PAW 2004-26

Monkey Magician
Tachikawa City, West of Tokyo

In some ways, I think the decade-long recession in Japan has been good for the soul. Gone is the relentless drive for profits and quick money. Unemployment rates for immediate college graduates has never been higher, but this means that young people can think about what they want to do with their lives, instead of immediately going to work for Mitsubishi or Mitsui Trading. It gives people some yutori - a complex word that can be roughly translated as "room to spare" but has psychological connotations. Do you have enough yutori in your life that you can spend a Sunday afternoon off? This is akin to the slow food movement that is gaining in Europe.

Not all of the recession has been good however. I live on the Chuo Line, which is the central line that connects Tokyo with the western suburbs. Every week, it seems, the train is delayed because someone has committed suicide. The Chuo Line is very "popular" because it has many express trains that scream through local stations at over 80km. It's a quick, easy death.

The day this photo was taken, someone had committed suicide at the station right next to my own. This has become such an ordinary experience that people look at the electronic sign "Trains delayed - human acccident," grumble slightly, and patiently wait for the station personnel to clean up the remains. The family of the suicidee are sent the clean up bill.

Gallery: PAW 2004-26	Back - Next
Human Jukebox Tachikawa City, West of Tokyo Tachikawa City, west of Tokyo, was having its autumn city festival when a friend and I visited. Among the usual takoyaki stands and other attractions was this trumpet man in a box. The sign (which is flipped up when he plays) says "Human jukebox, insert ¥200." He was immensely popular among the children. In his right hand is his trumpet, his left has his tamborine, and his feet also control various horns, drums, and bells. There's a small panel where you can insert coins and even bills, and get change back. The placard on the left side of the box and two more that aren't visible have the names of the songs. He plays them all from memory. I had the sense that this man was doing this as a hobby, for fun. It was his joie de vivre or joy of life. What could be better than to go on a slow, warm Sunday afternoon in October and entertain children at a local festival?
Monkey Magician Tachikawa City, West of Tokyo In some ways, I think the decade-long recession in Japan has been good for the soul. Gone is the relentless drive for profits and quick money. Unemployment rates for immediate college graduates has never been higher, but this means that young people can think about what they want to do with their lives, instead of immediately going to work for Mitsubishi or Mitsui Trading. It gives people some yutori - a complex word that can be roughly translated as "room to spare" but has psychological connotations. Do you have enough yutori in your life that you can spend a Sunday afternoon off? This is akin to the slow food movement that is gaining in Europe. Not all of the recession has been good however. I live on the Chuo Line, which is the central line that connects Tokyo with the western suburbs. Every week, it seems, the train is delayed because someone has committed suicide. The Chuo Line is very "popular" because it has many express trains that scream through local stations at over 80km. It's a quick, easy death. The day this photo was taken, someone had committed suicide at the station right next to my own. This has become such an ordinary experience that people look at the electronic sign "Trains delayed - human acccident," grumble slightly, and patiently wait for the station personnel to clean up the remains. The family of the suicidee are sent the clean up bill.
Straw Poll Tachikawa City, West of Tokyo Foreign sentiment against George Bush has never been stronger. If the "leader of the free world" were elected by the entire free world, he would lose. This straw poll was titled "Do you support the re-election of President Bush." Bush is intensely unpopular in Japan, because Bush reneged on the Kyoto Protocol and because we feel that Bush and our Prime Minister Koizumi led us into the Iraq War on false premises. Koizumi is using the Iraq War to push for the revision of the Peace Clause in our national constitution that renounces warfare prevents us from ever having a standing army. This was the clause entered in by General MacArthur, who wanted to be known as the general who left a legacy of peace. The standing army portion has been whittled away by the presence of the Self-Defense Forces, which are actually the fourth largest military power in the world (after the USA, Russia, and China). Koizumi is now pushing for the power to send the SDF forces abroad on his prerogative for self-defense missions. SDF forces have been sent abroad previously (and in the current Iraq conflict) as peacekeepers, but it has required parliament authorization. He wants to have the power to abrogate this. Historians will remember that the annexation of Korea, Okinawa, Taiwan, and Manchuria by Japan in our Imperial period were all peacekeeping missions. Street Magician Shinjuku, Tokyo All photographs on this page were taken with my Leica M7 on Ilford HP5+ using a 35mm Summicron lens. What I like most about the 35mm Summicron is its ability to be both a wide-angle lens and a standard lens, depending on how you frame the image. It always seems to give a very natural perspective to me.


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Gallery: PAW 2004-26