Japan: 18 months in 18 pictures – January 07

I had the idea for this a little while back, but life got in the way with ridiculous work loads and I never got round to doing it. Seeing as I’m trying to do a whole bunch of end of year posts in the coming weeks I thought this was one idea worth actually taking time to do. The premise is simple, I lived in Japan for 18 months and I’m going to try and ’sum’ that up with 18 pictures, one per month and with a little text to go with it. I’ll also be linking to a Flickr set if available to offer some more photos and images and probably one or two runner up images if I find it difficult to choose just the one.

I love photography, and as a writer I particularly love the fact that it can communicate to its viewer in ways writing could only ever hope to. The saying ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ is cliche but holds a lot of truth. I started taking pictures when I moved to Japan for fun but also because I wanted to document and record my time there in ways I never had before. In the process I realised that pictures also helped to stimulate me to write. So I guess this series of posts is a way to capture that by focusing more on the pics and less on the words. Let’s see how it goes…

January 2007

The first month in Japan was a heady mix of jetlag, administrative headaches, work related surprises (both good and bad) and a constant child-like amazement at the world and culture I had entered. I could barely speak a few words and hardly read anything, and for the first few months this child-like amazement was counterbalanced by a constant feeling of alienation and a very strange sense of being technically ‘illiterate.’ Looking back on it though that was probably one of the things I enjoyed the most about my first few months in Japan, as it somehow allowed me to interact with Japanese culture, people and the country in ways that are not normally possible if you move to a country where you aren’t de facto illiterate when you get off the plane.

The picture above is of a sign in Ikebukuro station that points to Sunshine City, a famous entertainment and shopping complex that is located near the station. I remember coming across the sign in my first week and laughing at it. It seemed absurd and it wasn’t until a few weeks later that I understood it’s actual, and pretty mundane, meaning. I’m sure I wasn’t the first or the last to be surprised and laugh at it with no contextual knowledge of its true meaning. I guess it’s one of those “you had to be there moments,” but to me that nicely encompasses many of the feelings of my first month in Tokyo.

Runner up pics:
The big bright lights of Shinjuku and the shiny glass walls of Shibuya. Also, I could tell this was gonna be a long and arduous process of learning.

Flickr Set(s):
Japanese Cemetary
First week in Tokyo
Ramen Jiro in Hibarigaoka

February goes live in a day or two.