Beyond the Tamagawa: Jiyugaoka Spring

Friday, April 23, 2010

Jiyugaoka Spring

If April showers bring May flowers, we'll be in luck this year since it seems to rain about every day.

Jiyugaoka, a lively little part of Tokyo. Lots of restaurants, small shops, pubs, bars, pachinko parlors, and izakaya(s). A nice place to visit on a dreary, rainy day. Might want to do so early before the crowds and cars arrives as there are few sidewalks, delivery trucks and vans are parked all over the place, and pedestrians must share the road with cars.

Bad weather doesn't stop doesn't stop the mail here.

2 comments:

Stuart Price said...: We don't really have these funky narrow little backstreets up here in Hokkaido................

All those women with umbrellas remind me of my first summer in Japan when I was living 2 hours north of Tokyo.........; 10:21 PM
D said...: It's kind of a different world isn't it?

Not that I would really know since I have never been to Hokkaido---yet.; 10:40 PM

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When I was in high school, I found a photography book in the library about Japan. This was no ordinary Japan photo book as there was little in it that would would have been identified with the stereotypical Japan. As I recall, there were seascapes, landscapes, and other types of photos, but no temples, no shrines, no festivals, no geisha, and no shots of the intersection in front of Shibuya station. I was disappointed.

I wish I could recall the name of the book for I'd love to see it again. It comes close to my view of Japan. I don't think of the country or its people as weird, uniquely unique, Zen-like, or anything like that. It is a country, a people, and a culture that differs only by degree---when it does actually differ---from other countries. Just like every other country and culture on earth.

I no longer bother much with the typical "Wow, it's Japan" photos. I try to photograph things which for some reason interest me, or represent something to me, or perhaps I just like the colors, tones, shapes, or light. Perhaps disappointing for anyone looking for photos of Kinkokuji Shrine (though some are here), but those types are readily available anywhere. If nothing else, I will amuse myself with an expensive hobby.

(Since I am occasionally asked, I generally use Nikons: D300, D70s, or borrow my wife's D40. I occasionally use an old Olympus OM-1 for film, as well as Oly digicams, and a now sadly deceased Oly 35ED rangefinder.)