Back in October of 2020, my former band Hog Wyld was meant to embark upon the adventure of a lifetime – touring around Japan. Everything was booked and ready to go when COVID crashed in to consign that particular dream to history – something that I will probably be bitter about for the rest of my life. I doggedly clung on to the cash that I had saved for the trip, vowing to make the journey at some point anyway, and when the time came to take a three month sabbatical from work, I knew this was the perfect chance. I was going back.
The plan was to spend three weeks in Tokyo, and I booked a capsule style hotel in Shibuya for the first few days. These were spent in something of a surreal haze, as I adjusted to the pace and tenor of the city. Everybody and everything was immediately, totally different to back home, and I was determined not only to soak up as much of it as I possibly could, but also to document as much of it as I possibly could. There have been so many times over the past few years where I have lamented my lack of motivation for taking pictures – and I was determined not to squander the opportunity. This was it. Now or never.
Despite getting what I realise now were actually pretty decent results, I felt a real sense of inadequacy whilst shooting. I didn’t want to get to the end of the trip and just have a bunch of samey candid shots of people walking by in the street. That kind of thing is both lazy, and boring. So, as terrifying as it was, I resolved to be more deliberate about taking street portraits. In preparation for the tour-that-never-was, I had taken about a year and a half’s worth of Japanese lessons, and from the darkest depths of my memory was able to conjure up the phrase: “Can I take your picture?”. Whether or not I could understand the response was immaterial really – what was more important was getting over that initial fear of approaching people. This is something that I felt especially keenly, as the number of tourists appeared to be notably higher than any of the other times I’ve visited Tokyo, and rightly or wrongly I was particularly sensitive to the perception and reaction that folk might have to camera wielding foreigners.
As it turns out, I needn’t have worried too much. Shibuya in particular is a common place for street photographers to hang out, and so it wasn’t some completely unexpected or alien concept. I was careful only to approach folks that seemed like they would be open to such chance encounters, and while not all of them wanted their picture taken – everybody I spoke to was friendly enough. If I have any regrets, it’s that I didn’t do more of this.
I didn’t want to just rely on street portraits, and so managed to arrange a shoot with a local model named Nami.
A typhoon had been threatening to hit Tokyo for days, and naturally, it of course started absolutely pishing it down not long after we had arranged to meet. In the end it actually worked out fairly well though, as both the rain and the reflections from the city’s neon looked amazing.
When all was said and done, I think the results from this shoot are some of the best pictures that I’ve taken in a long time. It has made me realise that taking portraits of this kind was always one of my particular strengths as a photographer, and something that I actively miss doing. I’ll need to think about ways that I can get back to doing more of it in future.
As fortune so had it, my arrival just so happened to coincide with a number of festivals marking the end of summer. This meant an array of different colourful performances, and I spent a full day wandering through different parts of the city – genuinely in awe at the traditional music and dancing that stretched through the streets. I later came to discover that the number of atteendees at Koenji’s Awa Odori – just one of the events – exceeded 1.3 million. A figure I could barely get my head around. This also provided a great excuse to take a lot of pictures.
Aside from the festivities, I spent a good chunk of the first portion of the trip heading to different parts of the city with a vague plan to seek out different camera shops. This was my third time in Tokyo, and by this point I had already spent about two months in total there – so I didn’t really have any particular sights or new neighbourhoods to explore. Rather, it was more about having an excuse to go to a place, and just take photos – which I did. Though I must admit to buying one or two film cameras as well (specifically an Olympus PEN F and an Olympus PEN W). That was inevitable.
Now is probably as good a time as any to mention that the weather was a constant factor that demanded consideration. The days went from the kind of intense heat and sunshine that left me feeling light-headed, to torrential, typhoon induced downpours; the humidity ensuring that I was constantly soaked either way. More than once, I found myself glad of the walking boots that I had packed, as well as the (apparently) weather-sealed Sony A7 – both of which helped me keep on going no matter what the elements had in store.
After the first few days, I headed out to the suburbs of Tokyo to stay in a place called the Reversible Destiny Lofts – a unique multi-coloured residential building with striking design features. This is somewhere that I had wanted to visit since my first trip to Japan back in 2016, but timing had never quite worked out. You had to book a minimum of three nights, and since it was kind of in the middle of nowhere, I decided to treat it as a kind of artistic retreat, focussing on writing music. It turned out pretty well, and helped me reset a bit after the initial adrenaline of arriving in Tokyo had worn off, and the jetlag exhaustion began to kick in. I had initially worried about leaving behind all of the excitement of the city, but it was genuinely such an inspiring place to spend time, that I don’t regret a minute of it. When I did venture back into the main throng of things, I was refreshed, and ready to hit it hard.
Whenever people found out that I had been to Tokyo multiple times, their reaction was always the same. Namely: Why on earth would you want to do that? For me, the answer was simple. Japan is a place that isn’t shy about embracing niche interests – and if you scratch beneath the obvious surface, you can find groups of passionate devotees in almost any topic you can imagine. As something of an obsessive weirdo myself, I wanted to spend some time sinking into the subcultures where I felt at home, and already had built up connections. In practice, that meant going to a lot of gigs, and taking pictures for bands like Mass of the Fermenting Dregs / Haru Nemuri… some of which ended up in Rolling Stone Japan. I have shared a bunch more of these in this post.
I also met up with my pal Mizuki, whose band Nekoze Pajamas we were meant to play with back in 2020, and who we ended up releasing a split cassette tape EP with instead. It was really cool to get to finally see them play live, and a bit of a trip to see the EP on sale.
There were also some new discoveries.
On top of that, there was also a bunch of people that I knew from the chipmusic scene from all over the world who were in town for an underground electronica all-dayer, which was awesome.
I performed myself a few times, under the guise of ‘allmyfriendsaresynths‘. The first gig was at a place called the Ruby Room in Shibuya – and despite initially being more nervous than I’ve been prior to a show in years, I genuinely had a blast. Everybody was friendly and up for it… though judging by the footage I found later, probably a bit too up for it, given the number of tequila shots that were consumed. Though to be fair this was quite possibly my fault.
(thanks to David W for the pictures of me from the gig)
The second gig was especially interesting – held in a basement bar called Oriental Force. The space was almost entirely taken up by tables filled with modular gear, and other acts on the bill performed with traditional woodwind instruments, DIY mannequin noise synths, and even some kind of insane tesla coil creation which spat fire balls and (no-joke) almost blinded me. I genuinely thought that the maniac was going to end up burning the entire building down and that this would be my demise. I guess you don’t get much more subculture than that.
In the latter part of the trip, I was joined by my friends David and Mollie. This was their first time in Japan, and it was really cool to get to see a city that I knew fairly well freshly again through their eyes and their experience. Plus, drinking endless pints of yuzu sour at a dingey izakaya is far more fun with a group.
The two of them also brought a touch of class to proceedings, hunting out and booking a bunch of places that I would never have thought to myself. Swanky cocktail bars galore.
Having not taken any Japanese lessons in almost four years, I was genuinely surprised to find just how much of it came seeping back into my consciousness once I was immersed in it. Verbs, adjectives, and phrases bubbling up seemingly out of nowhere – to the point that I could have basic, broken conversations with folks in the tiny bars and restaurants that we stumbled upon, leading to some interesting interactions that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. It is kind of wild to think that the last time I was there, I didn’t speak a single word of Japanese – and how much of a difference it made to have even just a very limited grasp of things this time around. It also highlighted for me just how backwards our approach to learning languages can be, and what it is actually important to focus on. I would love to say that I have a renewed dedication and fervour to dive back in wholesale, but I also know how difficult it can be to maintain motivation when you aren’t in a place. I guess we will see how things shake out.
As one might expect, I had some amazing food and drink over the three weeks, and interestingly enough, it was far less expensive than I had expected. Some of this was down to how weak the Yen was against the Pound, but also because the cost of living in Glasgow has increased so much over the past few years – and in relative terms things seemed entirely affordable.
Sadly, one notable exception was the film – which was about the same cost as back home. Thankfully, I packed about 60 rolls… something which will be the subject of another post at a later date.
Over the course of the trip, I couldn’t help but feel like my pictures from the first time I visited Japan were better – in the sense that I was far more unashamed about shooting everything – and arguably put together a much more ‘representative’ collection of images. In the end though, the truth is that you will never feel like you have done a city like Tokyo justice. That is part of what makes it so inspiring – and as a result – this trip helped me find my love for photography again.
Ever since I first visited Tokyo, I wanted to dig below the surface, and have more than a passing acquaintence with the city. On this trip it feels like I began to achieve that. This is a place that I now have friends, connections, and the tendrils of roots forming. I will never get bored of spending time here, and I can’t wait to go back.
