Tokyo Times

Not your average mask, and clearly not your average Tokyo salaryman.

With almost everyone in Tokyo wearing a mask almost everywhere, relative anonymity has now become the new norm. So for the feasible future, covered faces or the occasional photograph of a portrait will quite rightly have to suffice.

A little over a year ago, I posted this photo of an old and defunct Tokyo video shop.

It’s still my favourite. How could it not be with that sign? Yet in what’s an admittedly very niche subject matter, there’s now a new(er) kid on the block. A smaller sign of course, but it still makes for a nice companion to its more substantial cousin.

With only five members, the march, as it was rather boldly called, was a little on the optimistic side. Similarly, the half-hearted outfits consisting of some (mostly) white clothes and mismatched coloured sheets appeared to suggest that things weren’t quite what they seemed. There again, it was all about peace, so their hearts were definitely in the right place. No doubt about that at all. Plus, despite the dubious wardrobe decisions, they looked wonderfully incongruous on a modern Tokyo crossing.