Photographs from a small group of islands
The full, unrestricted return over the weekend of one of Tokyo’s biggest festivals was a real sign that the capital is now well on the way to being how it was before the pandemic. A mostly maskless affair that was lovely to see for its many sights, inked skin and quieter moments on the sidelines.
Below then are a small selection of photos from Asakusa’s Sanja Matsuri. Scenes that are a little bit different from the usual stuff I focus on, but in some ways they also feel quite familiar.
Public shows of affection between friends or lovers are relative rarities on the streets of Tokyo, with not much to be seen beyond the holding of hands. In fact even that isn’t so common, which made the scene below all the more special. A bar owner having a chat with one of his customers and then saying goodbye with a warm and clearly heartfelt hug.
A lovely moment played out on a little street that seems to be full of stories, with another I photographed in the same location living long in the memory, so it feels well worth revisiting again.
On a photowalk tour last year, a customer and I were taking pictures of the street, its signs and also a bicycle that unbeknownst to us belongs to the man in the last but one photo. And as he’d turned up early to set up for the evening, he invited us in for a quick look around, as well as treating us to a couple of songs. One a traditional enka number, and the other a far more familiar Hank Williams track.
Having lived overseas for a long time with his foreign partner, he had returned to Japan where they made a home for themselves in a more rural area. Cancer, however, cut his soulmate’s life short, so he took the bold move of selling up and opening his own bar. A place where he has the chance to sing, be himself, and in words of his that also sound like the lyrics from a Hank Williams song, “not feel so lonesome.”
Small workshops are common sights in Tokyo’s suburbs. Local operations producing unknown things for unknown companies. Yet whatever it is they do, they all seem to have been around forever, invariably employing a handful of people at most. And with its dimly lit interior and distinctive oil and metal smell, this one was no different. Well, except that it was, as very few are also home to beautiful and lovingly cared for bonsai.
Land in Tokyo may well be at a premium in both value and availability, but it’s always surprising how many abandoned buildings there are throughout the city. For one reason or another, many of them still have mail delivered too, resulting in stuffed post boxes that are suggestive of countless stories. So many possibilities that may, or indeed may not be true, but none of that detracts from the instinctive impulse of speculation.
Here then is a selection of photos from the last year or so. All are in Tokyo, and all were taken without any idea of why things ended up this way.
Tokyo’s old school taxis are rapidly disappearing from the city’s streets, with better equipped but much blander looking London cab-like vehicles taking their place.
Those dated designs were really quite something though, and the colours incredibly iconic. Elements that are now even more apparent as they fade from daily life, and something I felt strongly when discovering this photo the other day. It’s one I took a while ago, but for some reason hadn’t edited. So here it is now in all its green glory, along with a couple of previously posted takes on the orange variant.
Smoking is still very much a thing in Japan, but with the capital’s many convenience stores plentifully stocked, small tobacconists are slowly but surely disappearing. The sighting of a new and shiny one the other week then was something of a surprise. A reformed space that proved to be as unexpected as a curious foreigner was to the apparent owner.
Below then is that aforementioned shop, along with several faded and long-closed Tokyo cigarette sellers. Plus to round out the set, a rather comical frame featuring possibly the city’s most unrepentant smoker.
