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Jun 18 2014 10 Comments

Studious looks under the train tracks

This bookshop under the train tracks has always fascinated me, but the chance to photograph it, along with a customer just as interesting, has remained frustratingly elusive. Until, that is, I saw the fella below.

And yet in the end, getting an image of him catching my eye, rather than a book catching his, turned out to be the best result.

Tokyo bookshop under the train tracks

Categorized: Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. AF says

    6/18/2014 at 9:20 am

    This guy looks like a “movies critic” calculating and analysing the work of a movie director. One wonders what was going on his mind when he was caught in the act of thinking.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/18/2014 at 5:03 pm

      He does have that look, doesn’t he?

      Actually, he was trying to work out what I was photographing. After I pressed the shutter, he looked behind him to see what on earth I was photographing. Then back at me one more time after seeing nothing. No idea at all that he was the focus of the shot.

      Reply
  2. Coli says

    6/18/2014 at 12:17 pm

    Looks like a really interesting place. What station is this above or line? Do you suppose the books have an oden smell to them being so close to that shop?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/18/2014 at 5:05 pm

      It is. Or at least it is to me. There are a good number of yakitori places nearby too. Both under the tracks and right by them. So the books could have all manner of smells!

      It’s right by Koenji station — a little west of Shinjuku.

      Reply
  3. Bernadette Marchetti says

    6/18/2014 at 2:44 pm

    Wow. That is the perfect judgmental look! He needs to be pacing behind a mahogany desk in a posh suit, trying to avoid going home to his wife (who happens to be the sun-visored woman from three weeks ago).

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/18/2014 at 5:06 pm

      Now that would be something!

      But yeah, quite the look, isn’t it?

      Reply
  4. Squidpuppy says

    6/19/2014 at 12:48 pm

    Those all look like rather “heavy” tomes, not the sort of light novels, or flimsy paperbacks you see folks reading on trains, no? Could you tell if there was a specialization? Was the proprietor behind you? Did you notice if this gentleman bought anything?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/19/2014 at 4:27 pm

      I assume so, yes. Haven’t actually stopped to look at the books to be honest. No English ones! Just like the setting. So not sure if it’s a specialist shop. Will check next time.

      There’s an inside part too, so the owner was presumably in there. As for the fella in the picture, I left him there after taking the photo, so don’t know if he bought anything it not.

      Reply
  5. Hans ter Horst says

    6/19/2014 at 2:21 pm

    Great moment, love the way he looks over his glasses which gives him that judgemental look!
    When I visited the Kanda bookmarket the tables were also filled with these heavy tomes; the wife told me there were mostly books about Buddhism and they created quite a bit of interest from, what I would reckon, retired men; I wonder what is in these bookcases.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/19/2014 at 4:29 pm

      Cheers! It’s a wonderful look, isn’t it?

      Like I said above, I’m not sure what kinds of book it stocks. Or if it specialises in any particular topic. But I’ll check next time.

      Reply

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