Fuji Television building appears often on photographs of Tokyo, mainly because it is famous for its futuristic design. At night, you can watch illumitation events in combination with music. The music is mostly dreadful and loud enough to make your ears bleed, but the illumination makes the structure even a better target for a photographer.
0 Comments
View from the Odaiba beach is amazing, especially during sunset and sunrise. What you see here is only about 1/3 of the cityscape horizon line, and it is already a stitch of three photos. This photo here reveals the right hand side view. IF you look to the right of the closer supporting pillars of the Tokyo Rainbow Bridge, you will see the top fragment of Tokyo Tower, which is a famous landmark of Tokyo.
Another photo from Sunday's night shooting in Odaiaba. This is a view of north eastern side of the Tokyo Port, with the recently built highest structure in Japan, Tokyo Skytree, piercing above the horizon between those two tower blocks. This image took some time to edit, but it was a great fun. On a side note, I have activated GPS on my camera, so you can now see exactly where I took the photo from.
Yesterday we have visited Odaiba once again, with a sole purpose of finding good spots for HDR photography. The famous Fuji Television building was illuminated like a Christmas tree, and the event was coordinated with music. Lights were entertaining, whilst the music was truly terrible. Walking around the area, we found this escalator, which was a part of the Fuji building. It screamed for an HDR photo.
This is a view of a hallway of Hojo, which is the Kencho-ji (建長寺, lit. temple of longevity and good health) abbot's living quarters. Hojo is also a place where special Zen ceremonies are being held. Behind my back there is a Zen garden with a small pond, of which photo I will post in a separate article., and just to the right, behind the Hojo main structure, there is a small yard with a Chinese golden gate. You can see it here.
Not sure how many readers of the Japan in Photography blog know this, but aside being a photographer I am also a calligrapher. I have been promoting and teaching the art of Japanese and Chinese calligraphy for a few years now, and throughout those years I realised that the Westerners have difficulties with appreciating the art of Far Eastern calligraphy. It is a very abstract and demanding type of art, placing many obstacles between the artwork and the viewer, where the language barrier is only one of them. What stoke me the most was that people desperately seek a connection between the form of Chinese characters they see, and real-life objects they can link those characters to, visually. In other words, they look for physical resemblances between the shape of the brush strokes and shapes of material objects that surround us. My guess is it puts the mind at ease, or in a comfort zone, giving some point of reference. Sadly, this is a clear symptom of misunderstanding the art of calligraphy. Japanese calligraphy is all about the energy of the brush strokes, and the abstract nature of Chinese characters, characters that should not be read but sensed. Then I thought of merging the art of Japanese calligraphy with photography in a way that would create a aesthetic symbiosis between those two types of visual arts. Artistic photography tells a story, a story of state of mind, and it tells it through an imagery. It captures a brief moment, but its message is eternal. Japanese calligraphy is very similar in this respect.
Tokyo streets during winter; calligraphy in Japanese kana script: ねむるまち (nemuru machi), i.e. "a street alseep". Roppongi Hills is a recently developed, modern area of central Tokyo. It is located very near the famous (or infamous, depending on your viewpoint) Roppongi Crossing, known better as the Las Vegas of Tokyo. Roppongi Hills is a massive complex including a Virgin Cinema, hundreds of shops and restaurants, and a 52 floor Mori Tower (on the photo), with a spectacular roof deck with a 360 degree panorama of Tokyo, to which access is not free, or cheap, but definitely worth the money. I shot this photo of Mt. Fuji there.
Mausoleum dedicated to one of the generals of Late Han Dynasty, named Guan Yu, who played a significant role during the war which led to the collapse of the Han Dynasty. The mausoleum gate and the main building is lavishly decorated with wooden sculptures of dragons, minatures, and scenes from the Han Dynasty era. It is one of the main attractions in the Yokohama China Town.
I caught this scene in Yokohama around 7 o'clock in the morning near the Minato Mirai. There was absolutely no pople around, and they were shooting this in a secluded spot. I managed to grab a few shots before I was infomed that it is a promo shoot for a new Japanese fantasy costume thingie, you know, one of those eye-poking red and yellow spandex karate-wannabie disasters that you would not watch even if your life depended on it. In any case, I have no idea what is the tiltle of this particular show, all I was told that it will be aired in Japan early spring this year. In any case, this is quite a unique scene, so I figured it will make an interesting photo.
Akihabara (秋葉原), also known as Akiba, is the Electric Town of Tokyo. You can find there anything and everything that is propelled by the electric current. It is also the district of so called otaku (to put it simply, it is Japanese for a person an obsessive interest in something), which is why you can see so many anime and manga motives all over the place, just like on the photo below, and this one here. If you are visiting Tokyo, Akihabara is definitely one of the places that should be on your must-go-to list.
|
Ponte Ryuurui (品天龍涙)
Categories
All
Archives
March 2016
|