Two weekends ago, I, with 3 photo buddies, had an early morning photowalk again. This time in Kabukicho at around 5:30 in the morning.

Kabukichō is an entertainment and red-light district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Kabukichō is the location of many hostess bars, host bars, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, and is often called the “Sleepless Town”. The district’s name comes from late-1940s plans to build a kabuki theater: although the theater was never built, the name stuck. — Wikipedia

There are still nanpa activities in this early morning. A nanpa is a way to pick up girls in Japan. To know how it works, check Nampa – Japanese for Picking Up by Neil Duckett.

We walked through Shinjuku Golden Gai and we could still hear people laughing while having some chat inside the shanty-style bars and clubs.  Learn more about the Golden Gai here: Old-world left in a Big City, Shinjuku’s Golden-gai

Kabukicho is a notorious place known for a lot of illegal activities like prostitution, illegal drug trafficking, and other crimes. A number of business establishments here are owned by yakuzas and Chinese triads. The photo below is the most famous police box throughout Japan for having been featured a couple of times in TV documentary shows.

Thanks to my friends: Mika, Kyoko, and Naoto for joining me in this walk.

Hamaorisai Festival is held annually at Nishihama Beach in Chigasaki City. This is a summer festival where people take the mikoshi, or portable Shinto shrine, into the sea to please the god living in it. This year’s festival was held on the 20th of July, which is also the Umi-no-Hi (or the Ocean Day).

The festival starts very early in the morning at 4:00am.

A portrait of a man waiting for his group to take the mikoshi into the water.

Struggling with the waves is one challenging job of this festival.

There’s been a “competition” among the shrines. Each group tries to be the one to go the farthest and longest out to the sea.

After all the mikoshis are taken into the water, they are lined up and blessed by offering fruits and vegetables.

This festival is one of the most challenging photoshoots I’ve had. I got soaked and almost drop my camera into the water.

I would like to thank Levi for inviting and offering his place for us to stay overnight.

This is what most people don’t know about Japan.

Homelessness was largely unknown in Japan until the economic bubble burst in the early 1990s and unemployment began to rise. – BBC

At the beginning of the 1990s, the homeless in Japan were viewed as nuisance. The government tried to get rid of the street people “because the environment there needed beautification”. – Wikipedia

According to street-papers.org, there are 25,296 homeless people in Japan.

Some of these homeless people live in the side of the street with their card-board houses.

Some in tunnels and underground stations.

The homeless prefer to freeze outside rather than be frozen by officialdom’s coldness.  – share-international.org

Note: The photos were taken in Fujisawa, Ueno, Yoyogi and Shibuya.

Tanabata was originally about a Chinese love story of a princess and a cowherd being separated by the king.  Traditionally in present-day Japan, people celebrate Tanabata by writing their wishes on colorful, small strips of paper called tanzaku…

…and hang them on bamboo branches…

The streets are decorated with huge colorful  hanging lanterns which kids enjoy watching…

…especially at nights when these lanterns are being lighted.

This was during the Tanabata Festival in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa. This is the biggest Tanabata festival held in the Kanto Area. The most famous one is held in Sendai.

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This is the second part of the Midnight Shooting: Roppongi to Shibuya blog entry.

We started our walk around 1:00AM from Roppongi, and reached Shibuya at nearly 3:00AM. Below are images that you will likely be seeing in an early Saturday morning in Shibuya.

This guy welcome us right at the foot of the pedestrian bridge near the south entrance of Shibuya Station.

Outside the station, you can see a lot of people sleeping. Either they lay down on the pavement..

… or simply just sit down…

They sure had fun last night, eh?

Obviously, these people are waiting for the station to open, and catch the first train.

And finally, the gate has opened. Ohayou, Shibuya!

The next post will be about homeless people staying near Shibuya station.

Thanks for watching. :-)

Last Friday (06/26), I went to SuperDeluxe in Roppongi to see the Naked Tokyo Photo Exhibition organized by some of my Flickr friends. I can say it was a great event showing some artistic naked photos. I would like to join next year. :-)

After stopping by the exhibition, I, with my friends Mika and Kyoko, went for a photowalk from the streets of Roppongi down to Shibuya. It was a fun walk.

I tell you. There are a lot of things to shoot in the middle of the night.

Some trash dumped right next to a phone booth.

The lights and shadows are just amazing.

You can see stores closing.

It took us almost two hours to reach Shibuya station.

This is just the first part of this photo walk.  I will post the photos I took around Shibuya later this week.

I would like to thank Mika and Kyoko for joining me that night. We will definitely do it again. :-)

Ginza, located in the very heart of Tokyo, is known as one of the most luxurious shopping destinations in the world. If you are looking for famous designer brands and products, this small district is the perfect place for you.

But here, I’m not going show you how lavish this place is. Below are just random shots I took last weekend. Mostly lines and patterns.

A woman, during the drizzly afternoon, caught my attention with those patterns on her dress, umbrella, and bag.

I love the zebra background at this store’s window.

Sure there’s no more swine flu panic in Japan, but this is really just a normal scene here.

I will take a walk and shoot more in Ginza sometime soon. There are a lot of things here aside from those designer shoes and bags. Really.

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Summer in Japan always starts with rainy days. Because it is also the season when the Japanese apricot (ume) ripens, the Japanese call it “tsuyu” (or “baiyu”) which literally means “plum rain”.

The rainy season usually begins in early June and ends in mid July.

This year, it has started a week early. It’s been raining since yesterday.

This is the season when it gets humid.

… and the days are gray and gloomy.

Umbrellas are everywhere.

Welcome to Japan’s rainy season.

*** WARNING: The graphics below are Not-Safe-For-Work. ***

I took the pictures below during the 29th Design Festa at Tokyo Big Sight on May 16-17, 2009. Design Festa is an international event where artists from all over the world can showcase their creative talent in the field of arts. It is held twice a year, and so far the biggest art event in Asia.

So, what is ART? How would we define it? Is it for everybody? for all ages? or is there certain level of it for a certain group of people?

Do you consider this “art” appropriate for all ages?

*** WARNING: The graphics below are Not-Safe-For-Work. Click “Read More” to continue.***

Or is this just art ONLY-IN-JAPAN???

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April 5, 2006 — the day Kalandrakas was born!

But, what is Kalandrakas?

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It was two months after since I started working in Japan that I got my first digital camera, a Sony DSC-R1.  I was taking pictures of almost everything: from plants to animals,  macros to landscapes, festivals to cosplays.

When I signed up on Flickr, I had a hard time choosing a screen name since I didn’t want to use my real name. During that time, I was still involved in the company’s bi-annual newsletter named Kalandrakas.

The word kalandrakas means variety or miscellaneous in Cebuano or Bisaya, my local dialect in the Philippines.

Because my photos were so random, I was thinking it would be nice to use this word as my screen name. So there, the Kalandrakas photography was born.

During the first year, I’d been trying to shoot a variety of subjects. There were times that I wanted to focus on one subject, but after some time, I changed to another.

After a year, I got a new camera, a Nikon D80. I then started going out to public places to shoot.  The place that I often used to visit before was Harajuku. It was actually in this place I started to love street photography.

In streets, everything is quick and random.  Sometimes it’s frustrating, but once you capture raw and candid moments, it just  feels great.

Right now, I have a Nikon D700,  that works very well with low-light — perfect for street photography during the night.

I might stick to street photography for a while, ‘coz in the streets, the world is so kalandrakas.

Happy 3 years to me as a photographer!

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Achievements of Kalandrakas:

2006
Dec. 9 -  JapanToday: Picture of the day
Dec. 22 – Metropolis issue 665: Photo of the week
Dec. 30 – first studio shoot (s0lo)

2007
Apr. 18 – JapanToday: Picture of the Day
Apr. 19 – created the FTPS group (with Naoto)
June 9 – JapanToday: Picture of the Day
June 29 – Metropolis issue 692: Photo of the week
July 6 – Metropolis issue 693: Photo of the week
July 22 – JapanToday: Picture of the Day

2008
Apr. 21 – Kabayan: Fil-Am Fotogs Photographer of the Week
June 23 – Kabayan: Fil-Am Fotogs Photographer of the Week

2009
Mar. 13 – Harajuku photos featured on Gym Class  magazine
Mar. 25-29 – Bayanihan: A Photo Exhibit