Busy day, annoying really as I only found out that the Fukushima mothers protest outside the Ministry of the Economy Trade and Industry (METI); a sort of Occupy Tokyo movement was meant to be shut down today by the police last night. Yukio Edano, the newly appointed Minister of the economy, Trade and Industry, having listened to the lobbying of the nuclear industry had declared the site a fire risk and everyone had to be out by 5pm. I had an appointment at 6:30 so had to leave around 5 and thought I’d missed the eviction time. Wonderfully un-committed journalism I am aware, but had a feeling they wouldn’t go anyway and apparently the Fukushima mothers’ protest have defied the order to leave their camp outside the METI offices in Tokyo.

Now the ball is very much in Edano’s court I have a feeling that the public support this anti-nuclear protest has, though diminishing it is true, is not something a nominally popular politician  will easily go against. This is a very developing story however and I will be following it throughtout the rest of the evening and weekend.

Indeed I am writing this on the hoof between other duties both professional and personal (bath time for the kids and all that) and will update later wheni have more time to find out what is and isn’t happening.

Just wanted to get a picture out of one of the protesters. More to follow.

Damon

Not doing much to write about at the moment. Some photo plans and a lot of research. Also working on updating my website for what looks like a busier Spring. So to let you know I am still alive, indeed much better now that I seem to have recovered from the pneumonia I had over the entire festive season, I thought I would just post a travel pic I took recently of Odawara Castle in Kanagawa.  A great city, surrounded by mountains and close to the ocean. Indeed much closer than I had expected. Not stunning in situation these days of course as urbanity has smothered the grounds but a nice, historical day out, though photos inside the museum are not allowed it is fun to see how many unusual juxtaposition shots you can get  of the castle looming over the modern buildings of the city.

In fact this has give me an idea…

Got to go,

Later.

Damon

Last Sunday got some free tickets to the Furusato Matsuri or Home Town food festival at Tokyo Dome. (above). Now last and only time I’d been to Tokyo Dome was here, so it was a surprise to see the whole baseball field covered with stalls selling food from all over Japan. Tokyo Dome is huge and while Japanese food is wonderful and varied it is a surprise to see it filling a stadium.

There was also a stage where many local, cultural events and attractions could be displayed like the lantern balancing of the Akita Kanto Matsuri above.

Unfortunately was with my two boys, at least until the youngest disappeared for 40 minutes, (and yes he was in trouble when I found him) so photography was limited and I also had some omiyagi duties to perform for my family which further cut down any free time I had to shoot. But it was an amazing and delicious festival that I recommend visiting next year.

Damon

According to a recent report by Barcley’s Capital, there has been a “unhealthy correlation” between the building of skyscrapers and subsequent economic collapse. Building bubbles, according to the report, occur at times of easy credit, high land prices and inflated optimism. These conditions, unfortunately, appear not  to continue for the period of time needed to finish construction and these monuments to wealth and hubris have historically ended-up towering over ruined economies as a jarring reminder of good-times now gone. The report does not suggest that the building of such towers is the cause of the following economic woes and indeed seems to suggest that they are more of a symptom of short-sightedness. To my mind the connection is tenuous at best because people will always celebrate wealth with such constructions even though wealth routinely disappears shortly after it reaches a level worth celebrating.

The correlation diminishes further when you  consider that Sky Tree in Tokyo, (above) which is very near completion now and is the tallest tower in the world, has been built during a twenty year economic slump. If the report is right Japan can now expect to see even more finacial hardships yet it is hard to see how the Japanese economy could get worse.

Of course the Yen is strong now, hurting exports and the aging demographics and shrinking population are seriously going to affect the long-term future of industries and society in this country so it is possible. The last great, over-confident tower the Japanese built in Tokyo: the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building or TMG (see archive of images of the TMG here) was finished in 1991 just as the bubble burst, so you never know, it could happen again.

Let’s hope not though as I do love skyscrapers as I said before .

Basically this was just an excuse to link stock images of Tokyo Sky Ttree from my archive but does make you think a bit.

Later Damon

For the 14th straight year the Japanese suicide rate was over 30,000. The economic woes of the country always see job seekers and the under-employed or retired taking their own lives. But last year the effects of the tsunami and nuclear crisis in Fukushima added to the number of people who felt they no longer had anything to live for.

Thirty thousand people a year is a large number of people to lose. Suicide is now the leading cause of death for men aged 20-44. These are the people Japan desperately needs to keep if the population and industries are to survive the future aging demographic. Why isn’t more being done to stop these young men and women feeling that their only option is suicide?  Some serious re-imagining of work conditions, education policies and such social norms as the honourable ideas surrounding taking your own life and the stoicism of suffering alone is in order to combat this. What we get instead though, is pretty blue lights at the railway stations (above) that have no proven effect on potential platform jumpers.

The best anti-suicide measure I have heard of is almost laughably simple. At known suicide spots signs are put up asking those thinking about committing suicide if they have cleared their hard disks before they die. Apparently this simple question regarding any embarrassing legacy that might be left behind is proving effective at giving people pause;  turning them around to put their computer in order and thus allowing them time to reconsider. Many it appears do change their minds.

More pictures of the blue LED suicide prevention lights on Tokyo stations at my photoshelter archive here.

There is, believe it or not, an AKB-48 cafe and shop in Akihabara.

Actually that’s not too unbelievable when you think about it.

In the long queues for the cafe (above) were a lot of the young otaku men that love this and other teenage idol groups.

Indeed the whole Akiba weirdness is big business now (the Nomura Institute, in 2004, estimated the spending power of Japan 2.85 million otaku as 290 billion yen) and also a source of soft power that pushes Japanese popular culture and exports abroad, a cause that was championed by the unashamedly geeky ex-prime-minister, Taro Aso.

Don’t get it myself, though some of it undeniably attractive, it is would be hard to freely admit that anywhere else than Japan. Though by many accounts the Otaku’s love of cute, erotic and animated alternative realties is increasingly becoming popular in other countries too.

The myriad and multi-level stores of Akihabara can be difficult to navigate for the uninitiated and it is difficult to know exactly what is and isn’t there. So about 50 business got together at the Belle Salle Akihabara event hall over the 8th and 9th of January as a sort of one-stop-see-it-all festival to all the place has to offer. (above) Electronic stores, that first gave the areas it obsessive character, set up shop next to toy, and hobby stores selling everything from remote-controlled helicopters to bikini-clad figurines and Roman armour. Visitors could also drive model trains, race scaletrix cars, shoot replica guns or watch robots fight. Downstairs idol groups performed on a small stage and a couple of maid cafes set up shop around a square of folding tables serving bottled drinks.

It was tacky, cheap and terrible yet I imagine if you’re into the the Otaku culture and the whole Akiba thing it must have been heaven there. Myself I couldn’t really join in as manga, animation and idol groups don’t do much for me. Photographically it was also a little dull, and a little crowded to take pictures, more of a trade show that hid all the good stuff behind the backs of lots of unattractive men. Couldn’t get close to the idol groups as the fan were dancing and wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the maids (as is always the case though did sneak the one above). I stayed a short while and then left to walk around the streets a bit more. There is more of the same outside and though it is equally hidden away when you go looking it looks better.

Anyway all for now, too tired to write better.

Later

Damon

Seijin no Hi or coming of age day at Meiji Shrine today. Not so many girls in lovely kimono so bit difficult to get the more abstract images I wanted. Good day though, nice to be out enjoying the sun again as I seem to slowly be recovering my health.

Busy just now more later.

Damon

Welcome to my 2011 archive, where I show what I think are some of the best images I took last year.

Of course many of these images you will have seen before attached to blog posts here but there are some new ones. As I said it has been quite a year. Let’s hope this year is better but just as busy.

Busy in a good way anyways.

The image above was one of the last photos I took at the Natural History Museum in London. A crowded, tiring day with two young sons who were understandably excited about dinosaurs and train trips. Didn’t have much time to take more than personal family pictures there other than this one and a few others. Would love to go back on a quieter day. What an amazing place to shoot.

Anyway enjoy, got to get out shooting this year.

Happy New Year for 2012 everyone.

Damon

2011 was a year to remember. Am editing my archive now to put together a selection of some of the best images I took this year, as I try to do every year. Of course 2011 was one of the busiest news years anyone can remember. Though I was not involved in recording the over-throws of dictators in the Arab Spring or the killing of Osama bin Laden or any of the other big news stories that happened this year. Here in Japan we had the March 11th earthquake and tsunami plus the nuclear crisis in Fukushima that resulted from them, to deal with. It was a busy year and one that is forever etched in my memory. Choosing a few meaningful photos from the thousands I took related to this event alone is difficult.

But I like the one above and thought I’d share it with you. It shows Daily Mirror Journalist, Tom Parry, interviewing tsunami survivors in Otsuchi in Iwate. To me the images sums up the situation working up there. Surrounded by devastation the like of which I had never seen before, I found the locals’ needs to share their stories something useful I could encourage and translate (inexpertly it has to be said due to dialect) to allow Tom to do his job. I know it sounds strange given the place and what we listened to but I liked working up there with this journalist who is smart and sensitive and a good person to share such an intense experience with. I hope I get to work with him again some day. But this image does remind me of the unreal, workaday reality of news-gathering in the disaster zone and is one of my favourite images from the year.

Please read back through the posts I wrote at the time for more of my feelings about what happened in Japan this Spring.

More later.

Damon

あけましておめでとうございます to all my friends in Japan where it is already 2012.

A Happy New year to everyone else, been busy with kids and family and sick as a dog most of this little jaunt home so not had time to really contact people here and do much at all. Sorry for the silence friends both here and on telephones visits. Indeed, yesterday was the first trip out I’ve done when I took my ravaged lungs  (endlessly coughing) up to London for a crowded day at the Natural History Museum. long time since I’d been there and loved it. More importantly my boys loved it too. After we left we took the tube to Westminster to see Big Ben on a rainy night above. At 12 O’clock tonight the bell will ring in a new year and end 2011. What a year it has been though. But more of that later.

Have a great new year everyone and hope 2012 is a good year for you.

Damon