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Apr 17 2013 6 Comments

Tokyo’s parks and the people who spend time in them

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.

Tokyo park life

Categorized: Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Willy says

    4/17/2013 at 8:37 pm

    Jeez.. even in from a picture I feel I am being heavily scrutinized…

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/17/2013 at 11:07 pm

      That’s interesting. A similar thing was said on Twitter. For me, it felt like he was more looking through me, than at me.

      Reply
  2. Marc says

    4/17/2013 at 10:46 pm

    Did you shoot this at the southern end of Yoyogi Park?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/17/2013 at 11:09 pm

      I did. Fairly near the main entrance. Or at least the entrance nearest Meiji Shrine.

      Reply
  3. June says

    4/20/2013 at 6:22 am

    Talk about giving someone the evil eye! It looks like he is wearing an oni (ogre) mask.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/20/2013 at 12:02 pm

      Quite an expression, isn’t it? There again, he may well have thought the same about me!

      Reply

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