Thursday 18th January
Out of the hotel this morning after having a good sleep, I think. The pillows are a bit weird in this hotel. They seem to be soft on the top and structured underneath, it feels like sleeping on a few bits of pipe insulation foam, like the stuff we used to nick off building sites as kids and put them all over our bike frames.
After getting ready and loading film into the Canon A1 and preparing my digital camera I left the hotel and was in Shinjuku station again at around 8:30
Yoyogi
Jumping on the Yamanote line I headed to Yoyogi station and alighted for a quick walk to see if I could get to the park after my first visit was foiled by waking up late. I walked a quicker route to the park entrance, after realising I must have gone a long way around to get to the gate on that previous unfortunate visit. The crunchy gravel under my feet was satisfying as I followed the helpful signposts towards the Meiji Jingu shrine. I picked up a leaflet at the main gate and followed that too.
I saw some signs for the gymnasium and I’d heard that the Yoyogi national gymnasium was a brutalist style building so I walked the longer way around to the main shrine. There were few people around at this time of the day and there was one person who appeared to have slept on the immaculate grass overnight. There was zero litter or rubbish anywhere, I don’t now how they keep this level of neatness up. The worst place I’d seen for litter was Shinjuku/Kabukicho after the long night of people being out drinking and eating, but these bags of rubbish/trash were soon taken away by the authorities in the morning so it wasn’t a really big issue anywhere.
Walking through the park was super relaxing and chilled and I could hear the sounds of the birds chirping in the trees as if I was back in the UK. There was very little atmospheric noise from the city that the park sits in the middle of. The only real sign of being close to a city was the large tower at Yoyogi, visible from miles around.
Following the signs I found a Treasure Museum, that was closed, probably for the winter. Then continuing to look for signs of Gymnasium I found the Shiseikan Dojo which is a martial arts training hall. It looked like a sports club back home, with less graffiti and litter around it. Still no sign of the big concrete gym though.
Torii Gates
Carrying on along the lovely sunlit pathways seeing the occasional local out for a morning stroll or speed walk, I then saw the sign to the Shrine. The first part of the area that I came across was the Torii, a shrine gate that looks like a Pi symbol. These Torii’s area all around Tokyo, and Hiroshima detailing little spaces in the urban sprawl where a shrine exists. The religion here, usually at these shrines is Shinto but there are many other faiths represented in the country of Japan. This shrine and park have seven Torii gates and each of them is a work of art, stood seemingly untouched by humans for however many years they have been in place.
Into the first Torii there were a few people around so I chose to tread carefully and considerately, this way I don’t go charging in like a bull in a china shop. As I passed beneath the first Torii there was a font, a Temizusha, to the left hand side and watching people perform their rituals was fascinating and I don’t think I made any photographs here. The people attending to the ceremonies at the font seem to wash their hands and rinse their mouths with water from the spouts, caught in a little dipper (ladle). The ritual is called Temizu and is an important part of purifying oneself before going into the shrine or temple. You use the pourer to put water on your hands and then you cup water into your left hand before taking it into your mouth, rinsing it around and then spitting it out near the font. Fascinating to see but I didn’t feel I could participate in this as I’m not a big believer in religions, rituals and superstitions.
I walked into the main square of the shrine. and looked around at the scenery, there was a large structure which is the main shrine and was being attended to by a group of religious people in their robes. People approached the shrine and looked to talk to the spirits that they believe are on the other side of the separator. Some clap their hands twice, another purification ritual, before bowing and talking to someone who can not be seen. There were some large boxes in front of the people bowing with slots in the top but I didn’t know what these were until later in the day when I was making a visit to Senso-Ji Shrine in Asakusa.
School Project
Whilst I was standing around trying to take photographs of people a group of schoolchildren approached me with their teacher. They explained that they were from Indonesia and were trying to get people to visit their country as tourists. They had a paper based powerpoint slide deck in a big folder and they took it in turns to go through each page and ask me a question. Questions such as , have you ever been to Indonesia? Which parts if Indonesia would you like to visit? Have you eaten these typical Indonesian foods? Where are you from? and many more questions. The group were friendly and laughed a lot at some of my answers. They enjoyed talking to a huge English guy and after they’d left I heard them catching hold of an Australian dude who was equally happy to take part in their school experiment. It was a funny 15 minutes and the teachers were very grateful that someone stopped and answered their questions. It was a pleasure.
Money?
When I left the main square of the shrine, I exited out of the opposite Torii and came across a shop-like structure that looked to be selling food but on closer inspection it was a stall selling lucky charms or omomori where you can buy a charm that helps you pass your driving test, or find a life partner, be successful in work or all manner of other fates that people might want.
There were some interesting features in the shrine, such as two large trees that were tied together with a big golden cord, a story was displayed about the trees being an inseparable couple, whilst just past there was a stall covered in small pieces of wood called ema which are wooden votives, that had handwritten messages scrawled on them, these were little prayers for the people who left them, but I didn’t read any of them as my google translate wasn’t working on my phone.
As I made my way out of the shrine I walked up a long path past a whole wall of Sake barrels and another collection of wines from the Bourgogne region of France apparently as offerings from manufacturers of Sake and Wine as part of a diplomatic agreement. At the end of the long path there was another huge Torii and whilst I was stood there I could hear the sounds of Harajuku station which was playing it’s little jingles and the sounds of trains starting and stopping emanated from within. It was odd to hear whilst stood in this idyllic place, even though the massive metropolis was not far away. It’s probably similar to the Central Park in New York City when you’re in the centre of this huge city but in a calm and peaceful space.
With the trip to the Meiji Shrine complete I headed to Harajuku station and then rode the metro to Shibuya as I wanted to photograph the huge crossing.
Scramble
I got to Shibuya Scramble Crossing at around 11am and stood to the side to take it in and experience the slightly reduced levels of traffic that are dwarfed by the massive storm of people at rush hour or at night time.
I did some photography of people going back and forth thover the famous crossing and then some panning shots of vehicles moving over the intersection. I don’t know why but I did love seeing and making images of the Tokyo Taxis. The old black Toyota Crowns, the green, yellow and white Crowns, and all the usual mix of other different cars. In terms of other cars that were driving around, there were also a few different groups of tourists driving through the scramble in little go karts as though they were in a real life Mario Kart game, minus the banana weapons etc….
After a wander around with the cameras here I prepared to head to the Senso Ji shrine, which meant I’d need to get to Asakusa. When I popped out of the station at the other end I noticed the Tokyo Skytree in the distance with the Asahi building and Asahi Beer Hall stood in front. The Asahi headquarters is designed to look like a big rectangular glass of beer with a frothy head. the beer hall to the side of it was designed by Philippe Starck and was opened in 1989. It holds aloft the Golden Flame or Flamme d’or, which local people have termed the Golden Turd, and it’s easy to see why. I really like this view though and it’s a classic view of Tokyo that I will remember with my own eyes and not just on a camera sensor.
Once I’d walked through Asakusa a little and strolled past a few young women dressed as maids trying to get passers by to go for a drink and snack in their cafe, I made it to the front of the Kaminarimon Temple Gate that is famously seen in lots of Tourism leaflets and websites for Tokyo and Japan. It was busy and many people were gathered around having selfies with the huge gate, featuring a massive paper lantern. After I’d milled around here for a while and heard all sorts of languages and accents I headed under the gate and down the Nakamise, a street consisting of shops selling all sorts of souvenirs, toys, foodstuffs,drinks and clothes. Included in the clothes shops were Kimono shops and hire stalls. It appeared that there was a large contingent out today of people dressed in their ceremonial kimonos and garb for their visit to this sacred temple. It was wonderful standing to the side and seeing Japanese culture doing it’s thing in front of me. Huge groups of school kids wearing yellow hats, holding onto each others shoulders as they made their way through the crowded, market-like location. People eating ice-creams as they walked along, which is a bit weird as people don’t normally walk along eating or drinking.
As I got to the other end of this long street I passed beneath another huge temple gate and then into the area of the shrine. There was also a massive five story pagoda here that people were desperate to include in their selfies, it felt like this was Asakusa equivalent to the Big Ben (Elizabeth Tower) in London. There was a font, where people used the dipper to cleanse their hands and mouths, a large pit of burning incense, a Jokoro, which people reached into and pulled the smoke onto themselves. Pulling it onto yourselves and getting as much as possible onto you is supposed to have healing properties whilst covering your head with the smoke (not by putting your head into the Jokoro) is supposed to make you smarter.
Again there were stalls selling lucky charms, a wall of ema that you could write for a small donation and then a wall of fortune telling. Where you might put some money in a box then take a box of sticks, shake them until one pops out and then you remove the note from the stick and read it. In some cases there are good fortunes, but at this temple there are also bad fortunes in the mix. Apparently you can wrap them up again and you’ll be safe from the badness within.
Stepping up the stairs into the impressive building there were the slotted boxes at the front where worshippers were depositing money, mostly coins by the sound of it. I guess it is the same as a collection in a Christian Church and probably the only way these churches, temples can afford to keep going.
I spent an absolute age walking around and then fishing, waiting for someone to walk into a scene for a photograph, and captured a good few images. There was much to see and do, but I spent no money in here, I saved that for the next part of today’s adventure.
Shopping
On the way to the next spot at Ikebukuro I popped into a Don Quijote shop to buy a Tomica car for Noah from University. He’s seen Tomica cars and being a car enthusiast he really wanted one, and I was only to happy to oblige. I bought him a Tomica #1 Subaru WRX Police Interceptor vehicle, whilst I was in there I picked up three models for me. One was a toyota Crown taxi, another a Crown police cruiser and the third was a truck with a Shinkansen Bullet Train on the trailer. As mentioned before I found the taxis and police cars fascinating as they highlight that a picture is definitely in Tokyo, or a view might be mistakenly thinking the city is New York or Paris, but the cars are a giveaway. I wanted these two models to remind me of my adventure and they sit on my shelves above the monitor as a memento.
Donut, why not?
Coming out of the Don Quijote I felt I needed a bit of a pep up so I stopped in a Mister Donut for a couple of the ringed treats and a cup of coffee. Whilst sitting there in the window looking out I felt like I was in a movie and not actually in tokyo, Japan. It was a weird feeling. I left the donut shop about 3pm and was headed to Ikebukuro to visit the Sunshine City, Sunshine 60 observation deck to look out at Tokyo from another angle.
I found my way there but on the way I walked down a long corridor from one station to another and noticed a sign for Bunkyo. In the book my wife had bought me for Christmas I’d read that there was another observation point in the Bunkyo Civic Centre on the 25th Floor so I detoured into the council offices. It was comparable to a big office block that held , job centre, doctors, sexual health clinic as well as the planning department. That sort of official building where you have to go but it feels like your bending to the will of “the man” just by being there., like when we had to pay our council tax in cash a the office in town, back home. The building itself looks like the Axis Chemicals building from the 1989 Batman movie too, which I didn’t know until after I’d got home. I didn’t see the outside of the building. whilst I was there.
The view out of the 25th floor Sky View Lounge was great, it was also free and hardly anyone there either. I went up in the lift and watched people getting in and out that were going about their daily business whilst I was on a jolly and it felt like I was intruding into their space, where tourists really shouldn’t be. The view was awesome and I could clearly see the Shinjuu towers near to my hotel and the Tokyo Skytree was immediately visible. I stayed here and took a few photos and videos of the city and it’s residents from very high up.
I wanted to leave here whilst it was still light as I ideally wanted to be in Sunshine 60 as the sun set over the massive mega city that reminded me of Blade Runner and Judge Dredd all at the same time.
Owl City
I made it into Ikebukuro at 15:50 on the way to Sunshine City and found that the west gate building is a concrete structure with window structures similar to Wolverhampton School Of Art. There were some interesting hexagonal shaped vents made from concrete out front too, and this was by the taxi rank, obviously loads of photos here…
As I was headed to the Sunshine City I walked across the street and noticed a Koban (Police Cabin) by a crossing that was a unique design, made to look like an owl, looking out over the crossing.
As I made my way through the shopping centres and other areas on the chase for the high view I noticed loads of other Owls around and this stems from Ikebukuro being shortened to Bukuro which sounds like the word Owl in Japanese apparently. The police station building was designed by kids back a few years ago but it was a wonderful addition to the architecture in this area.
Sunshine City
Into the Sunshine City and I followed the signs for the observatory which is 240 metres up. I entered the lift with two businessmen who were heading to the restaurant floor for a meeting with lunch and perhaps a couple of glasses of sake. Up to the top and it was 1200 yen to enter this is less than a tenner so I pushed through the turnstile with my ticket and spent a good couple of hours in front of the windows over the city. You could get really close to the glass so it was easier to capture photographs without artifacts from reflections showing from behind me.
I took some photos of other people silhouetted against the windows with the city in the background and even offered to a couple on a seat to take their photo with their phone camera, although it might have seemed odd to them. “give me your phone and turn away from me, then I’ll take your photo and give it you back”, rather than “give me your phone, turn around and I’m legging it away with your phone.”
I watched the sun go down over the city here, with Shinjuku central to my frame of reference and Mount Fuji in the distance for good measure. The light of the setting sun was magical across the model like city in front of me. I propped my mobile phone against the glass and did a timelapse for a while too. As I was sat at a table I thought I’d better get myself a drink so had a zero percent beer, this way I couldn’t get moved on. Weirdly, this is the only time I left anything on a table and went to the counter. In Japan people leave all of their belongings on the table in the bar or restaurant while they go to the restroom or bar, that way others know that there is someone sitting there. There appears to be hardly any threat of anything being stolen, as phones, wallets, whole handbags and shopping bags are left scattered around. Wouldn’t happen in London, no way.
Back through Ikebukuro there were a number of impressive concrete flyovers and roads elevated above the rest of the street, I found a couple of nice angles for a photo here too.
After the sun finished setting I had a final wonder around Ikebukuro and then jumped back on a train for Shinjuku, as I didn’t fancy getting stranded somewhere once the trains had stopped running for the night.
Film Preparation
I got back to my hotel for around 9pm before popping the news on, having a pack of crisps and a bottle of pop. I prepared my Canon A1 and Bronica ETRS cameras with tripod shoes, cable releases, films loaded into the two backs of the ETRS, one colour (Portra 800) and one B&W (Ilford HP5) before heading out into the area of Shinjuku where the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings can be found.
I walked along the main roads and saw the huge skyscrapers appear through gaps, stopped and took photos of taxis in a queue, one was a taxi running with nobody in it, the driver had evidently run to a public loo. Such is the trust here that no one would have touched the car, it was amazing to see.
I got to the Govt buildings that I had been up on my first day in Tokyo, and around midnight till about 3am I was ambling around with my film cameras capturing images. I aimed the lens at a couple of interesting subjects, in terms of architecture and during one part when I was trying to fit the huge two towered structure into the shot, a security guard, or policeman wandered past about 100 yards away. Then 5 minutes later he walked past the other way about 50 yards away. I’d moved again and was taking another photo when he got closer and then turned to walk towards me. Between us and our language difficulties we worked out that he didn’t think I should be there taking photos and unlike in the UK when I do stand up for myself when being pushed about by security personnel not understanding public property and rights, I felt it prudent to keep my gob shut. I don’t know what the rights are for photography and rather than ending up in clink for a couple of weeks ai just thanked him with an “Arigatou Gozaimasu” and left to go somewhere else.
I walked for about ten minutes and found a bridge under a flyover with a few taxis waiting, some of the drivers were asleep and others out talking to each other. I setup my tripod and Bronica to capture the queue of cabs in the urban grime. Some of them got out and looked like they were coming to ask me what I was doing before realising it was just a dopey gaijin. We smiled and greeted each other and they must have known I was no threat as the all went about talking and laughing, probably at me, but who cares.
As I was here I found a few different angles to photograph and at one point I notice the smell of urine, a smell you find in the doorways of london or Shrewsbury but I hadn’t come across it since being in Japan. That’s when I noticed that there were tarpaulins and cardboard boxes under this bridge, right next to the Government buildings. Homeless people were obviously set up in this area so I decided to leave them to it, as I didn’t want them thinking I was exploiting them in any way.
I was walking along with the Bronica on top of the ETRS and the taxi drivers were really interested in what I was up to, they came closer and closer but none of them spoke to me, I guess it was just curiosity that had them thinking I was up to something dodgy.
As I was walking back to the hotel I strolled up some of the main roads and took some photos of reflections of lights in buildings made of glass and even signs outside the offices of large corporations or parts of the government.
No Need For A Batman
As I went past one area there was a Garage Forecourt, with tyre replacing equipment and petrol pumps. As I looked around it appeared that all of the tools and equipment was left in the open fronted area, with only a chain to suggest that people shouldn’t enter. I was gobsmacked as if this had been anywhere in the UK the whole lot would have been lifted and stolen. It appears that the crime rate in Japan must be exceptionally low compared to other countries, and I wonder whether it is as a result of social harmony or severe justice by the law enforcing authorities. Looking at some articles on the subject it appears that the Japanese culture is a mutual respect driven society and there are few instances in daily life when people act selfishly and without concern for others. There was also a mirror on the wall to aid drivers exiting the car park next door that I set up in front of to try and capture a rare self portrait on film.
Approaching Shinjuku now for my penultimate evening in this amazing country I was walking past the the Shinjuku station and taking photos of the new buildings in the area when a group of Japanese youngsters stopped in front and started posing and having a giggle just like when I’m in London or even in Shrewsbury and bunch of young people start shouting “Take my picture, wahey I’m here, take a photo of me” etc. This was refreshing to see and it made me chuckle. There was very little happening near the hotel when I got back and it was only 2:30am, perhaps people are saving up for the weekend proper.
Into the hotel and it was time for a quick drink and a bath before climbing into bed ahead of tomorrows adventures. I’d planned on going to The Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, The museum Of Modern Art, The Imperial Palace, The Kitte Building Observation Deck before having a wander around Harajuku’s Takeshita Street and Omotesando Hills. How did I get on, find out in the penultimate episode of the Bob Griffiths Japanuary Expedition.
Be First to Comment