I came away feeling like Japan is an immediately accessible place, and yet one that is completely impenetrable. If the society has a simple, immediately recognisable silhouette, then its culture is an intricate texture of patterns and forms.

One of my mini personal projects was to look harder at these surfaces and textures. Just to force me to look up, down and sideways.


Osaka downtown – for those that have seen Black Rain, you might recognise this scene

Osakajo Icecream

Rivetting

Rusty nails

First of the inevitible bamboo

Yup

Bamboo with some sticks

Door

Lovers wishes for eachother

Some other type of wish thing

Temple roof from below

Characters in the rock

Sumptuous Fabric

Zen

Combinations

Different bamboo

Cute – a flower contemplates life

Hi

Shadowy wood

Light coming through wood – it’s not like you don’t get most of this anywhere else in the world, but it is nice to be forced to look for it!

Zen raking

Door

I love this photo – close up of the chip wood roof ’tiles’

Zen Zen Zen

I still can’t find the meaning here

Oh look at the light coming through the bamboo

Lamps in a market

The tasteful Kyoto tower refected in the thoughtful Kyoto station. Both fail to really capture the mood of Kyoto!

Plum blossom

The best shade of orange ever

Stairs

Stair close-up

Oxidised

Rather a nice wall

Oxidised 2.0

I had a beaming smile taking this photo – this is what I came to Japan for!

Some wood

This pole is worn by generations of people rubbing it

It all hinges on this

Fags

New kicks hit the streets of Tokyo

Bright lights of Shinjuku

Barrel of laughs

(and from the last trip…) Functional drinks

Blood of the city

Pachinko!