Uncoupling the containers signals that we’re getting close to port

次の日の朝１０時ごろ、運送用コンテナを止めていたワイヤーがはずされました。やっと、港が近いと分かりました。

It’s about 10 am, about 24 hours into the boat trip, when I notice this worker uncoupling the containers. We must be arriving in port soon. Behind the worker and the containers, that’s a lot of ocean!

Small potted plants on bamboo bench in Golden Gai

ゴールデン街の朝、竹ベンチの上に、きれいな植木鉢が見えます。

It was fun to visit Golden Gai during the morning, with all the micro-bars closed and few people around. I love the well-kept potted plants on this bamboo bench.

Vines and tall bush form kitchen curtain

雨に濡れた朝、部屋と都市の間のミニジャングルに、ベランダの木の葉やつるの植物が見えます。

On a wet morning, the balcony foliage forms a mini jungle between apartment and city.

What Nakano looks like on a wet morning

雨に濡れた朝の中野はこんな感じです。

Leaving the apartment on a rainy spring day

アパートの入り口から見えた、雨降りの朝の景色です。節電ですから、電気をほとんど消しています。中と外の対象がはっきりしていますね。

This is the view from my apartment building lobby on a rainy spring day. Because of energy conservation, many lights are turned off. This increases the contrast between indoors and outdoors.

I walk through this lobby every day, and rarely think about it or consider taking a photo. Recently, I participated in the Xerox and City photo workshop at Vacant, led by Hirano Taro and organzized by Too Much magazine as part of their Romantic Geographies series. We were asked to take photos of our breakfast and then our trip to the workshop in Harajuku. It made me think more about spaces that become automatic or ignored.

Tokyo residents are more aware of energy use and lighting now. Many parts of the city are less brighly lit: from billboards to train stations to residences. By lowering our lighting, we are more attuned to natural cycles, and more sensitive to the boundaries between private and public, indoor and outdoor, personal and shared resources.