I found cheap flights to Tokyo in November so obviously, I went. This was my fourth trip to Japan, and to be honest the more often I visit the more often I want to. I stayed at the amazing Mission Parkour gym with my friends, old and new. During my trip I also created some content for GoPro Japan, went to my first live gig in Tokyo and acquired two new Gameboys. On trip, I’d recently bought a Sony RX100V that I was keen to put through its paces as my pocket camera. Previously I’d been shooting on the G7X that Canon gave me, but I finally felt like I wanted to upgrade with something that could shoot raw and had a slightly improved image quality. The images that follow are from various moments during my time walking through various areas of Tokyo, both on solo missions and hanging out with my mates. It was such a warm november and the low sun and nice shadows led me to a colourful approach on these photos.
The Sony RX100V also has a built in ND filter, lets me get shots like this with nice motion blur, handheld.
This neighbourhood is my favourite kind of Tokyo, mostly little winding backstreets and it has these cool level crossings. I can see myself living here.
View from Moto-Yawata station.
Streets of Shin-Koiwa, where the gym is.
Took a trip to Tsunashima to hunt for Gameboys, got these shots on the way.
I walked past this taxi depot every day on my way to the station.
And these workshops, Shin-Koiwa is an industrial area and most places are making mechanical parts for elevators, ships, cars, cranes and other large machinery.
I also walked past the school every day too.
A classic, Skytree and the Asahi building, seen from Asakusa.
The roof of the gym.
Yuutarou always has finds a cool air pose!
Tokyo and trains go hand in hand.
Went out to Odaiba to see the new Gundam with my pal Brendan.
Took a couple portraits for his music project ‘Puppet’.
Sunset in Shin Koiwa, rushed home to take the photo on the roof with Masahito.
Also from a different sunset, convinced Luke to carefully walk along a pretty sketchy roof for these ones.
Depending on which line I needed, I’d come and go via two stations, each about 20 mins walk from the gym. This was my preferred route at night.
After shooting for GoPro Japan, we all went for food. I played the troublesome foreigner card so we could get a seat by the window with a cool view.
Internet cafes in Japan are pretty interesting, you can buy packages with a few or as many as 12 hours on them. Some people sleep overnight there if they miss a train home, but all the drinks there are free during your stay. You usually get a small, enclosed booth with a computer and possibly a chair, or just padded flooring. There is also loads of manga books you can read, and usually showers as well with towel rental if you require. I actually have a membership to this one, named Manboo!
Strolling my one of my favourite tokyo nerd spots, Nakano.
The RX100V isnt a big fan of low light, but it just about manages it. These were at ISO 5000 but really I think the camera tops out its real usability around 1250 or so.
At Least the grain is not too unpleasing.
But here you can really see its struggled, however I loved the shot so much I still wanted to share it here!
The Shibuya river at night.
Around 2500 people cross every time the light changes at the Shibuya Crossing.
The shibuya crossing is a special spot for me, it was the first place I ever went to visit in Tokyo on my first ever visit. Even now after crossing it probably a hundred times or more, I still feel so stoked to be there every time.