Photographs from a small group of islands
OK, she’s not a real Maiko, just a woman dressed up for a TV show. But with the country’s most famous non-Japanese Geisha having recently quit the profession, leaving only one left, it’s probably about as near as any foreign female is going to get for the foreseeable future.
And she did make for quite a striking sight.
A sight one doesn’t see everyday, that’s for sure.
It would be very harsh indeed to describe all Japanese police officers as dummies; after all, they are very good at giving directions.
Some of them, however, are.
Quite literally.
Almost like someone flipped an enormous red leaf-emblazoned switch, Tokyo practically went from summer to autumn overnight. A change that, after the seemingly never-ending heat, was very welcome indeed. The humidity has all but gone, and the evenings are wonderfully cool — it’s bliss, basically.
Or at least it is if you have a home. But for those that don’t, it marks the beginning of longer and ever colder nights. Conditions that for the young and fit would be awful, but for the old weak, possibly fatal.
There have been suggestions in the past that Japan’s falling birth rate and the increase in pets are connected. The growing legion of little dogs, it is said, are more than merely companions, they are child substitutes.
Now how true this is it’s hard to say, but there’s no denying that these pooches are generally pampered way more than your average pet. They are continually cooed over, and clothing is practically compulsory, ranging from colourful winter woolies to rather more stuffy school uniforms. The odd one or two even wear wigs.
And as for walkies, well, that could tire the poor tyke out. Much better for master to take care of that.
When taking photographs on Tokyo’s streets, discretion is always my watchword. For starters I don’t want to make people feel uncomfortable, and more importantly — at least in relation to the resultant photo — the aim is for an image that’s natural; a moment of day-to-day life caught, uncontrolled and totally unselfconscious.
However, even with the best of intentions, it’s simply impossible to go unnoticed all the time. And yet even though I fear this look may be much nearer a glare than a glance, it’s a photograph that at the same time quite inadvertently contains far more character than it could have.
