The Cliche of Harajuku

 

Right next to the department store Laforet in Harajuku is a small open-air store that frequently sells old kimono and obi sashes. The observation that Japan offers both the deeply traditional and wacked-out modern is so commonly made, it's hardly earth-shattering.

Yet, there's something endlessly amusing about being confronted with such deeply contrasting images, barely two feet away from each other. Yes, this is a Japanese girl.

Hijacking the Textbook

This distractingly cute airplane paper clip led me to waste five minutes at work, zooming it across different surfaces. Here, the book The Visual Story, Second Edition: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media provides a nice backdrop. It's proving to be an interesting read.

Sideways Vision

(In Edogawabashi.)

A tangle of weeds, visible only in shadow through the gauze of a construction tarp. 

Why the kanji for the construction company is written sideways, I do not know.

Mouse Talismans

(Near Jinbocho.)

Trying to figure out if the mouse-like appearance of these fixtures is intentional.

Boy in the Corner

In Korakuen, with the Laqua amusement park rides visible in the background.

All I wanted to do was surreptitiously take a photo of the little boy in red, crouching against the wall in the bottom right of the frame. Instead, it ended up being a portrait of various people enjoying a rare mid-week holiday.