Tokyo Times

Dec 23 2022 21 Comments

A selection of my favourite photographs from 2022

With the year approaching its end, it is time once again to post some of my favourite photos from the last 12 months.

2022 hasn’t been the easiest of years it has to be said. Some days are better than others, but life simply isn’t the same since my wife Akiko died last summer. These things take time of course. Maybe even a lifetime. But I miss her enormously each and every day. Even the good things that happen are tinged with sadness, as I’m not able to share them with her, or enjoy the moment together.

And good things have happened. With Japan finally relaxing its strict pandemic regulations, I was able to head back to Britain for the first time in three years. A much needed and way overdue chance to see family and old friends. Those same easing of border controls have also allowed me to start doing my Tokyo photowalk tours again, and much to my surprise, I hit the ground running — or perhaps I should say walking — the moment visitors were allowed in again. Something I hope will continue as we head into the new year.

The other real positive has been Tokyo Conversations, the book I made, crowdfunded and just released with my good friend Giovanni. At times it seemed hard to believe we could actually make a book. Even when it was finished, I had real doubts about us getting the necessary funding. But it all worked out way better than I could have ever imagined, and now, a good while after we started the process of sending each other photos, the book is a real thing. Something that still feels unreal at times. We actually have a photobook. Not just something on a screen like we are so used to, but an actual book. There’s more info about the whole process here, and if you fancy buying a copy, it’s available for pre-order in the shop on my portfolio site.

So all in all a very mixed year to say the least. Akiko would have been over the moon to see the book come to life. I dearly wish she could have seen it. But I’ve had the honour of dedicating it to her, and without her encouragement over the years, not to mention her critical eye, there’s no way I’d have been confident enough to put out a book. So she was and is a key component of it. Something that makes me happy and also terribly sad.

Finally, photography itself has meant an enormous amount to me over the years, a fact I’ve mentioned before in these roundups, but in the last 12-18 months or so it has meant even more. Without the distraction it provides, the need to be out in the world, and the necessary dedication, it’s hard sometimes to imagine how I’d have got through everything that has happened. And as for the year’s actual photos, which this post is supposed to be about, I’ve gone down the usual path of choosing shots that mean something to me, either in regards the results, or the experience surrounding them. I’ve moved more towards sets of images in the last few years, meaning quite a lot are part of a longer series, so I’ve linked the original posts beneath each photo or photos. So at long last then, here are the results from 2022. Just photographs at the end of the day, but the process of getting them felt almost essential.

Images that wrap-up Tokyo Times for the year, but the usual Tuesday and Friday posts will start up again on January 6th. So until then, enjoy the break, and be sure to make the most of the moments you have with your loved ones.

A terrifically old school little Tokyo bar

An overgrown and crumbling old Tokyo hotel

Broken and abandoned Japanese vending machines

An old Tokyo home like no other

A Tokyo cherry blossom journey

Tokyo summer and spring urban pinks

The stark transition from old Tokyo home to just an old Tokyo house

An abandoned, almost Bond villain-like billionaire’s mansion

An old school Tokyo barber shop and its elderly owner

An incredible looking old Tokyo building that sadly no longer exists

The colours, decay and increasing emptiness of Japan’s countryside

An old school Tokyo record shop

Sights and sounds from a truly lovely little yakitori restaurant

A small homage to Japan’s humble and green public telephones

The misty mountains and abandoned homes of Tokyo’s far west

Beautifully bleak scenes of a Japanese village in a snow storm

A quiet walk home in snow country

Dec 20 2022 7 Comments

An old Tokyo restaurant that has barely changed in decades

The little Chinese restaurant below looks suitably dated from the outside, and while that can be rather deceptive when it comes to the interiors of some places, it’s absolutely not the case with this one.

In business for over 50 years, and situated in the middle of a red light district, the changes around it must have been substantial to say the least, but inside it feels like nothing has changed for decades — if indeed at all.

Dec 16 2022 10 Comments

Crumbling and graffiti covered Tokyo alleyways

The last photo has been shown on Tokyo Times before, but the first three were taken very recently, so it was nice to put them together as a small set. A brief snapshot of a place that feels as much a part of the past as it does the present, and fingers crossed it’ll also be a similarly interesting feature of the future.

Dec 13 2022 8 Comments

The misty mountains and abandoned homes of Tokyo’s far west

Whenever I head out to Tokyo’s westernmost environs, it never fails to amaze me that the completely different surroundings are still part of the capital. The scenery there is worlds away from what most people think of the city, and indeed what the vast majority of it looks like. A feeling that was increased even further last week with the mist that greeted us as we moved towards the area’s mountains.

The idea was to try and find some old houses that we suspected were long-abandoned. A plan that worked out perfectly, although not all the former homes had been unoccupied for as long as we expected. Most had unsurprisingly been left unused for a couple of decades, but one had quite shockingly been lived in until 2016. Accommodation that would have been uncomfortable in the city’s more urban areas, but out there in the mountains it must have made for an incredibly tough life to say the least.

However, a few dates and the locations aside, there’s next to nothing we know about the people who once resided there, such as how they lived and why their homes ended left the way they were. The photographs taken on the day are really all I have, so here they are, along with shots of the journey up to and between the houses. Scenes that prompt a whole host of questions, but at the same time provide little in the way of answers.

Dec 09 2022 10 Comments

The light and warmth of little Japanese bars and eateries

With Tokyo slowly moving into winter, and the nights in particular now feeling rather chilly, it seemed like a good time to post this series of little bars and eateries. Some of them are older images, while several are very recent, but instead of the usual shots from a bar stool, these were all taken from the outside looking in. An element that for most of them at least provides an incredibly warm and welcoming appearance. Places to briefly escape the world outside with a few drinks, some food, and also the fleeting friendships such establishments can sometimes offer.

Dec 06 2022 10 Comments

A wonderfully rickety old Tokyo restaurant

Over the last year or so there have been quite a few posts on Tokyo Times documenting old bars and homes that have been closed, demolished or just left empty and bare. Scenes that rather starkly represent the cycle of life, but for every place that has disappeared, there’s another that battles on, and the fabulously rickety little Chinese restaurant below is one such example.

It’s genuinely like no other eatery I’ve been in. Nothing is flat or straight, and everything is patched up and falling apart. The food is also great and the mama-san lovely, meaning there’s nothing more that one could ask for. It has also stood there for 65 years, as the master took over from his grandfather. Understandably there isn’t a third generation waiting to step in, but with no talk of retirement just yet, it remains somewhere to go, eat and simply enjoy.

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