Before the Beginning Tokyo Marathon 2015
Unless you’ve ever run a marathon yourself, you’ve probably no idea of all the stuff happens before the race even starts – the mammoth task of organising 35,000 people to line up – all the stuff before the beginning. Follow me on: Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | The first task for runners is […]
The march Japan doesn’t want you to see.
It’s August 15th – anniversary of the end of World War II. Hundreds of riot police line a Tokyo street leading to the controversial Yasukuni shrine – a shrine which remembers Japan’s war dead, including over 1000 men convicted as war criminals, 14 of which are ‘Class A’. On TV there is a lot of […]
Here we snow again
The weather is capricious at the best of times, but in recent weeks it has seemed to be on a whole new level of unpredictability. Blizzards in North America, Storms in the UK, and in Tokyo temperatures that go up and down like a yo-yo. It seems whatever supreme being that controls the weather is […]
One Night in Shibuya
Shibuya is one of the hearts of Tokyo. An area constantly teaming with people. In the daytime and evening the hustle and bustle never seems to stop, but at night it goes a little more to extremes from very crowded to very quiet. Many people who read my blog won’t have experienced Shibuya at night, […]
Getting customers for Tokyo’s ‘invisible’ restaurants
Many Tokyo restaurants and bars are invisible. That doesn’t mean that they have discovered a scientific way for you to see through them. Rather it means that because space is at a premium in Tokyo, most bars and restaurants can be found in basements and on upper floors in buildings rather than at ground level. […]
Portraits – what do they say about a person.
We all have our ideas about what a portrait is. Some believe it to be simply a visual recording of a person, while others believe that it is something deeper like the reflection of the soul. A good portrait can say so many different things about a person. It can blur the barriers between who […]
Hello Hanami – Cherry blossom time in Tokyo
Like Christmas, cherry blossom time comes but once a year, and the Japanese celebrate it with an equal amount of enthusiasm. Hanami, or the tradition of picnicking under the cherry blossom, is everywhere. From groups of mothers with their children to groups of company workers drinking late into the evening. For those not fortunate enough […]
Alone in Public
Tokyo is home to over 12m people, all cramped into small apartments and offices. It’s difficult to find a space to be alone. Some overcome this by shutting themselves away in their rooms and almost never coming out, others have just found a way to cope with it, but some simply find a way to […]
Let it snow
Welcome to the first blog entry of 2013. I’ve not updated the blog for a few weeks as I’ve been pretty busy. I was lucky enough to be able to spend a couple of weeks in India so I’ll soon be doing some special blog entries on that with images. They’ll also be a new […]
Rush hour rush
People rush at rush hour. A mass of people all walking slightly out of sync with each other in the same direction, and each person in their own world – only seeing other people as obstacles that they have to get around. Collectively sometimes they look like an army, other times fast moving zombies. Many […]
