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The Kanda river from Yanagi bridge

Jan 19, 2023

When walking up the west bank of the Sumida river towards Asakusa you have to take a little detour up a short stretch of the Kanda river to the Yanagi bridge where this photograph of a scene from another era was taken.

Utility Pole

Jun 17, 2021

Utility poles, with their spectacular nests of cables, are everywhere in Tokyo. They line the edges and paths of the city distributing power and communications to tens of millions of addresses. Some people find them ugly. More don’t even notice them, and on occasion the Government expresses its embarrassment at them. Personally I like them. It’s like looking up at vapour trails. It makes me wonder about the locations and people they connect.…

Sunny Minato

Feb 14, 2021

It is interesting to see how many of the buildings around Tokyo Tower are not as tall as you might expect. Here, looking closer along Sakurada-dori south through Minato City towards Takanawa, the apartment and business buildings seem to rise as they get further away. It may not be deliberate, but it does have the happy consequence of making for many wonderful views from the Tower. It was a lovely sunny day when I took this, making me want to join the pedestrians down on the sunlit pavement.…

Meguro Housing Complex

Aug 25, 2020

There are a seemingly infinite variety of housing projects in Tokyo that are each fascinating and captivating in their design and detail. It would be nice to see some from the inside one day. This one, in Meguro Ward, is as seen from the Ebisu Garden Place, a landmark which has a great platform from which to view the four Wards of Minato, Shibuya, Shinagawa and Meguro.

Blue Horizons

Aug 11, 2020

Looking south over Sumida and Koto wards from the Skytree on an almost cloudless April morning over countless homes and businesses all the way to the Tokyo Gate Bridge and Haneda Airport and the highrise cluster of Chuo City. It looks vast, and yet is still only a small slice of the whole of Tokyo. Below, in the long thin Sumida River Park where I had just walked, are chaperoned tribes of colourfully hatted kindergarten classes playing, and old men quietly fishing in a fragment of an old canal.…

Borderlands

Jul 30, 2020

I am fascinated by the borderlands where nature begins to take back the works of man. In this photograph taken in Minamisenju at the south end of Arakawa City, nature seems to have approached from the right and is washing against the shores of human activity on the left.

Tokyo Ramshackle

Jul 15, 2020

Whilst much of Tokyo is new and shiny, there are still countless little, old, and rundown buildings to be seen whenever you step off the main business and tourist areas. Each one is brimming with character and a history one can only guess at. I particularly like ones like this one, at the northern edge of Minowa, that appears to be being propped up by the more modern and robust buildings either side.…

Roof Tiles and Rain Chains

Apr 29, 2020

I love Japanese roof tiles. Their texture, shape, glaze and colours are a major contributor to the appeal of temples and other traditional Japanese buildings. Another fascinating element of such buildings are the rain chains, or kusari-doi, that so much more elegantly deal with off-roof water flow than the usual drainpipe. This photograph is of part of the Jyokan-ji temple near Minowa Station. It lies right on the boundary of the Arakawa and Tatio wards which is a fascinating area to explore

Pink, white and blue

Mar 30, 2020

This office block in Sumida City caught my eye, the very man made colour framed by the pink, white and blue of nature. It overlooks the Sumida River Park, a very pleasant long thin park whose pathways mark the boundary between many of the eastern and western districts of Sumida ward.

Complex Road Junction

Mar 17, 2020

Hakozaki Junction in Kakigaracho is typical of many such junctions in Tokyo. Multiple levels of overhead roads somehow weaving between hi-rise buildings, and barely noticeable from the streets below.