Tokyo Times

Aug 16 2022 15 Comments

The colours and retro sign of an old Tokyo shop

Due to its colours and fantastically faded old sign, this ramshackle shop has been a favourite of mine for a long time. Trouble is, it had been in the shade each and every time I’d walked by, plus the angle I wanted to photograph it from was always blocked by a parked car. A vehicle (just out of shot on the right) that never, ever seemed to move.

All too aware that the building could be demolished at any time, it seemed like a good idea to head out to it on an overcast day and see if that would work. The car, of course, was still there, but the light was much more manageable, allowing me to get something that seemed half decent.

That said, I still wasn’t sure about the angle, so I let the photo sit for several weeks, and going back to it with a bit more detachment, I now think it works. Maybe even more than the shot I actually wanted.

Aug 09 2022 13 Comments

Photos of Osaka from nearly a decade ago

Back in 2014, I had the pleasure of visiting a friend and being shown the mostly lesser known sights of Osaka. It’s a city I really like. Similar to Tokyo, and yet at the same time quite different. It’s somewhat rougher around the edges, which appeals enormously, although in some parts there is truly shocking poverty rather than just shabby urban decay. Glimpses of which can be seen in images 6 & 7. The park in the latter is the only one I know of with a TV. It was showing the sumo when we we there, although what it broadcasts, and indeed when, is all controlled by the authorities.

Also, and obviously in general, the people are noticeably more open and direct, which makes a nice change from Tokyo. In fact, a few interactions around that park area in particular were some of the kindest and most touching moments I’ve ever experienced in Japan.

Below then are some of the photos from that visit. A variety of locations representing what was a similarly varied exploration of Japan’s second city.

Aug 02 2022 12 Comments

Possibly the dingiest of Tokyo’s drinking alleyways

Photographed over quite a few years, this little Tokyo alleyway acts as a suitably dingy urban beer garden of sorts for the even smaller bar that opens out onto it. The incredibly inebriated state of many of the drinkers, however, is due to the fact that all the photos were shot around lunch time. It’s not that they are all lightweights either, as these are people who rather than having a few midday drinks, were in fact having a few last ones to end the previous evening’s outing.

The bar is actually still there, and still in business, but since the pandemic I haven’t seen anyone sat outside, so it seemed like a good time to put these photos together both here and on my portfolio site. A reminder of mostly forgotten times in more ways than one.

Jul 26 2022 12 Comments

An incredibly old Tokyo bookshop over time

This is without a doubt my favourite bookshop in Tokyo. Way out in the city’s western extremities, it was looking decidedly worse for wear when I took the first photo back in 2018, but on a recent trip out to the area, it now looks about as good as a half century old wooden shop could probably ever hope to look.

Jul 19 2022 14 Comments

Memories from the faded Hokkaido town of Muroran

Like many industrial towns and cities in Japan, Muroran has suffered enormously over the years, and it was hit particularly hard in the latter decades of the 20th century. The massive drop in population from 162,000 people at its peak in 1970, to just under 80,000 last year, perfectly highlights its long, irreversible decline. A pace that hasn’t really slowed either, as the figure was still around 90,000 when the photos below were taken in 2014.

However, while such numbers spell out the cold hard facts, it was walking Muroran’s streets that really exposed its plight. In the shopping and entertainment area in particular, where people would have once bought the latest goods and enjoyed an evening out, there were only glowing shop signs. Reminders of the past that are now largely just street lights, as most of the businesses they once advertised are long shuttered up.

In these respects, Muroran really isn’t any different to Japan’s many other faded towns and cities, and yet more than any other, I felt a real affinity with the place. So much so in fact that I’ve often toyed, unrealistically in many ways, of moving up there. Thoughts that returned recently as I start to think about what I want, and what I’m going to do in the future. Hence these re-edited photos from 8 years ago.

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