My first shot at photos of kendo, at the All Japan Kendo Championship last December. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan ran them in their January issue.

I did Kendo for a few years when I first came to Japan, so this shoot brought back a few memories.

As usual, the annual event was held at the Budokan in Tokyo (it’s easy to forget that the Budokan was built to host martial arts tournaments, not just rock concerts). It’s open to the public, but I got my press pass and a competitor’s eye view from some friends at the excellent Kendo World magazine.

I think that the grimacing competitor in the main photo had just lost. It looks like a mixture of pain, frustration and exhaustion. The tournament is a long, gruelling day for everyone – competitors, judges and photographers alike.

I had a fairly pained expression myself after several hours sitting on a cold gymnasium floor waiting for the one winning strike in each bout.

I took a few hundred photos, mostly of ’zanshin’, the kendo name for the moment after a strike. It’s not easy to catch the decisive moment in kendo.

Perhaps video is the answer? There’s youtube video of the end of the last bout after the photos. It’s pretty dramatic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each January crowds of people visit Meiji Jingu shrine in Tokyo for “hatsumode” - first prayers of the year. I took these portraits right in front of the main shrine. Some people bent their heads for seconds, some for minutes. I was hard not to imagine what people were praying for. Perhaps for a better year in 2012?

This is about as intimate (you might say voyeuristic) set of street photos as I have tried. I used a 70-200 zoom to get in as close as possible. I was only standing a couple of meters away for most of the photos but the crowds made it very easy to go unnoticed.

Incidentally, given the huge number of visitors, I was expecting to have to queue for ages to get to the shrine. And I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to stay at the front long enough to take photos. In the event, I was at the front almost immediately and was able to do my thing without any bother at all. Thanks Tokyo police.

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2012!

(From last year’s Daruma Fair at Jindaiji temple in Chofu near Tokyo)

http://www.jindaiji.or.jp/event/darumaichi.php

Wandering around the wilds of Chiba prefecture a couple of months ago.

By the time I took the last photo I was hopelessly lost and eventually someone had to come and find me.

My mobile phone battery had run out and,  as I discovered, there aren’t many public telephones in the Japanese countryside. Apologies to my father-in-law

The Tokyo Sky Tree isn’t scheduled to open to the public until next year but the good people at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club organised a press tour late last month. Here’s a story I did for the press club magazine.

It was a good trip, though the weather was terrible; quite a view, even on a very dull day. Just lucky I don’t have vertigo. The only time I got a bit nervous was when I was pressing my camera against the glass and looking down. Suddenly became aware of the almost 400m drop!

I have to admit to being a little skeptical about these super-tall towers and buildings. One Tokyo Tower is enough for me, although I’ve no doubt this will be incredibly popular with Japanese visitors, and probably foreign tourists too.

“The tallest self-supporting tower in the world, the 634m high Tokyo Sky Tree is scheduled to open in February 2012. On October 30th, the observatory deck of the tower, 350m up, was opened to overseas journalists for the first time. The tower is still under construction.

The structure is almost twice the height of the Eiffel tower and gives spectacular views over Tokyo. As well as serving as a broadcasting mast, it is set to become a major tourist attraction. It is a short train journey from Tokyo station and close to the historic Asakusa temple district.

The tower employs the latest architectural technology to protect it both from earthquakes and high winds. A cylindrical concrete core is structurally separate from the tower itself and acts as a counterweight to reduce the effect of tremors. It is an adaptation of the central column of traditional Japanese architecture, known as a shimbashira.

Work on the tower was well underway at the time of the March 2011 earthquake but the tower suffered no damage and no workers were injured.

The tower is made from wide-bore high strength steel pipes. They were made at plants around Japan in sections weighing up to 30 tons. The largest sections at the foot of the tower are 2.3m in diameter.

As well as two observation decks (350m and 450m) shops and restaurants in the tower itself, the surrounding development will house offices, museums and academic institutions.”

Tokyo photojournalist on Facebook　
 

My time as editor of EURObiZ Japan came to an end on Friday. But here’s my swansong, some portraits of my talented colleagues at Paradigm.

Thanks for a fantastic two years (and for letting me take your photographs)!

(Tokyo photojournalist on Facebook)

David

Paddy

Naoko

Christophe

Richard

Jay

Helene

Yumi

Vickie (and Chuck)

Davide

A last selection from the corporate portraits I’ve been doing for EURObiZ Japan.

With these I always try to include something from the person’s work in the photo. Some people/occupations can be harder than others. But I always do my best to make them look relaxed, and happy with their jobs. I get the occasional great surprise. Joakim Kautto at the bottom was singing me Beatles songs on that guitar specially adapted for the elderly.

Charles McJilton of Second Harvest Japan is the odd one out in this set. When I took his photo a few days after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami I wasn’t planning to use it in the series. But we realised that it would work perfectly in the special issue on the disaster.

(Tokyo photojournalist on Facebook)

Here’s one way to cool down a little during the Tokyo summer . . .

Back in 2008 I took part in a press tour to the Shiretoko peninsula way up on the northeast tip of Hokkaido. It was a fantastic trip, including a visit out to the ice-flows on an ice-breaker.

Sadly, global warming is threatening Shiretoko’s tourist industry as each year the ice flow shrinks.

(Tokyo photojournalist on Facebook)

Not only is Tsukiji fish market one of best places in Tokyo to visit, its one of the most photogenic too.

A few years ago I did a small project photographing people who work in the market. I have around 100 impromptu portraits.

Usually, I just approached people explained what I was doing, asked if I could take their photo, took it as quickly as I could, then said thanks and left.

(Tokyo photojournalist on Facebook)

Sento bathhouse painter Toshimitsu Hayakawa was one of the most remarkable people I’ve photographed. Sadly, he passed away in 2009, only a couple of years after I took these photographs.

One of the two last sento bathhouse painters in Tokyo, he was in his seventies and still working.

He was a modest and kind man who lived a tough life, but did he job with care and dignity. He had a lot to teach.

(Tokyo photojournalist on Facebook)