Photowalk!

Hello everyone! Got a loosely themed blog for you today - photowalks!

So a few weeks ago I decided to go hunting for luxury cars in Ginza on a Saturday night - being one of the glitzy suburbs of Tokyo it was prime hunting ground. Off I went in the evening, having watched the Royal Wedding, camera in hand. I was feeling lucky when as soon as I left the station, a Delorean raced by (but alas I did not yet have the right lens on my camera and missed it completely!). Walking around the streets I looked for Lamborghini, Maserati, Porsche, and the likes, but it seemed I was getting skunked! There was very little to be seen! So instead I reverted to street photography, with one eye on the road just in case something came by.

One of the things I like about Ginza, and ritzy places in general, are the impressive window displays in shops that I would feel very out of place in! Regardless though, they know how to make some pretty displays!

A series of Niki Saint Phalle handbags by Dior - though to be honest I first noticed the dinosaur

Somehow I can't see myself adopting this look anytime soon

This big department store has a seriously groovy mascot

I could *almost* hear 'My Heart Will Go On', and 'Immortality'

Something about the 'Little Prince' and his fox hopping about on planets, chasing a red airplane was quite captivating to me

I wasn't entirely prevented from photographing cars that evening though, even if one was slightly cheating - there was a luxury Nissan dealership, which had some very futuristic and sleek concept models on display. This included the GT 2020 model, which was one a rotating platform with moody blue and red lighting. I don't know a lot about the model, but from what I've read there was a concept model in a car racing game that Nissan decided to build a proof of, and this was the result!

I don't know whether this car actually works or not, but I did find one cool car that I know for fact does in fact drive, as evidenced by the fact I saw it driving. It was not necessarily what I had in mind initially, at least in terms of form, but there is no denying that it was a very unique car, and turned a lot of heads as it drove by.

A luxury dune buggy, perhaps!

Having essentially given up now on finding luxury cars (if only I'd gone out looking for taxis, I would have had a field day!), I returned to street photography, playing around with slow shutter speeds and playing with light*

This city never sleeps

Walking down one of the man streets, I heard music being played, and decided it might prove more interesting than my lack of hunting success. Rounding a corner, I came across a jazz group playing on a street corner, with a not insignificant crowd watching. The guitarists and drummer played perfectly well, but the saxophonist was the most interesting character among them.

After listening to the group for a while, I took one last circuit of the surrounding streets, just in case, but alas there was nothing to be seen, except for more taxis, dammit. Though as a silver lining, I came across this piece of street art that was fantastic, nestled in a little nook next to what looked like a service entrance to another store.

This is basically the female version of me gazing at shoes

I have got another spot to go car hunting at, something that will happen in a few weeks I think - so you can expect to see some Ferrari or such like on here in the not too distant future (fingers crossed!)


The blog does not end here, however, as I had another photowalk event lined up. This one I had become aware of and joined through meetup.com, a website that allows you to search for groups of people with similar interests, and events are arranged within these. Obviously I joined a number of photography ones, and there was a photowalk event in Nihonbashi (close to Ginza), that was coordinated by a local. The good thing with such an event is that it can take you to places you wouldn't normally come across, and shows you all kinds of local secrets, as well as being an opportunity to meet up with lots of new people. In this instance we started with probably 30 people, with people dropping off over time, to form a core group of maybe 15-20.

Our first stop was a bridge which is famous for its gargoyles, of lions and dragons. Needless to say, with close to 30 people all photographing them, I tried to find a slightly different way of capturing them, in addition to a very simple approach.

 

 

Also taking advantage of the fact I cannot normally take this kind of photo on account of only having one camera!

On the theme of animal statues, there is a giant giraffe statue that naturally got papped by everyone present:

Move over Lion King, we have the Giraffe King!

We gathered up in a big plaza for a group photo, and I also found a restaurant with a theme very close to my heart!

New Zealand! You bet this is on my to go to list

There was an instance of uncharacteristic for Japan health and safety in the workplace nonadherence, with a window washer employing the 'If I hold on with one hand surely nothing will go wrong. And if it does, I am wearing a helmet!' approach - he also stood out against the very neutral tones of the building. If he did fall, we would have no trouble finding him!

As the photowalk came to an end, we made our way to the same streets I'd been pacing while car hunting - except this time it was a bit different. On weekends, Ginza's main streets are closed to cars, meaning pedestrians have full reign of the place. It also allowed me to take this photo of which I am quite pleased!

This shot was 'lined' up nicely - ha! Streets ahead of the rest!

With that photowalk event done I was pretty happy; ironically I saw more luxury cars here than the night before, but this time I didn't have anywhere near the right lens for it - dammit a second time!

The final part of this blog is still of a photowalk bent, but slightly different all the same. Every year there is an art event in Roppongi, that goes over a weekend. However unlike a lot of shows which might have a hiatus between midnight and the next morning, this one goes from 10am Saturday until 6pm Sunday, with no intermissions. With a huge number of displays and events spread across various galleries, stages and public spaces in the suburb, there was a huge number of things to see and do, and so naturally Claire and I headed that way to check it out!

The first thing was in Roppongi station itself, a huge mural made up of photos taken during the day - there was a photobooth you could visit (unfortunately it seemed to have closed by the time we got there), and have your photo taken, printed, and layered onto the display. While I shudder to think how much paper was consumed by the display, it definitely looked very cool!

Next up was a huge inflatable man in the greenspace previously occupied by the 500,000 LED light Christmas display that I so loved in December. As we were there in the dying light, I was able to capture some reflections in its plasticky surface, but I also saw an opportunity that required my incredibly capable model/sometimes photographic assistant Claire.

With the light fast disappearing, we took a quick look around the other side of the fallen giant, which showed how the light diffracted through its translucent skin, and gave off some cool silhouettes from other art show attendees.

Next up was the National Art Centre, which had an installation of koinobori. These are the koi carp kites/streamers that are normally associated with Children's Day in Japan, and an artist called Reiko Sudo did a collaboration with Seiichi Saito to produce around 300 giant koi pieces in a multicoloured display.

The koinobori were arranged as if in a stream, circling above the gallery floor at a variety of heights. The lowest of them were at around sternum height for me, and the tallest were many metres up. This allowed people to walk around, through and between the koi, and there were beanbags all over the floor so you could lie down and look up at the fish circling above.

Naturally a Claire and Troy photo was taken too

 What was also cool was the gallery next to the Koi, which had samples of all the fabrics used to make the koi, which were all unique. You could not touch the koi, but you could get very hands on with these samples, which ranged from very fine and delicate, to very coarse and hardwearing. There was also this little beauty. It reminded me of the old carpet that was in Nelson Airport in my youth (thankfully now replaced - though remnants exist in a reimagined form as relics!)

Would you have this in your living room?

A real beauty from Nelson

While the inside of the National Art Centre was full of art, so was the outside! There was a display that used I don't know how many hundreds or thousands of hand mirrors, which when combined with projectors created a trippy mix of light and broken flower reflections on the roof above the display.

Someone got RSI cable-tying all these mirrors to the netting I'm sure

A very cool effect

As we made to leave, a crowd had gathered, all craning their necks to see something. Working through the crowd, we got a view of this very cool puppet, operated by a team of five, that walked with a surprisingly fluid motion. Apparently there is a bigger version too that is at least a couple metres tall by the looks of it, though this time it was just the light baby - still, very impressive!

Not just his personality that can light up a room

Next up was Mori Hills, which has a huge plaza dominated by a spider-like sculpture (I have previously compared it to a film camera tripod statue we have in Wellington). Except this time, an artist had taken to the spider with knitting needles and given it a set of very striking socks - I cannot imagine how long this took!

There had also been an event with all kinds of Tokyo based mascots that day, and Claire and I spotted a cucumber/melon/bean mascot - there was a name that gave away exactly what agricultural product it was, but I have completely forgotten!

There was one display that was less art in the sense of being sculpture or painting, and more of the culinary variety, though they still did a very good job of making it look great. Hibiki whiskey, one of the premium divisions of Suntory, was a sponsor of the event, and had a display showcasing every edition of their premium Hibiki whiskey, some of which are well over 25 years old. Hibiki has been in the news lately, as they recently won an international spirits competition, which drove up demand for their product. This is such that they have now run out, or are at risk of running out, of many varieties, with demand far outstripping supply, and as such they are having to invest in more production. Of course when your product takes 25 years to mature, I don't think their supply problems will be resolved anytime in the near future!

There were rows and rows of glasses, all with labels of the year and name, filled with golden and amber whiskey. They had a lid on which could be taken off, so that you could take a smell of each one. My whiskey palette isn't necessarily all that well developed beyond 'this is smokey', or 'this is sweetish', but it was interesting how discernible the differences were. Also made for some pretty photography with shallow depth of field.

The final full on piece that really caught our eye was one that used paper planes. There were arms attached to motors, that spun in circular motions, like the hands on a clock, at various speeds. Attached to the end of these arms was a paper plane, and these were then passed through a sheet of timber that had a very precise series of cuts in it, such that the arm and plane could pass through perfectly. The precision, gentle humming of the motors, simplicity and the variety of speeds made the piece very cathartic to look at.

Razor sharp cutting and incredible measurement must have been employed

Claire and I were getting quite rumbly by this point, and so to quell any hangriness (that's anger from hunger to those who don't know), we looked for something to eat. Claire was most excited when we found a 'Shake Shack', which is apparently a ubiquitous West Coast/Midwest burger chain from the US. Always happy to have a burger that's not garbage (Japanese rarely seem to crack them), I happily agreed, and I enjoyed a lovely fried, stuffed with cheese, mushroom patty. Also on the menu was rootbeer, which was a drink I had never had before - I also thought it was made with beetroot, so was very surprised that it was not purple in colour! The taste reminded me a lot of Rawleighs Pleasant Relief, which contrary to first impressions, was a very good thing (that stuff worked wonders), so I suspect they both have a similar, if not the same, active ingredient.

 

 

On the way out we saw an interactive display using a magnetic surface and various piping, that allowed you to capture and restrain yourself - obviously I had to give this a go!

All in all Roppongi Art Night was a great event, though I feel sorry for the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra who were playing between 3 and 4 am! I look forward to hitting it next year, though unsure yet whether I would stay out for the whole night - I think I would need to prepare well in advance for that undertaking!

The final, final part of the blog is something of an addendum - Claire and I the next day went to the Tokyo Photographic Museum, where the Japanese Professional Photographer Society was having their annual award exhibition. Ironically no photography is allowed in the museum, so nothing to show there, but there were some incredible shots to be sure!

Following on from that, and a brief foray into a farmers market, we went to the Yebisu Beer Museum. Yebisu is an old German style brewing operation, with their logo being that of Yebisu, the God of Good Fortune, which has been coopted to include beer - can't fault that!

They run tours there, which I deferred to another day when I can do it with David, Viktor, and few more of the Komaba Dorm friends, so Claire and I had a quick look around their museum, before treating ourselves to a really nice amber ale and a creamy stout.

There is a sign asking for people not to stand on Yebisu, lest he dish out some less than good fortune on you

A diorama showing an old style Japanese beer hall from the late 19th Century

Ah, daydrinking!

All in all, these four events were good fun (even if the initial goal of luxury cars was somewhat scuppered!). I got to see some very cool bits and pieces, and gave my camera a good workout!

This week at uni I had my first exam (collective decision making), which went reasonably well I think! Otherwise there are now just a range of reports and presentations to give, and then semester 2 will begin - though note at Tokyo Uni there are 4 semesters per year. I'm writing up a report on my research so far, and reading plenty of journal articles to broaden my mind around my topic - so all is going well! It is now decidedly heating up here, with temperatures consistently in the high 20s (celcius) - I am quite glad to be walking to the train at 6.15 in the morning as I avoid most of the heat during my two hour commute. The other exciting thing is on Monday I will be going on a field trip with my agricultural development class, going with my Professor to some sites of agricultural significance (what these are yet I do not know). I'll be sure to take my camera in case something photogenic comes of it.

Otherwise, this seems to be one of the longer blogs I've done, well done for getting through it! There are a number of things taking place this month, so I'm sure there will be another blog in the not too distant future - keep an eye out!

Tata for now friendos!