La Jetée in Golden Gai, Shinjuku

This is a very short clip of the inside of one of the izakayas in the Golden Gai area of Shinjuku called La Jetée. As someone who is a vegan and does not drink alcohol, it is very difficult for me to get an opportunity to come to a place like this, but I am nevertheless fascinated with very small, unique establishments such as the one you see here. As I understand it, some of the bars in the Golden Gai district can be difficult to get into if you are a foreigner and not a regular or do not speak Japanese, but this one was an exception. The owner speaks a bit of English and is also fluent in French, much to the delight of my French speaking friend who accompanied me.

One thing I find incredible in Tokyo is the sheer amount of these small, unique bars and izakayas. Though, for reasons mentioned above, I don’t often visit them, I live in Shimokitazawa where there is a high concentration of them, and as such, I look in the windows and see inside them quite often. I have never seen places dripping with such unbelievable amounts of perfectly thought out and crafted atmosphere as I have seen in Japan. A single back alley bar in the middle of some unassuming place in Tokyo can have more authentically amazing atmosphere than the most expensive bars and restaurants in America. I could easily see someone becoming addicted to seeking these places out and visiting them all, and though that certainly won’t ever be me, I can appreciate them from a distance nonetheless.

Homeless in Shinjuku Station

I can’t recall the exact time of year when I took this video footage, but it was some time in early winter of 2010. I think anyone who comes to Japan or Tokyo for the first times noticed that there is a sizable homeless population that are quite often very visible to the public. The city I come from, Philadelphia, also has a significant homeless population and I have had many encounters with them throughout my time living there. In this way, I found it quite fascinating to compare the behavior and lifestyles of homeless people back home with those in Japan, and there seem to be many differences.

The first, and most obvious to me, was the level of organization and ingenuity displayed by people in Tokyo that is completely absent in most American homeless. Here in Shinjuku station we see that many people have constructed small cardboard homes out of various supplies, and have with them many necessities for daily living. At another time, I saw one man who had built an extremely large box house with multiple rooms, dishes, silverware, a gas stove, and even a TV. I’ve never seen anything of this sort in America.

Another interesting aspect of the homeless are their attitudes. In Philadelphia, most homeless are unscrupulous, and will do absolutely anything to get money or food, including stealing and lying. They often follow you around and make up sad stories and insist that give them money, in general being as bothersome as possible. I once bought a meal for a homeless and had him criticize it for not being the kind of food he wanted; apparently anything other than KFC was unacceptable. In contrast, the Tokyo homeless seem to keep to themselves, not overtly bothering people, and if asking for money, doing so with a sign. As my one friend put it after watching this video, “Wow, even their homeless are organized.”

Tokyo Fireworks

This scene shows fireworks over Tokyo at night during the winter of 2010. I shot it from the balcony of my apartment in Yotsuya where I was living at the time, and they appear to be coming from the direction of Yoyogi park, perhaps near the national stadium. It remains the only fireworks I have seen in Japan since arriving, and I’m still not sure what the particular occasion was for their appearance, though my roommate speculated that there was some kind of concert or event that precipitated it. I often go to see fireworks back in America, and was delighted when I heard the familiar sound of their explosions and rushed to film what was left. It’s also memorable to me because it took place right around the time I moved to my new apartment, and so reminds of my time in Yotsuya whenever I view it. Unfortunately I have never been around in Japan during most of the summer, when I am told is the best time to see fireworks in Tokyo and the surrounding areas, I hope to make this coming summer my first time to see them. I think that fireworks are something that are universally enjoyed by almost everyone, and it is interesting to me that they can come to symbolize many different kinds events with greatly varying meanings.

Shibuya Slackline

Here we have some random people performing what is known as ‘slacklining’ on the streets near Shibuya. The exact location is actually on route to Shibuya coming from Harajuku, and these guys managed to find a suitable place to enjoy themselves. Normally, this slackline is suspended between two trees and is often higher off the ground, but these people made do with what is available to them in the city. This caught my attention because I used to slackline myself a bit back home before I came to Japan, and this was the first time I had seen it or even knew that it existed here since coming to Japan.

The goal is essentially just to balance, and that alone can seem almost impossible for someone who has never tried it before. The line flexes and sways beneath you as you attempt to balance and it requires a great amount of coordination just to keep from falling, much less perform various tricks and maneuvers as you see being done in the video clip. I was impressed with their level of skill as they were were attempting quite difficult jumps. Eventually after I stopped filming I asked if I could try, and they were happy to let me. I played around on the slackline for about 20 minutes before leaving, and have since met up with those people again to slackline more in Yoyogi Park.

Tokyo Illuminations, Holiday '09

When I first came to Japan, I was living in Akasaka via Temple sponsored housing, and these are some of the sites I began to see as the Christmas season approached. In fact, one of the things that surprised me most was that I felt much more of a Christmas vibe coming from Tokyo than I ever did pack home, kind of ironic considering the fact that there is a majority Christian population where I am from and in Japan the holiday is stripped of any real meaning it might have.

Not being a Christian myself, Christmas is kind of a non-event for me, and seems to be mostly be about consumerism in any case, but I do enjoy the Christmas time atmosphere. Most of the footage comes from Akasaka and especially Roppongi and Tokyo Midtown where some extravagant light displays were set up for the better part of the holiday season. In particular, one drew my attention in Tokyo Midtown that consisted of what looked like hundreds of thousands of blue lights that could turn white to create various patterns and begin to resemble a sort of starry nighttime sky in appearance. Apparently the view is much more spectacular if you actually view it from a high building in the area, and at times it is seen forming a large white spiral reminiscent of the Milky Way Galaxy. I definitely intend to see if this light display will make a return this year.

Band Playing Outside of Tokyo Game Show '09

I took this footage directly after leaving the Makuhari Messe building for the Tokyo Game Show 2009, right by the entrance to Kaihin Makuhari station. Since coming to Japan, or perhaps I should say Tokyo, I have noticed that street performances have become a common thing I encounter in my day to day life. I currently live in Shimokitazawa, and previously lived in Koenji, and in both areas a see many regular performances, most often music, by young people on the side of the street.

Having only been in Japan for a few weeks at that time, this was one of the first street performances I remember seeing, and as such, I felt inclined to record the whole thing. I was immediately surprised at how well the band sounded live, having obviously practiced many times they all hit each note without a hitch throughout the entire song. I was also surprised at how good and catchy their music was, though I don’t know whether or not it is an original song or just a cover, I would be quite impressed to know that they wrote it themselves. Even today when I watch the video again, I get the song stuck in my head for awhile. Street performances like this one and the creativity and atmosphere they bring to the city are one of my favorite aspects of living in Tokyo, and I seem to run into them on an almost daily basis, fortunately.

Tokyo Game Show 2009

This is footage from Tokyo Game Show in September of 2009. At the time of this event, I had only been in Japan for about two or three weeks, and, being a video game fan, I knew I could not miss it. The area it takes place at is actually not Tokyo ironically enough, but the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba. After about a 35 minute train ride, I arrived at the building and purchased my ticket to enter. I knew I wanted to film as much as I could, and was disappointed to learn that camera use was very restricted, but I did my best to ignore that and managed to get quite a bit of footage anyway.

There were booths set of for every major game and console maker like Sony, Nintendo, Square Enix, and Capcom, and I had plenty of time to visit them all and check everything out, though I didn’t stand in line to actually play any games as the wait was simply to long. In addition, there was a large amount of cosplay being done, and I got a fair amount of footage of that too. I actually attended the show this year again and was able to get much more cosplay footage this time around. Both times I went were great and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to be in Japan to attend them.