The Flickr Tokyo Photo Session (FTPS) group had last month’s photo walk in Arisugawa-no-miya Memorial Park in Minami-Azabu, Tokyo. [Map]

History
Arisugawa-no-miya Memorial Park was originally the urban villa of a feudal lord, Minonokami Nambu. In 1896 it was acquired by the noble Arisugawa-no-miya family. However, as Japan modernized, more and more importance began to be placed on the role of nature in educating children, and the family donated the land to Tokyo city in 1934 as a park for that purpose.Tokyo city set to work redeveloping it, and Arisugawa-no-miya Memorial Park was born in the same year. In 1975, the Tokyo metropolitan authority transfered the administration of the park to the local ward office of Minato. (Source: japanvisitor.com)

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Father and son on a small bridge in the park.

A bike is parked near the stream.

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Ume, or the Japanase plum, has started to bloom.

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Just me playing with reflection on the pond.

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The FTPS group walking in the park.

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Group photo by ndavid .

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Click here if you are interested in joining the future photo walks by FTPS.

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.

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. :-)