rainy week

it's been a while since my last post. been busy moving jobs and apartments.

tokyo welcomed the fall with rains which will continue through this week. got a "new" old lens that i've been dying to take pictures with, but i'm down with fever on a perfectly fine weekend.

こどもの日

today is boy's day. i would have wanted to go out and take pictures of the flying carp (the photo above was taken 3 years ago), but the weather is not cooperating. while the weather report says sunny, it is actually cloudy. so much for blue skies. now have to think of something else to do...

さよなら歌舞伎座

東京オリンピック以来歌舞伎座46年の歌舞伎甘栗も本年四月をもちまして閉店と相成りました。長年にわたるお客様のご愛顧に厚く御礼申し上げます。

kabukiza will be closing at the end of the month to be reconstructed as a 29-story building, retaining the facade of the current building. this seems to be the current architectural trend here. (take for example the nomura building in otemachi.) i personally prefer they kept the old building as is. for me, the high-rise jutting out is an eyesore...

anyway, this is one of the few times i asked somebody if i could take their picture. this old man runs a small chestnut stall just outside kabukiza. he's been running the stall since the tokyo olympics for 46 years. it is in a way sad that he will be closing shop, but he can still keep his smile. i'm sure he has lots of memories of this place. i wonder what he will be doing after this.

i forgot to ask his name, but i hope i will be able to ask him one last time on friday.

Noctilux 50mm f0.95

no, this is not taken with that lens, nor do i have one. i have been looking at pictures taken with that lens, and i think it's just too... perfect. i like the bokeh created by my canon more, but it's just too big to carry on a regular basis. plus i always need a toothpick to take the lens off from the body.

how does the old noctilux fare, or even the nokton? off to search for pictures...

now this woman looks like another mad hettie, but when i actually saw her face, she looked like a regular old lady (with an odd fashion sense, at least for me).

ps

i also got an old canon 50mm f1.4. got it cheap and didn't really expect anything special about it. i found it to be actually sharp, but that's about it. will post some when i get the time.

花見

it's that time of year for cherry blossom viewing. it's nice to spend a good time with friends.

久しぶり

it's been a while since i last used my big brick of a camera. i brought it along hoping to take pictures of cherry blossoms, but things didn't quite work out as expected.

i still got to use it. i had to. otherwise it would be such a waste to bring such a heavy thing and not use it. i've forgotten how heavy it is, and i am not used to the weight anymore. my arms got tired easily. to think that i used to use this beast before.

it was a bit of a refresh using it. i am thinking of using it more this cherry blossom season.

anyway, it's almost 4am. i have to sleep. i need to wake up early for a big day ahead.

初雪

central tokyo experienced its first, and probably last snowfall of the season a week ago.

手紙舎・ヒバリ

a nice cozy place on the outskirts of central tokyo.

とまれ

found some interesting stop signs in tsutsujigaoka

not a stop sign, but interesting as well

new year

happy new year! i was planning to post something before the end of the year, but missed the chance. my scanner just gave up on me, and these are from the last strips i scanned as a contact print. i got a chance to go on a photo walk with a bunch of talented photographers in tokyo just before christmas. hope to be able to go out with them again.

#update: scanner fixed. did a patch-up job, but hey, it works. i can scan my film again! need to study first though... =(