slightly different view of the area.

Unfortunately, however, the idea was pulled at the last minute due to branding issues, leaving me with a small set of test shots. Photographs of the kind I very rarely take, so it seemed like a good idea to post them here for a bit of variety.

The cherry blossom may well be gone for another year, but that doesn’t mean Tokyo is any less colourful — not by a long shot. And, for the capital’s legion of flower photographing fanatics, there are still more than enough blooms to be captured at incredibly close quarters. Although for others, beauty is better observed from a slight distance.

Walking around in the park
Should feel better than work:
The lake, the sunshine,
The grass to lie on,

Blurred playground noises
Beyond black-stockinged nurses –
Not a bad place to be.
Yet it doesn’t suit me.

Being one of the men
You meet of an afternoon:
Palsied old step-takers,
Hare-eyed clerks with the jitters,

Waxed-fleshed out-patients
Still vague from accidents,
And characters in long coats
Deep in the litter-baskets –

All dodging the toad work
By being stupid or weak.
Think of being them!

At least that’s what Philip Larkin wrote in his poem, Toads Revisited — the rest of which can be read here. A piece of work that despite being produced in the English city of Hull, in 1962, still makes total sense today. Even in Tokyo. In 2013.

But deciding whether it actually rings true or not, is still very much up for debate. Just like it was then. And no doubt will be in the future.

Unlike some of the more glamorous areas of Tokyo, Shinjuku is very much on the gritty side; its dingy alleyways and litter-strewn streets giving it a distinctly down to earth feel.

But, when the sun shines it appears altogether brighter, with only the looks being very obviously dirty.