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July 11, 2007
Harajuku
For the past couple of weeks I've been making the short journey to Harajuku to take photos. Part circus, part zoo, Harajuku is synonomous with Japanese youth culture. Every Sunday, young Japanese (and increasingly, young foreigners) descend on the area around the station to pose for the ever-growing throngs of tourists, as well as the occasional dodgy-looking oyaji - grinning old men with camera vests and high-powered cameras.
Although the cosplay kids are the main attraction, I'm not sure how I feel about joining the paparazzi-like photographers to take pictures. The hundreds of mostly American and Chinese tourists approach their subjects as though on safari. Everywhere there are long lenses and shouts of "Oh look at that one!" and "Quick! Get a picture". I have to admit that I've taken my fair share of candid photos around the station, but I usually try to at least talk with the person I want to photograph before firing away.
Of course, asking people on the street to pose for photographs takes a bit of getting used to. Strangely enough, I find I get a better response when I speak to the kids around the station when I speak to them in English rather than Japanese. It seems they are happier posing for tourists than people who live in here. In any case, I'm pretty happy with the way my portraits have been turning out and I'm hoping to spend some more time shooting the cosplay kids in the coming weeks.
I'm also planning to take more photos of the bands performing in nearby Yoyogi Park. One of the downsides of living in Tokyo is that the live music scene is basically confined to nightclubs (dance & hip hop) and a handful of 'live houses' - usually small bars where people can go and watch small up-and-coming bands. Unless you want to go and see J-pop acts like SMAP or Ayumi Hamasaki, you have few options.
Not far from the cosplay action is the sprawling Yoyogi Park, an island of green in the center of Tokyo. On the weekends, bands line the side of the park to play to tourists and passers-by. Its one of the only places where new bands can go to get some experience playing to an audience. Some of the groups playing in the park have real talent. Others make you wonder whether the lack of live venues is really a bad thing. All of the bands playing in the park love performing and play with incredible energy. This makes Yoyogi a great place to take pictures. Sure the light is bad (the trees block the sun) and the background awful (mostly cars, signs or concrete barriers) but even blurry shots like the one above give you some idea of the how much fun it is to be there.
Posted by Marcus at July 11, 2007 9:00 AM
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