Images from Nowhere

It's my 8 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

Tokyo colour palette: white of the building and the black of the road

If I have to choose a colour to represent Tokyo, it would most likely be light gray. Not the kind of gray like gun-metal gray like most cities, it would be lighter, more matte, like the thermal paste for CPU cooling kind of gray. I am sure I lost some of you in the last sentence, but it is the most suitable analogy I have in my head right now.

I am not sure how I came into this conclusion. But I have this theory.

You see, a lot of buildings in Tokyo are white, or off-white according to my limited observation. The white buildings mixed with the dark gray roads, the whites become light gray.

So why isn't it dark gray like most other cities you say. Perhaps it's become of the overall cleanliness of the city gave me this impression. Or perhaps there are indeed more light-coloured buildings in this cities compared to others.

To cut down on travel cost, I looked for the cheapest place I could stay for a week. I ended up in a slightly old capsule hotel at Asakusa, near Iriya station.

It was a rather chilly December morning, the night after I arrived at the city. I woke up and walked out to the fire-escape to take a good look at the streets. Then I came across this scene, high school students presumably having a PE lesson.

I feel peaceful, seeing those students probably having the 20th PE lesson in this year, and the various sounds brought to me by the wind. Distant sound of car engines, siren, the collective murmur of the city.

I suppose only a visitor visiting a foreign land could romanticise something as mundane as this. Or perhaps it's Tokyo, the city always has a special place in my heart.

Not sure if I had posted these photos before. It's when I first starting taking photos with film. Looking back now, the photos are not too bad.

View of Tokyo Tower. I was walking to RED Photo Gallery, then Sokyusha to stock up on photobooks.

Some cliche Kabukicho shots. Right after this trip my Ricoh GRII's shutter would not open and has to be repaired.

Night in Kabukicho.

I spent a few hours in the evening walking in Kabukicho, the seedier part of Tokyo, where people said you should watch where you camera is pointing.

The atmosphere was definitely a little bit intimidating but I took photos anyways.

December 2022 (Tokyo, Japan, Nikon FE2, Ilford HP5 800)

I have always been attracted to cityscapes. Whether it's Hong Kong, or Tokyo, or Toronto, I feel I am photographing the same way.

December 2022 (Tokyo, Japan, Nikon FE2, Ilford HP5 800)

Metered for the highlights and pushed one stop. This would be a difficult negative to print in the darkroom...

ThoughＩreally like how the foreground got reduced to mere outlines.

December 2022 (Tokyo, Japan, Nikon FE2, Ilford HP5 800)

December 2022 (Tokyo, Japan, Nikon FE2, Ilford HP5 800)

It was a slightly chilly winter's day. I pondered at Uniqlo should I get a pair of gloves, then decided against it.

As I walked towards the general direction of Kabuki Cho. I stumbled across this busy intersection.

"Ah, it must be the famous Shibuya Crossing."

December 2022 (Tokyo, Japan, Nikon FE2, Ilford HP5 800)