I was in Shibuya yesterday evening before I headed off to Haneda Airport for my flight back to Malaysia.
Even though I have been in Tokyo for five years, I still find myself discovering something new all the time. And the joy and surprises of these tiny discoveries can sometimes accumulate into something wonderful.
For example, I don't think I've ever seen Shibuya at dusk looking like this.
The above photo was taken with my iPhone, but in the end, I decided to whip out my Canon 7D to get a few more shots.
I then found myself wandering through the Shibuya Crossing, a place I absolutely loathed and despised when depicted in cinema (seen it in too many student films of dubious quality, or films of Tokyo by foreign filmmakers of dubious quality), wondering whether I could just catch something interesting with my camera. I started snapping photos at people, at places, at faces, at lights, seeing whether anything would end up nicely. (in my deluded mind, I imagined I was doing something similar to what Simon Yam was doing in the movie "SPARROW", by Johnnie To)
I liked this photo. A woman lost amidst the Shibuya chaos, perhaps she is in a hurry, perhaps she is trying to run away from something, someone, from the gaze of my intrusive camera.
Meanwhile, above me, the Starbucks in Tsutaya was crowded as always. Five years in Tokyo and I think I have only managed to get a seat there once.
I saw someone holding tightly to her phone, I imagined that she was waiting for a phone call from someone, an important one. Or maybe she was just in the middle of a game of Candy Crush.
Where is she going?
Where was I going?
Where was I now? I had no idea. No idea at all. Where was this place? All that flashed into my eyes were the countless shapes of people walking by to nowhere. Again and again I called out for ________ from the dead center of this place that was no place.
Even though I have been in Tokyo for five years, I still find myself discovering something new all the time. And the joy and surprises of these tiny discoveries can sometimes accumulate into something wonderful.
For example, I don't think I've ever seen Shibuya at dusk looking like this.
The above photo was taken with my iPhone, but in the end, I decided to whip out my Canon 7D to get a few more shots.
I then found myself wandering through the Shibuya Crossing, a place I absolutely loathed and despised when depicted in cinema (seen it in too many student films of dubious quality, or films of Tokyo by foreign filmmakers of dubious quality), wondering whether I could just catch something interesting with my camera. I started snapping photos at people, at places, at faces, at lights, seeing whether anything would end up nicely. (in my deluded mind, I imagined I was doing something similar to what Simon Yam was doing in the movie "SPARROW", by Johnnie To)
I liked this photo. A woman lost amidst the Shibuya chaos, perhaps she is in a hurry, perhaps she is trying to run away from something, someone, from the gaze of my intrusive camera.
Meanwhile, above me, the Starbucks in Tsutaya was crowded as always. Five years in Tokyo and I think I have only managed to get a seat there once.
I saw someone holding tightly to her phone, I imagined that she was waiting for a phone call from someone, an important one. Or maybe she was just in the middle of a game of Candy Crush.
Where was I going?
Where was I now? I had no idea. No idea at all. Where was this place? All that flashed into my eyes were the countless shapes of people walking by to nowhere. Again and again I called out for ________ from the dead center of this place that was no place.
