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Tokyo metro

Spending some time in the subway net

Subway in Tokyo. Almost 9 million commuters every day… The central nerve that is divided between two companies, Tokyo Metro and JR-Line. Luckily you can use the same tickets on both line, but you need to “check in” when changing form one to the other. This is easy done just by swiping your ticket, but if you somehow miss it you will have to explain to a Japanese speaking ticket officer. This can obviously be a challenge if you don´t speak Japanese…

Photos takes with Leica M9 and 50 summicron, the perfect travel companion.

Warning signed everywhere and marking on the ground showing where the doors of respective subway car will be. Everyone stands in line after the markings and they all look funny at you when you stand somewhere else when waiting for the train.

Someone has done an excellent job polishing the floor…

Micronap. Don´t know if it is to be alone for a minute or if they are really tied, but most of them looks like they fall asleep…

They all stand in line at the markings, everyone.

DJ.Taro on the taking the sub.

/Thomas Tanisawa

January 1, 2014
Wedding in Japan

Invited to a wedding in Japan

Ok, time for some photos from one of my cousins wedding in Japan. It was my first “Japanese style” wedding so I was quite excited to experience it and as a bonus, meet all my relatives that lives half a globe away.

Just to set the scene for the wedding. It was arrange in a mixed Europe/Japanese style. Everything was arranged by a wedding-coordinator. Music, foot, location, the whole lot!

It was strange and very funny. Sometimes it felt like being in a Disney movie with background music, candle lights, silky fabric and so on. Of course being in Japan, there was a TV-crew covering the event. Filming and taking pictures of everyone and everything and when the party was coming to the end they showed a short movie on a large projector screen with the highlights from the wedding.

Anyway, the result was a very special wedding and I thank the bride and groom for being invited!

Photos takes with Leica M9 and 28 summicron.

Taking the first steps as married couple!

Grooms father was tied after a long photoshoot… Luckily not mine. Closest family was lined up in the photo studio for a wedding photo. One photographer and two assistants arrange everything from position of hands, head tilt to make sure that the cloths was correct. Nothing was left out so it took quite a while…

Wall of fame, almost. This is the names of all the couple that has been wed at this hotel. Everyone got a small golden plate that was put up on the wall. There were thousands of plates…

Outside the waiting rooms there was i AED-machine for emergency. I guess that if someone made a last minute change of mined, it would come in handy. AED is a automated external defibrillator… to be used is someone got a fibrillating heart problem. Hopefully they have never used it…

Bride, groom and their parents lined up before the wedding party. Red carpet and gold background.

During the wedding party the bride any grooms parens gave the fist bite of the wedding cake to the married couple. The groom, my cousin, couldn’t resist making it a little bit funny!

At the end of the party the bride and groom wend to every table and light a large candle. Since it was quite a lot of tables it took quite a long time…

And yes, they changed clothes in the middle of the party.

All I want to say is thanks for being invited to your wedding!

/Thomas Tanisawa

December 31, 2013
Night in the city

The night falls over the city

Here are some pictures taken during my latest visit to Tokyo. The city really comes to life during the night and it sometimes feel like there is more people moving around during the night compared to the day. It probably are since everyone is rushing home from work or to the nearest pub for an after work beer.

Leica M9 and 50 summicron is used.

The crossing in Shibuya, crowded as always.

Outside every shop there is someone shouting out the latest offer or trying to convince you that “this is Tokyos best restaurant”.

Tjukiji fish market at night, quiet and calm and a completely different place than during the busy morning and day rush hours.

This is actually taken in Sapporo. We took a flight from Tokyo to Sapporo to visit some old relatives. Everyone rushed by this guy sitting with his phone. A couple of seconds as shutter speed captured him and the rushing feets!

Sapporo is clearly a smaller town than Tokyo but everything is there to create the feeling of a big city, just in a smaller version. Sapporo however has almost 2 million citizen so it isn´t that small…

Steamed dumplings!

There where quite a lot of these small dumplings places here in Sapporo. I didn´t see any of them in Tokyo. Probably just missed it in Tokyo.

You got to love the narrow streets. Since it is in Japan it feels completely safe to wonder around in these small streets. Lot of lights, sounds and smells make a perfect combination that really takes you to another place and almost another time!

/Thomas Tanisawa

December 30, 2013
Asakusa

One of my favorite places in Tokyo

I know that I already posted photos from Asakusa but I like it too much not to post more photos from here! So if you are traveling to Tokyo, even for just a short visit, this is a place you do not want to miss!

Photos are takes with Leica M9 and 50 summicron.

Previous post from Asakusa

I wounded how many pictures that has been taken on this street. Everyone, including me is stopping to take a photo or two…

My brother (white shoes in the center) did also stop for a minute to take the mandatory “Asakusa temple photo”.

The smoke has, according to the legend a purifying effect so why skip the chance?

It is even said that if you wave some smoke on your head it makes you extra clever. So just to be on the safe side I stood beside it for quite a while…

If you took away all Iphones and digital cameras it felt like little has changed since they build this temple.

/Thomas Tanisawa

December 30, 2013
Tokyo Skytree

A trip to the new Tokyo Skytree

During my latest visit to Tokyo one of the stops was the Tokyo Skytree. A 634 meter high tower that makes everything around look quite small. Anyway, the weather was nice with clear bus sky so it was a perfect day for the Skytree. Equipped with the Leica M9 and my brother, I headed out on the streets of Tokyo.

Me and my patient brother. Thanks for waiting every time I stop to take pictures… Luckily I blend in quite well with all the other Japanese citizens that also stops and takes pictures, ALL THE TIME.

The head office of Asahi beer. Quite spectacular building with Tokyo Skytree in the background.

This is the first thing that you see when the elevator doors open at the 350 meter floor. Large glass windows all around the tower and a view that in some way makes you feel like being in an airplane going in for landing.

Everyone gathered around the glass floor… Hopefully the engineers behind the tower has calculated for the weight…

Looking down the glass floor… 350 meter to the street bellow…

This is from the 450 meter floor. From this level it didn´t feel that high. It was almost too high and the contact with the ground disappeared. This photo is taken in the northeast direction and away from Tokyo center. Still there are building as far as you could see and from up here the size of Tokyo felt really impressive!

This is taken in the opposite direction, more towards the center of Tokyo. You could see Tokyo tower (the red/white peak) in the background stretching to the sky, but only half the high of Tokyo Skytree, 333 meter.

The night is falling over Asakusa. The look and feel of Tokyo changes and thousands of streetlights, flashing neon signs and the sound form the city makes it feel almost like being in a movie, not in the real world.

The visit to Tokyo Skytree went as always in Tokyo, without trouble. There was an enormous queue but since this is Japan, everyone is standing in line waiting for their turn. We didn’t buy any ticket in advance and our total time spent in queue was 30 minutes.

If you want to visit Tokyo Skytree look at this site for more information.

/Thomas Tanisawa

December 30, 2013
Darkest day of the year

The darkest day of the year, or the day when it starts to get brighter

Today it is my day, or at least my names day… the Thomas day. It also happens to be the darkest day of the year… or the day when it starts to get a little bit brighter day by day. Guess it just two ways of looking at it. For sure there will be another summer 2014 and until that I post this photo taken close by our house in Sweden!

Photo taken with Leica M9 and 50 summicron

/Thomas Tanisawa

December 21, 2013
Autumn is here

So the autumn has finally arrived to Stockholm

The summer has been incredible to I can´t complain when the temperature drops down a bit. These photos was taken on a short trip with the kids to the lake of Angarn. A small lake famous for its rich bird life. Al year around people come from all corners of Sweden (and some abroad as well) to study the wildlife. Fully kitted with kids, wife and Leica M9 we went out in the sunshine.

The perfect place to hide! A ten meter high wooden tower build to spy on the birds…

/Thomas Tanisawa

October 12, 2013
Gotland

Black and white from Gotland

I just love black and white photos. I think it gives a completely different feeling to sometimes quite ordinary photos when there is not color distracting the image.

Taken with Leica M9 and 50 Summicron

/Thomas Tanisawa

July 21, 2013
Low flying

Low flying balloon over Västerås

Short trip to Västerås for another exiting flight with the Rabbit-balloon! We did a quite long flight, over 2 hours instead of the normal 1-1,5 hours due to the absence of wind. People often think that the perfect weather for a balloon trip would be when the wind doesn´t blow at all. This would be true if you didn´t have to plan where to land. Since you can´t steer the balloon at all the pilot need SOME wind to be able to predict where he will land. During this flight there winds was almost nonexistent so we drifted everywhere before we finally found a good spot to land on.

Photos taken with Canon 5D II and EF 24-70 F/2.8L

Turn on the heat!

John, the first one to leave the balloon at 3000 feet…

Coming in low over Västerås. Might be a little bit to low…

Spectators cheering at us from bellow.

A small aircraft did some really close passing´s.

Safe on the ground again!

/Thomas Tanisawa

July 11, 2013
Cool looking

My cool looking girl

I just love this image. She looks like there is nothing in the world that could push her out of balance. She will probably be the one that finally turns my hair from black into Mr. Miyahi-white… (Yes the karate master from the movie Karate Kid).

/Thomas Tanisawa

May 12, 2013