Tag Archives: 47

Mar 27 2017
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Daily Post, Transport

Shinjuku station

Monday 27th March 2017, 2.35pm (day 2,041)

Shinjuku station, 27/3/17

Shinjuku railway station is a few hundred meters from my hotel, and is not only the busiest railway station in the world, but the busiest transport hub of any kind. 3.5 million people DAILY pass through here — that’s the entire population of Greater Manchester plus Leeds, or more-or-less the population of Los Angeles, through one single railway station. Every single day. It beggars belief. This picture was taken at a relatively quiet point in the daily cycle, but still gives an impression of it all, I think.

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Mar 26 2017
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Incense burner, Senso-ji temple

Sunday 26th March 2017, 10.55am (day 2,040)

Incense burner, 26/3/17

On a Sunday of, frankly, foul, revolting weather, my friend Mariam took me on a sightseeing tour of Tokyo, including the Senso-ji Buddhist temple, the city’s oldest place of worship dating from 645AD. Here, visitors purify themselves at this massive bowl of incense sticks, wafting the ‘breath of God’ over themselves before entering the shrine.

I post this pic partly because of the odd added detail, odd to us sensitive Westerners anyway; I know, I know, it’s an Eastern symbol of the sun, good fortune, life itself even. It’s found carved into church windows in Ethiopia, Bronze Age stonework in Yorkshire, prehistoric pottery in Bulgaria. Its name, translated from the Sanskrit, means “it is good”. But still, you wouldn’t find it easy to litter your holy places with swastikas in Europe. I dunno, probably we’re the ones who’ve lost out.

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Mar 25 2017
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Tokyo sunrise (with Fuji-san)

Saturday 25th March 2017, 6.15am (day 2,039)

Tokyo sunrise, 25/3/17

The remnants of jet lag saw me up early, but I had to work today anyway, and photographically, it was probably worth it. Within a short time after taking this the haze had risen and Fuji — a truly beautiful sight — had disappeared behind it. But there you go — Japan’s iconic (and highest) mountain, in its late winter raiment.

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Mar 24 2017
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

Osaka Castle

Friday 24th March 2017, 11.30am (day 2,038)

Osaka Castle, 24/3/17

I’m sure this is the standard tourist shot but never mind, this was an impressive place. Built around 1590 and destroyed at least twice since, first in 1615 and then again in 1868, this is more like a museum that was built to resemble the original castle keep (the disabled access elevator at the front was probably not part of the architect’s original design), but it was still well worth a visit.

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Mar 23 2017
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

The Osaka recruitment fair

Thursday 23rd March 2017, 7.00pm (day 2,037)

Osaka fair, 23/3/17

I am here to work rather than just swan around visiting shrines, so here is a picture of that side of my life. We are trying to persuade Japanese potential students to come and study in Manchester — many of whom are vastly intelligent, fluent in English and would be obvious assets to the intellectual community, only you try telling this to certain elements in the reactionary press. Anyway, ignoring this aspect of our lives my colleague James, on the left, and his temporary client, seem happy enough as they discuss how to arrange this. I like this picture, it makes it feel like our presence here has a real positive point.

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Mar 22 2017
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Prayers at the Meiji-Jingu shrine

Wednesday 22nd March 2017, 12.10pm (day 2,036)

Prayers. 22/3/17

Worked in the afternoon and evening, but had a bit of time off in the morning so spent it visiting Meiji-Jingu, a Shinto shrine to the Emperor Meiji who is revered for being the ruler under whom Japan transitioned from a feudal to a modern state towards the end of the 19th century. It was set in a beautiful, tranquil forest park, though the shrine itself, while an attractive building, was nothing particularly spectacular. A peaceful (and free) way of spending a couple of hours though.

For a donation of ¥500 (£3.50, give or take) visitors can acquire one of these prayer tablets and hang up their appeal along with a few thousand others on these boards outside the main temple. The reason for picking this photo in particular is the tablet to top centre. If there are such things as kami (spirits in the Shinto belief system), I hope they address that one, at least.

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Mar 21 2017
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Side street, Shinjuku district

Tuesday 21st March 2017, 8.25pm (day 2,035)

Shinjuku side street, 21/3/17

So here I am in Japan, specifically a side street not far from the immense Shinjuku station, which is like, take the biggest metro station you’ve previously seen in your life and octuple it. Since getting completely turned on to the country — or a certain stereotypical idea of it — by reading and watching Shogun when I was a teenager I have wanted to come here, and so now I’ve finally made it, thanks to a complete work freebie that just fell into my lap two months ago, it’s not easy to know how to depict it. Obviously it’ll take a few more days (months, a lifetime maybe) to even start the process of learning what the ‘real Japan’ is actually like, but let’s start with this shot. I suppose I picked this picture because it’s as good an effort as I can make at picturing my preconceptions. There were plenty of Blade Runner moments this evening, put it that way. But is that life imitating art, or the other way around? What I can gather so far, is that there’s not a lot of point worrying about the difference here.

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Mar 21 2017
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

This week’s transit lounge (Helsinki)

Monday 20th March 2017, 4.55pm (day 2,034)

Helsinki airport, 20/3/17

I am sat in my hotel room in Tokyo as I type this, but there can be no photos of Japan for this day as I didn’t touch Asian soil until Tuesday morning. This is Helsinki, which a few years ago had several shots on this blog in its own right but since then has become another one of those places (Copenhagen, Schiphol, Istanbul….) seen as an airport transfer but not otherwise ‘real’. How does it compare? Well, it has a decent amount of booze in it as you can see. And there was sunshine, which was certainly more than there was in Manchester on departure, or indeed on Tokyo on arrival, both teeming with rain.

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Mar 19 2017
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Hebden Bridge

Nice weather for (Muscovy) ducks

Sunday 19th March 2017, 5.05pm (day 2,033)

Muscovy duck, 19/3/17

It’s been raining since about Friday morning, though did stop in the afternoon — a good thing seeing as the river was rising. Drove one representative of the local Muscovy duck colony off the water anyway; not that things were much less damp in town for it.

Off to Japan tomorrow. Forgive me if updates don’t arrive daily, at least for the next few days. There will be plenty to see I’m sure.

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Mar 19 2017
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Lying down tree

Saturday 18th March 2017, 11.05am (day 2,032)

Lying down tree, 18/3/17

A day out in the Lake District but as you can see, the weather was not good so I stuck to the low-altitude scenery. This is the Derwentwater, and on its west shore stands, or rather lies, this tree — perfectly healthy and seemingly not fazed at all by the fact that it has grown horizontally and now lies permanently half-in and half-out of the water. Look at the root structure, how it’s still clinging on to solid ground.

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