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.
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.
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.
After going to the Moriyama exhibition, I wanted to see how my T2 performed with some B&W film, so I bought some Fuji 1600. The shots are obviously quite grainy, but I like how they turned out. If anything, the grainyness adds something to them. The first one below is my favourite, but I think I will need to experiment a little more before I can really get to grips with it. Not bad though at 900円 a roll to develop.
Eri has a hidden talent for seeing shoes that she likes, trying them on and liking them, procrastinating about buying them and upon finally deciding to do so, discovering that they have sold out. She had a bad experience a few years ago with a pair of Miu Miu boots, and the other week we saw a pair of Nike x Liberty Dunks that she (and I), really liked and when we returned to the shop to buy them, found they too had sold out. Yesterday, on going to the Nike Store in Kichijoji, we were pleased to see that they had started to stock them there too, after not having had them when I went to check the other week. I really like these. We're just trying to work out whether to keep the white laces or change to the included purple pair. Decisions, decisions.
