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I was by chance in Asakusa on the first day of the festival and soon after exiting the subway station I found myself in a swarm of joyful people walking down the main street. So I took advantage of this to get some shots of this impressive event…

Heron costumes

Street vendor

Some privacy, please.

Local dancers

Fashion trends

Traditional dancers

Men dressed in hakama

Nakamise shopping street

Fish on skewers

Thai-girls with Japanese kimono

Mikoshi 

Too heavy, so they called for back-up.

Back-up came

Old and new.

Love the smile on this elderly person. Very energic and full of life.

Waiting for the mikoshi to be returned to the shrine.

These festivals are also famous for yakuza members making appearances. This year I didn`t see any members showing off their tattoos, but at least some figures showed up I was told. It`s always interesting to see how close yakuza gets to everyday life.

I really liked these costumes, they look very simple yet elegant.

Men and women working side by side to carry the mikoshi.

These mikoshis are not light, some of them weighing up to a ton.

Beautiful festival, so glad I “stumbled” upon it.

The roads were closed off for this event. It was impressive to see the amount of people joining this festival.

Blowing some magic into Japan.

Kung fu fighting…

Live stream.

Izakaya owners expanded their tables on the street creating one big street of food and tables.

Some izakayas prefered to keep its atmosphere inside.

I stopped for a beer at this Okinawa style izakaya. People were extremely friendly, drinking beer and singing together.

The yakitori grill was just in front of me on the street.

I met very friendly people.

And he met a very friendly lady while getting drunk.

Discovered a new yokocho.

Yokocho: Lots of small restaurants under one roof with a shared internal street.

Weird arches above the streets.

And a weird mix of Japanese house with an arabic looking facade on the first floor.

Izakaya with starbucks behaviour.

Soon after the festival was over, there was no sign of any previous grill/beer/festival activity.

Love how they wrote pasta in a Japanese style on a noren.

More from this area in a next post…

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The park usually hosts lots of intercultural events, street dancers or people going out for a picnic, as well as members of the Rockabilly Club (ロカビリクラブ). They usually meet up at the entrance of the park, wearing old leather jackets, Elvis style haircuts, sunglasses and bad-ass attitudes while dancing on (Japanese) rock`n`roll music.

What`s interesting about it is that they don`t care about people gathering around them, taking photos and enjoying their show. It`s their moment, their place and they enjoy dancing and reliving the late 50`s in their own way…

Warm-up

Cooling down with a Cola.

Sandy Olsson.

Their dance is not the standard rock`n`roll 50`s type, but they adapted it to modern days by including some elements from street dancing and freestyle.

Scream for Grease

Rock`n`Rolla.

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The place was super packed with people laying down their blue sheets for an urban picnic next to food stalls and people passing by.

The atmosphere was nice, although walking through the crowd and actually buying some food required a lot of Zen-type of patience.

Chopsticks, Thai food and people

Beautiful coconut drink.

As for myself, I went with the usual: Singha Thai beer.

Meat onigiri… Kind of a “Japanese kebap”

Old habits die hard.

On the other side of the park, people were enjoying the nice weather by having a picnic with friends, girlfriend or themselve.

To enter or not to enter…

Warmth

African rhythms made lots of people start to dance.

The pure optimism of this genre really is contagious in a festival.

Today was International Mother`s day, so this photo goes to my beloved mother (even though in my country, we don`t really celebrate Mother`s day on May 12th)

Variety of species, from humans to dogs and parrots.

On the other side of the bridge

Trying a “couple`s photo”. #fail

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The space is very small but cozy and friendly, being located in a former post WWII black market area, known as a a yokocho. You might remember the area from my post Harmonica Yokocho, Kichijoji, if not it`s worth checking it out. In the meantime here are a few photos…

I think this izakaya had a great success: People forming a line before the shop opening.

Looking down from the second floor.

Beer&oden with lab members. Apron is Tsukamoto laboratory’s official izakaya now.

Not sure about those dried cabbages…

Oden chef at Apron. Any impressions or comments about the new space? Leave a comment below or on facebook.

Today was not sunny though. It was actually far from sunny: it was occasionally raining (which I think is more annoying than raining all the time, since you constantly have to take out your umbrella) and very cold. It felt a bit like a typical December/January day. Nevertheless, today`s walk had been planned weeks ago with Sao and her friend Chrissi,  so we didn`t let the crappy weather ruin our plans in discovering this unique area of Tokyo.

The last few weeks have been a bit busy for me since I`m working on my diploma this semester. Furthermore, due to some technical issues, I couldn`t download photos from my camera anymore. All of this lead to the inevitable cause of not updating this blog for a while. I will try to catch up with some of my recent experiences in Tokyo in the following days. In the meantime I hope you`ll enjoy Nezu on a rainy day with a hot cup of coffee/tea/hot chocolate… Beer might also do some photos justice…

The walk started in Ueno station, home to lots of interesting characters.

At the end of the day, after looking for interesting people in Tokyo, I still find Sao-chan to be the most interesting person to take a photo of

Welcome to Nezu.

Brick buildings: a strange presence in Tokyo.

West meets East

Rue des arts

SCAI THE BATHHOUSE: a former sento (=Japanese bathhouse) transformed into an art gallery.

Japanese graveyard next to a shrine.

Hipster on a hummer.

Trying to teleport… She failed so she just took a cab right after.

Antique shop

Books and clothes.

Woman baking せんべい (o-senbei = rice cracker). Very delicious crackers.

Walking on these streets feels like being in someone`s private garden. It`s one aspect why I really love Tokyo sometimes.

Someone was cold and tired.

Nezu shrine with it`s beautiful garden: Interesting to see all these people walking around with umbrellas resembling the landscape.

Someone missed out on hanami.

I love the sense of timelessness in black&white photos.

Textures.

Walking under the torii.

Sometimes it pays off to be tall, cause you have a better view

I think he likes jazz.

Love the different colors of these torii (gates)

Matsuri shops next to the shrine.

We stopped for a quick bite of deliciousness.

Making takoyaki.

Those moments of reflection

My favorite shot of the day.

Cup shaped objects: Umbrellas and bushes

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This weekend was rainy and Sao`s friend, Chrissi was visiting Tokyo. Nakano Broadway seemed an interesting choice for taking shelter from the rain together with numerous anime/manga otaku. It felt a bit strange to be in this place at first, because it was like being in another world. You would think that by living in Japan I must`ve gotten immune to this feeling, but this was the first time to go to this kind of place (excluding Akihabara, which I think is very different). The fact that you walk inside of a shoutengai (Japanese shopping street) and then go up two floors in a very strange building with weird room heights adds to my perception of a world in a world.

Furthermore, I can`t say I`m really into anime/manga, but it`s very interesting to visit this place and see lots of anime otaku and maniacs* in their favorite environment. There were also numerous shops selling records, cd`s and various design items, not to mention pottery and tea-related articles. This mix of anime, maid cafe, pottery, design and record stores was probably the most interesting part for me.

Below are a few shots I took around this area:

* Side note: I recently discovered that the word maniac used by Japanese doesn`t directly refer to “a person exhibiting extreme symptoms of wild behavior, esp. when violent and dangerous”, but rather a person who is extremely in love/obsessed/passionate about a thing/occupation. From this perspective I could be most definitely cataloged as an Izakaya & Camera maniac  

Distracted for a moment.

Record store: very interesting how all the cd`s were displayed with photo on the wall.

Young otaku.

I actually enjoyed seeing lots of dolls and figures familiar from childhood.

Old commercial for Zippo lighters.

Three kinds of people shop here: Cosplayers, foreigners looking for unique “souvenirs” or people in search of a Halloween costume.

Interesting otaku: I tried taking a portrait of him, but he wasn`t very open to my idea or didn`t understand what I was saying.

The view towards the first floor shopping street (shoutengai)

Atelier Bow Wow #2?

It was so cheap, that there`s nothing left of this store.

Mandarake shop: Ground zero for manga lovers.

My passion in Tokyo: sidestreets and izakayas.

Looks a bit like a shower curtain in the city

The good old times.

My usual walking partner in Tokyo and my beloved girlfriend

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Beautiful children preparing for a local festival

Sensoji Temple

Children picking up blossoms.

Yellow caps throwing cherry blossoms in the air.

Sensoji temple.

Chilling on the sounds of the 70′s.

Negotiating. Asakusa Jinja likes it.

Madame

Raining blossoms

Time-out

Almost over, unfortunately

Nihon-shu under sakura

Love it how people in suits are sitting without shoes on these cheap plastic sheets.

The suits under sakura trees.

Carefully picking up the blossoms.

Cherry child.

Reserved for later

Waiting for my friends

We like some wine here.

It’s never too late.

Swinging, smoking and talking on the phone. I actually didn’t have to ask for a photo, he just agreed directly.

Mo hitotsu | One more… 

Hanami season is now over in Tokyo, all the cherry blossoms are almost gone, being replaced by vivid green leaves. Hope you enjoyed hanami as much as I did.

Thanks for visiting my blog today! Make sure to like my facebook page to receive updates on posts and see daily photos of Tokyo from my 7×7 project. Cheers!

Confession.

Sacrifices you do for a hanami shot.

Nikonified.

Landing.

Approaching.

Prohibition doesn’t apply during hanami.

Tea under sakura trees.

Enjoying.

It doesn’t matter what you’re doing as long as you are sitting under the cherry blossom tree.

Deliberately took this accidental snapshot.

The throne.

Reminds me of street vendors in Morocco.

So, how are you today?

Remember the lady feeding the pigeons in Home Alone movie?

Never knew how this “sport” is called, but you basically have to throw a coin as close as possible to an edge. Loved to do this in high-school.

Reflecting after a good talk with the pigeons.

Dreaming ahead.

Interesting choice of outfit for a prayer.

Crowd in Ueno park.

Local hustler on the other side of Ueno.

Waiting for the one.

Under the train tracks in Ameyokocho.

Noodle shop owner in Ameyokocho. He couldn’t speak much English but was glad to pose for a photo. More on this area of Ueno in another post…

Thanks for visiting my blog today! Make sure to like my facebook page to receive updates on posts and see daily photos of Tokyo from my 7×7 project. Cheers!