A bit of Tokyo shopping as it once was, and in a surprising number of instances, actually still is.
Lost in Tokyo?
Abandoned Japanese mining town
At its peak in the 1960s, Nichitsu mining town was home to about 3,000 people, and boasted a school, supermarket, clinic etc. Basically everything the isolated mountain community needed to survive. But when the work disappeared, so did the inhabitants, leaving behind the buildings, along with glimpses of the lives once lived in them.
Time and the elements, however, have really taken their toll on what remains. As have countless visitors like myself. But on a hot summer day, it was a wonderfully peaceful place to be. There were deers foraging around the dilapidated structures, and not a single soul to be seen or heard. Just a rare, welcome silence, and now and again occasional moments of melancholy. Elements of which hopefully come through in the photos below.
Home sweet tumbledown Tokyo home?
Tokyo police band stares
After the Tokyo police band had played, it was very quickly back to business as usual: staring suspiciously at the public they had briefly entertained.
Japanese alley cat
Tokyo’s dark and dingy alleyways are often good hunting grounds — this one being no exception. I certainly got lucky, and the way this cat was eyeing a small hole in the wall, I suspect he may have done too.