Leaving Eri and, to a lesser extent, Japan, was the most difficult thing I've ever done. We went out that evening to do some last minute shopping and then to visit the 8bitcafe - a cafe in Shinjuku dedicated to the 8bit era of video games, with Famicoms and Master Systems to play. It was really nice, as was the expensive hotel, but we weren't really in the mood. Anyway, after that glowing introduction, here are some photos I took...
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What with my manic attempts to move out of my flat by tomorrow, I haven't had time to post much recently, so here are some of the Contax shots I've had developed recently. I like these shots. I think of any film I've taken with the T2, this film probably had the highest proportion of decent pictures. Not that that was to do with anything more than luck, but still, nice to get.
I found out a while ago about the Skydeck on the 54th floor roof of the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills, and have been wanting to go up there ever since. Eri and I actually went there a few weeks back, but the threat of lightening was enough for it to be closed to the public. Yesterday though, it was open and we finally managed to get up there. Having carried around my tripod all day, I was intensely annoyed to find out that tripods were not allowed up there, along with bags, hats, and various other "dangerous" items. I actually saw one girl with her Vuitton bag in one of the Roppongi Hills clear plastic safety bags (obviously it was too valuable to be stashed in a locked), but the sight of someone being allowed to carry a bag only when safely encased in another bag amused me & Eri no end. The view from the top was pretty stunning, although it was a little shocking to see how much more of the pollution you can see from that high up - from below it all just looks like high clouds. The lack of a tripod did make some of the photos a little less clean than they should have been, but they were alright in the end. The sky-aquariuuum (to quote the security guard), was also fun, but not as fun as the girl I was standing next to at the top of the tower, with her (no doubt, long suffering) boyfriend. Seeing a dark black area on the ground between Roppongi and Shinjuku (it was Yoyogi Park), she asked her boyfriend if it was an ocean or just a sea. Her boyfriend sighed and replied that it was a park...a forest. She laughed and called him a liar, and asked again. Then she said what must be the stoopidest thing I have ever heard - pointing to Shinjuku (less than 10km away, across the "sea"), she asked how far it was to "America". The boy sighed again, looked down as if yet again weighing up the merits of a quick leap to suicidial peace, shrugged and led her off, presumably for a geography lesson (or a bit of domestic violence). Young love.
Unlike in England, where we have stupidly decided to have our fireworks season when it is bloody cold and miserable in November, here in Japan (and pretty much every other sensible country), summer is the season for sitting out with friends, and getting pissed under the fireworks. Yesterday was the big display along the banks of the Edo River, one of the biggest in Japan. To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed by the actual display, the firework hearts were nice, as were the Doraemon faces, but I reckon Ravenscourt Park's Guy Fawkes night display was better. The evening though was very nice. There was a really nice breeze along the river so it was nice and cool, unlike the sweaty evenings recently, and despite there being 1.3 million people there, I managed to get to the Portaloos quickly and easily, which is, afterall, the most important thing. Here are some photos from the night - all the photos I took of the fireworks were crap. Very annoyingly.
Yesterday, for the first (and probably last time), I went out for a cruise in Tokyo Bay. It's a big piss-up on a boat, 2 hours at 2500円 (about £12) for all-you-can-drink beer and wine. Good fun, and lots of young, drunken Japanese people to chat with, which is always a laugh. Also lots of chances to fail to take good photos. These are again probably the better ones of the night. Click to open the gallery, or just click read more to see them all.
Today, I went to my school for the last time, to collect the last of my things from my desk, and to check the progress of the speech contest students as they start trying to learn their speeches. I also wanted to take a photo of the Emotion beauty salon on the main street on the way to my school. It's a pretty average beauty salon, mainly used by local, well-off housewives and students at graduation and other important occasions. Walking past this place on the way to work every day for the past year, I have always wondered about the decision making progress that could have lead to the following being chosen as one of the photos used to illustrate the talents of the artists within. Maybe the area is, unbeknownst to me, big with circus performers...incidentally, the other two photos chosen seem to be of continental European lesbians circa 1990, and it gives me great pleasure to know that somewhere in the hinterlands of suburban Chiba, there is a sect of militant Prussian lesbians, shunning the modern world, whose only contact with the rest of us is when forced to work as clowns to earn money to make ends meet...it must be true. Emotion is the proof.
The last time I was invited to a wedding, I managed to take 3 photos in the entire night. This time, I was determined to take more, and bought a new film on the way. In the end, I got so overexcited snapping away, that I had to leave the after-after party karaoke to buy another film, which I proceeded to shoot all of without adjusting the focus at all from one shot to the next. I don't think I was attempting some kind of peculiar avant-garde technique, I think it may have been just because I was a little bit pissed. Anyway, these were the best shots from the night - I really like the two shots of Seri and Jacob. There's a calmness in the storm there. Congratulations again to Matt and the missus.
