In autum 2007 I spent one month in Japan, thanks to the selection of my animation project Rusty Red at the Tokyo Film Festival. It was the chance for one of the most exciting voyage of my life. I have kept some notes I wrote not much time after coming home.
Not far from Tokyo, Nikko has sparkling golden temples assaulted by hordes of tourists. I like the silence of this picture.
*******
You can’t help loving the images of the Japanese fall, even though they are used everywhere. This knockout red reminds me of the wonderful fall duel in the Chinese movie Hero (by Zhang Yimou), an as much irresistible masterpiece.
*******
Tokyo is a city that changes and rises very quickly. Those who live at the 30th floor of an expensive skyscraper can see a breathtaking view, or… the window of the opposite skyscraper!
*******
In Tokyo you can find multi-layer crossroads: a canal for boats, a railway and an elevated highway. The Mori Tower is probably the most sumptuous skyscraper in the metropolis. At the 49th floor I presented my animation project Rusty Red.
*******
Sunset from the Mori Tower in the Roppongi district. The metropolitan area around Tokyo is really endless. It takes at least 90′ by train from the city center to find the first rural areas.
*******
Sunday morning at Shinjuku University. A lot of young people wearing extravagant clothes and playing underground music. Tokyo is a surprising mixture of flavors and colors unthinkable for us. And these are the colors of Tokyo.
*******
At Yoyogi Park in Shibuya, young people’s quarter, it’s easy to bump into some cosplayers, people who like to disguise as their favorite characters.
*******
Is he a cosplayer or is he true? Even though Japan likes to meticulously wrap up things and people, there is also a lot of freedom in dressing. Actually, this man is not a cosplayer…
*******
Shinjuku. Hidden among the forest of modern skyscrapers, there is an old alley full of tiny rusty restaurants, which come to life as soon as the night falls.
*******
No matter how small they are, in every bakery or restaurant everything is cooked on place. It’s a very tasty tradition which has not been yet sacrificed in the name of the strictest sanitary rules.
*******
A silent corner in a temple in Kyoto, where you can still find the traditional Japan.
*******
“Light up” in Kyoto. Unfortunately, Japanese temples close at 5 p.m. But in the fall, some of them stay open till night, offering atmospheres which are even too perfect, but indeed charming, especially under a light rain.
*******
Lanterns in a temple in Nara, one of the most renowned destinations in Japan, for its temples and museums, where extremely beautiful statues are shown.
*******
Restaurants and passages beneath the Tokyo railways are a fascinating underground world, which inspired the cyberpunk style of such animators as Katsuhiro Otomo and Koji Morimoto.
*******
Beyond the blades of the shabby fan, I find the glance of this woman in a kitchen, probably an immigrant. Why is she so sad? Any reason might be a mysterious story. But I will never know the answer.
*******
Looking out of the window, like children do, because everything is new: skyscrapers, bridges, people and food. I’ve lived this way for one month. It’s nearly like being born again. To bring home this glance is a little treasure.
*******
A quiet tea-time at 240 m of height, at the top of Mori Tower. It’s one of the most spectacular and relaxing places in Tokyo.
*******
This street, in Osaka, looks to me as if being about to go to bed after the merry-making. The city is famous for its night entertainment, its comedians and the local food. The okonomiyaki is an excellent mixed omelet, simply unbeatable.
*******
Kurashiki, a town with a nice little ancient district, famous as much as touristy. Avoiding the artificial gift shops, I bumped into this glove, which had, to my eyes, the look of and ancient Japanese ghost. But I don’t know why.
*******
Tokyo is a blaze of mirrors. But the mirror is also the final object present in the tabernacles of many temples. I wonder what the city sees in its mirrors, like a pilgrim at the climax of its mystical exaltation.
*******
At the end of the war, it was too expensive to lay wires underground. They have remained this way since then, creating a web of wires and meters that would scare our urban engineers and electricians. Nevertheless, I think these wires increase the charm of Tokyo.
*******
Traditional music and dances in Odaiba. These singers are waiting for the lights to be switched on, then they’ll start their performance.
*******
In Yoyogi Park there are lot of young people enjoying their passions. There are rock bands, Elvis fans, karate players and elegant performers like this one.
*******
Japanese people are paid for eight hours a day, but they end up staying at work much longer, in order not to be blamed. They often have to go out with colleagues and they get back home late at night. What’s left for their families?
*******
In Japan, the pace of life has no mercy. It’s very easy to see people falling asleep everywhere, mainly in trains.
*******
Naples? No, Tokyo. Japanese people are not as cold and silent as ancient samurais. For example, the vivid popular market Ameyokocho, in the Ueno district, is full of sellers who tirelessly shout at the passing customers, inviting them to buy their goods.
*******
The Tokyo International Forum, which resembles the frame of a ship, is one of the most surprising buildings in the city. I wouldn’t be surprised if it could take off like a zeppelin.
*******
Working the whole day, with their frustrations and difficulties in meeting girls, salary-men can let out their worries and desires in clubs like this one. The hostesses are lady companions, J-pop geishas, who don’t necessarily offer sexual performances (which are actually deprived of the sinful side we see in them). In a similar way, hostesses, who are frustrated as well, can let out their emotions with the “hostos”, trendy boys with weird blond cornered hair.
*******
Women at work in a Buddhist temple on the Koya-san, one of the most sacred mountains of Japan.
The priest’s mother, a 87 year old plucky woman, learned good English at the University in Tokyo, so becoming unpopular because, at that time, she was studying the language of the enemy. This was her only trip in a whole life spent on this mountain, working tirelessly. I wish I could go back to the past and make her travel around the world.
*******
In Japan, at work, women are still discriminated. Even when loved by their husbands, they rarely see them, because men are never home. Many women suffer from depression and some girls fear that, by getting married, they will lose their freedom, which they may have tasted during a stay abroad. This beautiful fishwife, on the other hand, gave me a fresh and happy smile.
*******
A little local train, in the Kansai region, takes me to destination on time. Every day, year after year, that hand holds that simple lever. I wonder what they think about each other.
*******
Yokohama harbour. An amazing sunny day, I saw this old man opening his eyes wide for a long time, in a kind of ecstasy, apparently staring at nothing. Perhaps he was following a dream, or he was simply gazing at that precious blue sky.
*******
I sneak in an old wharf in the Tokyo bay. It’s a great hoard of old tools and engines, cranes and chains. It’s a place which looks like it was suddenly abandoned, becoming for decades the abode of the witch of rust.
*******
If you want a rough and rusty place, you can just go to the charming Tsukiji fish market, a huge and frantic pavilion which seems to have just come out of the post-war era.
*******
The beheading of a frozen tuna in the endless fish market of Tsukiji, in the Tokyo bay. In Japan, people eat fish every day and the huge tunny-massacre makes you lose any desire to glorify the excellent Japanese cuisine.
*******
The fish market is probably the most frantic place in Tokyo. Everybody runs and you risk being run down by the fast electric trolleys. But there is also time to rest and talk calmly.
*******
A fishmonger with a walrus expression draws up the accounts of the morning, a work normally done by women.
*******
How lovely to meet happy, generous and hilarious glances. Lucky are this man’s little grandsons.
*******
A circular traffic light frame in Shinjuku. Due to space and traffic problems, you can’t park your car in the streets, in Tokyo, but only in car parks, which are often inside the buildings. You can’t buy a car without proving you have a parking spot.
*******
A century-old tower in the town of Kawagoe, which still has ancient storehouses, exceptionally built in terracotta in order to resist fires. Traditional Japanese buildings were instead made of wood. Stone was mainly used for the skirting-boards of the castles.
*******
A Buddhist swastika in a temple in Asakusa, Tokyo. What a shame that we lost the real meaning of the Sanskrit word, translatable as “Symbol of Good Luck”.
*******
On the sacred mountain Koya-san, the largest cemetery in Japan is really a mystic place. Thousands of ancient gravestones stand under very tall ancient cedars, up to the Kobo Daishi mausoleum, where 10.000 lanterns shine. Daishi was the monk who imported esoteric Shingon Buddhism into Japan in the ninth century.
*******
In Japan children are more expected to take responsabilities, than protected. Who reads mangas know it well. After several efforts to stand up by herself, this little girl has been lifted by her mother’s enthusiastic arms.
*******
People in line, waiting for the train, which is always on time (and the entrance will be exactly in that point), while a middle-age man is reading a manga. It’s a very banal scene in Japan, but an utopia in Italy. It could represent all the cultural and organizational problems which separate Italian from Japanese animation. Ironically, at the moment of this shot, all the local trains had a 15′ delay, an extremely rare event.
*******
Akihabara, the quarter of electronics and animation shops. This man can probably remember the American soldiers who occupied Japan until 1952. Who knows how many of them had a twisted mouth…
*******
An old passage in Shinjuku. An aged presence sneaks away like a ghost, demanded or devoured by its business.
*******
Children in the grand district of Ginza. I agree with them: to wander around Tokyo looking up is great fun.
*******
An old, western style building in the modern Yokohama harbor. It’s not rare to bump into this kind of buildings. Tokyo station, for instance, is a copy of the station of Amsterdam.
*******
The futurist deck for cruiser ships in the Yokohama harbor is an architectural jewel, covered with wood and real grass. But the insects which animate the meadows keep away from it.
*******
A traditional mask in the many-colored Yokohama Chinatown, the biggest one in Japan, which is a paradise for gourmets and panda fans. If these bears had a copyright on their own image, for sure they wouldn’t be close to extinction.
*******