Tokyo photojournalist: photos and features from Japan.

Jacques Payet, Yoshinkan Aikido master

tony — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:21:14 +0000

The Yoshinkan Aikido dojo in Takadanobaba, Tokyo.

This was the first time I’ve photographed, or even seen, Aikido and was for my new job. I was very kindly invited by 7th Dan master Jacques Payet.

My first impression of Aikido training was that it looks like a mixture of effortless grace and intense pain — no doubt depending on which side of the attack you are.

The full story is on the EURObiZ Japan website.

Foreign Correspondent 2.0

tony — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:12:05 +0000

One of the reasons I haven’t been posting much recently is that late last year I took a job as the editor of EURObiZ Japan, a new magazine for the members of the European Chamber of Commerce in Japan. I’ve enjoyed freelancing immensely, so it wasn’t an easy decision. But it was definitely time for a change and a good opportunity to see the other side of the editor’s desk.

I did, however, first produce this swansong to my five year long freelance career. I wrote a bit about what worked for me, and what I think correspondents will need to do faced with a moribund media and galloping technology.

The article was carried in Spotlight Japan. I’d be interested to hear what people think.

Foreign Correspondent 2.0

By Tony McNicol

For the Japan-based foreign journalist 2009 has been a tough year. As we all know, media everywhere are in big trouble. Once hallowed organizations are laying off staff in droves or even going out of business. Here in Japan, foreign bureau were already reducing staff and upping sticks to Beijing even before the economic downturn. There can hardly have been a worse time for the Japan correspondent.

Or perhaps it isn’t all that bad? As full time correspondents find themselves grounded freelancers may get a chance to spread their wings: especially if they are ready to experiment with a plethora of new media; audio, video, blogs, social networking, to name just a few. As they say in Japanese ‘pinch ni chance’ – opportunity in adversity. As a Tokyo-based freelancer with five years experience writing and photographing Japan – here are some suggestions: mainly for myself, but also for other foreign writers in Japan.

1. Say bye bye to the bureaux

The roaming correspondent dispatched to far flung outposts across the world several years at a time has gone home and probably won’t be back. In his place is the freelancer or stringer on a modest retainer. While correspondents would have been given time and assistance to acclimatize and learn about their new postings, freelancers need to hit the ground running. Journalists doing the work of correspondents will be the country long-term, if not actually Japanese nationals with English skills.

2. Learn the lingo

Few magazines and newspapers have the money to pay for interpreters and Japanese researchers any more. If freelancers don’t speak Japanese, or don’t plan to learn, they will be in trouble. Stories based on English wire stories and other English language media are not going to pay. Monitoring the local media is a key skill. All journalists will need enough Japanese to interview local sources with ease.

3. Use your legs

Media have responded to shrinking revenues by reducing their expense budgets and leaving less and less space for thoroughly researched foreign news. Correspondents have been offering too many short undigested stories that barely scratch the surface of the complicated societies they cover. No wonder they face harsh criticism and stiff competition from locally based bloggers and writers with ample knowledge and time.

So what can journalists do to compete with an army of amateur reporters? Well the main thing is to leave their office, go places, talk to people, photograph them and video them. They will have to BE THERE. Luckily, new technology offers ample scope for doing just that (see below).

Will publications pay journalists for such in depth reports? That remains to be seen. But if they don’t, will those media won’t be around for much longer anyway?

4. Multimedia, multimedia, multimedia

The specialist writer or specialist photojournalist is increasingly a thing of the past. Reporters are carrying cameras with their notepads, photojournalists are carrying video cameras with their SLRs, and cameramen are editing their own stories on their laptops and uploading the footage to the Internet.

This change is coming especially fast for Japan-based journalists as foreign correspondents were always expected to operate in the field with little back-up. Today’s journalist needs to get there, collect information in a variety of media, process it quickly, and edit it to tell their story well. Advanced computer and media skills are becoming as essential to the job as spelling and grammar.

5. Tell the story

The market for straight news, reporting events with little commentary or analysis, is disappearing fast. In a change that is endangering the very existence of the world’s newspapers, readers are getting their news for the Internet, instantly and free. The only way to compete is surely to go deeper. That takes time – and money – but journalists without the determination to tell those stories will find themselves with little to do in the new media.

Meanwhile, speed is going to be of the utmost importance, hence mastery of the technical skills; not necessarily to scoop rivals – none of us can compete with the wires, never mind Twitter, on speed — but to process more material for less money.

6. Make friends with Google

Google is the freelancer’s best friend. Once it was possible to sell a story to one, maybe two generously paying outlets. With budgets shrinking across the board, journalists need to find ways to offer their work to multiple media. That takes time, but journalists who know how to use Google will find that clients come to them.

Likewise, blogging has become an essential tool for freelancers. By posting stories they can increase their search engine rankings, sell their work, and even build a readership amongst editors and other journalists.

7. Give your work away

To paraphrase Chris Anderson, the author of ‘Free: The Past and Future of a Radical Price’, the problem that journalists face is not that people don’t pay for their work, but that people don’t know about it.

Many journalists wonder why they should be putting their work on the internet without payment, but in today’s media environment, anyone reading your work online effectively “is” payment. Write a blog and maybe you’ll resell work, sell photo stock, attract new assignments, or just gradually raise your profile.

And the Future?

No one knows how the current media crisis will end, but one thing is clear: journalists face a time of huge change. Can reporters still make a living from news? Yes, but only if what they provide is new. And that means utilizing new media as much as finding new stories.

Tony McNicol is a Tokyo-based freelance writer and photographer. He has worked for many publications based in Japan and abroad and covered topics ranging from internet technology to food and drink to sumo. Right now he carries a computer, Nikon SLR, electronic dictionary and IC recorder. He is looking for space in his bag for a microphone and video-camera. His work can be seen at www.tonymcnicol.com.

Tsukiji

tony — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:39:56 +0000

Tsukiji fish market is quickly turning into the photo destination in Tokyo. It’s colourful, chaoatic and real. It’s open 24 hours a day and about 10,000 people work there. What could be better?

(Just ignore the fact that officially the public, including tourists, aren’t allowed in the market).

Tsukiji fish market

I took my first photos at Tsukiji about two years ago. I wouldn’t quite call it a project, but I’ve been back plenty since for various food and drink related stories.

Unquestionably, its the market workers who make Tsukiji so photogenic. I found the best time to shoot there is 9am or 10am when people are winding down for the day.

Tsukiji worker

If you are interested in reading more about the market there is an excellent book by anthropologist Theodore Bestor.

Tsukiji fish market, Nov 2009 – Images by Tony McNicol

Sweet and sour

tony — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:34:11 +0000

When I met Mitsuyasu Uchibori he gave me a business card that read “Summelier No 001″. He is Japan’s premier vinegar sommelier. (Su-memlier is a pun on the Japanese word of vinegar, su.)

And quite the showman . . .

Uchibori runs a 130 year old vinegar company in central Japan and a chain of drinking vinegar shops in Takashimaya department stores. The vinegar boutiques sell a range of fruit vinegars.

I tried several and they are rather like an unusally acidic fruit juice. Very nice.

Uchibori has vinegar bar in Tokyo station too. They have Ai-su Cream and Su-fu-to cream desserts and a few alcoholic vinegar cocktails. I recommend the ginger vinegar and beer.

A word of warning though. If you are not used to drinking vinegar don’t go crazy trying the whole menu. I had quite a stomach ache the evening after this shoot.

Vinegar is very good for your health but about 10cc a day is right.

Drinking Vinegar, Nov 2009 – Images by Tony McNicol

Tasting danger

tony — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:54:16 +0000

As I’ve written on this blog before, Tsukiji is about my favourite place in Tokyo. For anyone who’s interested in food – indeed in Japan – there is a lifetime’s worth of stuff to see, eat, learn and photograph.

These photos are from a long feature I did recently on fugu (blowfish). Someone I interviewed for a story on kamaboko very kindly introduced me to the main fugu dealer, Otsubo Suisan.

One of their staff holding a worried looking blowfish:

fugu photo

As you may know, fugu is famous mostly because it is (well, can be) incredibly poisonous. There’s a poison in the skin, gonads and especially liver of the fish that’s 1000 times the strength of cyanide.

This is Otsubo’s stall in the market.

The fish is so dangerous, and so expensive, that it has to be taken good care of. Fugu fillets are packed in these special boxes before being sent to customers.

This being Japan almost every part of the fish gets eaten. These are fugu fins for putting in hot sake.

I lucked out with this story because Otsubo’s owner invited me to his Ginza fugu restaurant. That is a 1 million yen solid silver fugu shaped tureen.

Classic fugu sashimi. You wrap the fugu around the chives and fugu skin in the center of the dish, then squeeze a little citrus over it.

Fugu, Oct 2009 – Images by Tony McNicol

135 years of Japanese wine-making

tony — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:13:15 +0000

I writing this from frigid December Bath in the UK. Brrrr. I think these photos are actually making me feel colder.

At the end of summer I travelled up to Katsunuma in Yamanashi prefecture. The area is home to Japan’s largest winemaker, Mercian, and 80 odd little wineries open for visiting and tasting. Katsunuma’s wine-making traditions go right back to the Meiji period.

koshu grapes

Somewhat improbably, Japan actually has a native wine-grape, the Koshu variety. The story is that seeds came along the silk road from Europe centuries ago and were grown in the Katsunuma area to produce eating grapes. It was only after Japan opened to the West that the grapes were used to make wine.

picking koshu grapes

This is the Mercian winery: Chateau Mercian. I had a pretty poor image of Mercian wine, being familar with the sweet purple gloop that you see in Japanese convenience stores.

But it was Mercian that devised a way to make “Koshu white” using the Katsunuma grapes. It’s a good wine, and not as expensive as you might think.

This is Shigekazu Misawa who runs Grace Wine. He’s part of a group of 14 Katsunuma winemakers who are trying to export the local wine. When we met Misawa said he’ll be in London 2010 for a special Japanese wine-tasting event at the Japanese Embassy.

Yamanashi wine, Oct 2009 – Images by Tony McNicol

Power to the People

tony — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:20:40 +0000

Apologies for the long silence. It has been quite a busy few weeks at Tokyo Photojournalist, to say the least. I have just started editing a new magazine. More on that anon.

In the meantime, here is a set of photos I took in the Autumn. When I saw this press trip advertised to J-Power’s Isogo power station in Yokohama, I knew I couldn’t say no. The plant is one of the most efficient coal power stations in the world.

Rather apropos with the Copenhagen conference in progress.

turbine hall

power station control room

Isogo coal power station, Oct 2009 – Images by Tony McNicol

Second class food?

tony — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:38:44 +0000

Perhaps only Japan would have an event celebrating “2nd class food”? It’s probably something to do with the fact that even the fast food in Japan tends to be very good.

This year the B1 Grand Prix was held in Yokote-city up in Akita prefecture. B1 stands for B-Class Gourmet, foods like yakisoba, okonomiyaki, takoyaki, koroke and oden. As one person I interviewed put it, “The price may be b-class but the taste is a-class”. Over two days some 260,000 people attended. (I guess there isn’t that much to do in Akita?). Some of them queued for over two hours for their favorite foods.

I had a lot of fun photographing the visitors . . .

B1 Grand Prix

B1 Grand Prix, Sept 2009 – Images by Tony McNicol

Red Light District

tony — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:33:22 +0000

A selection of photos from a personal project I’ve been working on recently.

Street photography is pretty much how I started out, and I still love it. But not much time for wandering the backstreets of Tokyo these days.

For want of imagination I’ve called the project Tokyo Red. Other name suggestions welcome!

The oldest city in Japan

tony — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:36:58 +0000

For a notably low-key city, Fukuoka has a fair few superlatives to its name. It is Japan’s closest city to Korea which means it can lay claim to being Japan’s oldest city. In other words, it was the first beachhead of civilization from the Asian mainland.

These days Fukuoka has some of the strongest business links with Asia. I was down there a few months ago to do a story on a Chinese company, then stayed an extra day to work on a travel story.

The main theme of my travel piece was Fukuoka “yatai” street stalls . . .

Fukuoka street stall

Fukuoka is pretty well known for its architecture. Canal city is a gaudy, futuristic, neon-lit shopping center.

Canal City in Fukuoka

Two more superlatives: Fukuoka has the oldest Shingon temple in Japan, containing the largest wooden Buddha in Japan:

giant buddha

It also has the oldest Zen temple:

Fukuoka, June 2009 – Images by Tony McNicol