Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

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A unique and beautiful bonsai

With 2018 still in its infancy, this unique and beautiful bonsai seemed like a suitable image to start the new year. Hundreds of years old, the tree’s recorded age is only approximated. Similarly, the scores of people who have nurtured and shaped it over those tens of decades are completely unknown. Each and every one of them, except of course the present custodian. The anonymous preservation and attempted perfection of the bonsai their only goal, as in the end, it’s arguable that the beauty of today is all that really counts, along with whatever can be saved and passed on to tomorrow.

beautiful Japanese bonsai

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A selection of my favourite photographs from 2017

With the year rapidly nearing its end, it’s time once again for a selection of my favourite photographs from the last 12 months.

Compared to the stress and worry of the previous few years, 2017 has definitely been an improvement. Most importantly of all, my wife got a second major all clear in her on-going recovery from cancer. Another huge relief, and another huge step forward in regards the future. Her life saved, without any doubt whatsoever, by a well funded and affordable health care system.

On a further positive note, it has once again been a fulfilling year in regards photography. My completed and now properly organised portfolio has allowed me to sell more images than in the past, and in doing so, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing my work appear in a wide variety of publications. Also, I’ve just recently put my knowledge of Tokyo to a slightly different use by starting bespoke photowalks of the capital — an endeavour that will hopefully gain extra traction in the coming months.

Yet more than anything, photography has, as ever, been a wonderful source of fun and exploration. The simple pleasure of being out with a camera, and the added joy of coming back with a half decent image every now and again, is simply unbeatable. It’s also an escape, in some ways, from a world that all too often seems increasingly divided and full of prejudice. At the same time, however, being out and about taking photos is also a way to meet a whole host of different people — individuals who, just by being themselves, invariably prove there is still way more openness than hatred in society.

And so, after a much lengthier preamble than planned, we can finally get round to the photos in question. Images that were chosen for a variety of reasons. Some because of what they mean to me personally. Others because of the story they tell — or at least hint at. And the rest because I simply like the results. Oh, and they aren’t in chronological order, just how I feel they work best.

A set that nicely wraps up Tokyo Times for the year. So, until January 3rd, when normal posts will resume, Happy New Year, and all the very best for 2018!

this is Japan

tokyo graffiti and stares

urban cherry blossom art in Tokyo

an old japanese drinker in an old bar

tiny tokyo bar stares

tokyo ramen shop looks

Japanese political protestor in Tokyo

simple tokyo street food

A beautifully lit outdoor Tokyo bookshop

a cool japanese salary man

very drunk Japanese in a very small tokyo bar

tokyo rock and roll drunks

Japanese woman passed out drunk in a dirty Tokyo alleyway

tokyo homeless poverty

Tsutsuishi a Japanese dystopian train station

abandoned western theme park in japan

a quiet and abandoned japanese village

a beautiful abandoned Japanese post office

David Lynch like room in an abandoned Japanese hotel

abandoned tokyo cable car

very old decrepit Tokyo

old tokyo portrait

friendly and old little Japanese bar in tokyo

an old Japanese bar and its old owner