Thanks for the kind words Nyororin.
I really could care less about nice views or statues or other stuff. It's the infrastructure of a city that fascinates me. It could be something as trival as a manhole cover or a sign. The key is that's it's functional not static art per say. I really love the functional stuff. The little things that combined make a city work
This isn't just limited to Japan, it's the same when I'm in Manhattan, photos of the Statue of Liberty please I'd be happier shooting subway cars, bridges vehicles etc.. it's what I look at, the stuff like yourself or someone else would normally over look or rather it's just so common you tune it out
I guess I get from my dad as he is loving the shots of trival things like traffic signal boxes etc...
Last time in I was in Manahattan I was shooting houses like the orignal brownstone where the Marx bros grew up, Japser Johns/Gypsy Rose Lee/ Spike Lee's place etc...
I's hard to express although I will say I have NEVER taken so many pictures in a day before, in Manahattan I average 20, Japan is going on 60 - 70 a day. I think it's because so many things here are automated/unique not to mention the stores and buildings are colourful vs a minimalist look. Would I take pictures of pay phones in North America, heck no.
For the curious the photos are shot using a Sony DSC-H50 it's one of those ultra zoom models. 99.9% are shot in "easy mode". I'm sure they could be better (if I bothered to learn) but dang these are pretty good so why bother. I'm not trying to be artistic or dramatic rather to document what I see so someone else could follow.
I have one idiot on another forum asking "Where's all the people ?" "The reccesion must be really bad" I try to explain to him how many freaking people do you see up and about in your area at 7:00am ???
He seems to thing Tokyo is teaming with masses and throngs of people. Here in Shinjuku it seems to start around 9:00am but it's no Times Square.
I try to explain there are subways and not to mention people have school and work to go to and it's been cool and damn windy over the last couple of days and who would walk in that ?
See I love walking and walking and walking, sure I could get there faster using the bus or train but dang you'd miss stuff.
One thing that I have noticed is how quiet it is, to the point that when I go into a game store or arcade the noise is insanely loud compared to the streets here vs the ones back home.
I'm sure if someone came to my hometown of Toronto they would take pictures of stuff I never thought of before.
I'm having a lot of fun and my limited Japanese isn't a barrier, well most of the time you feel like a mute but you can still share a smile with a stranger depending on the situation here. You work around it. I'm still respectfull and I think most people pick up on that. That Station Master at subway was awesome.
I'm going to miss this place but I'll be coming back.