My Rough Guide to Japan tells me that the Joetsu Shinkansen from Tokyo to Niigata was the most expensive train track in the world to build. It cost some 6 billion yen per kilometer and about one third of the journey is through tunnels.

Built by LDP pork-barrel legend Tanaka Kakuei, the bullet train line runs through the 1972-1974 PM’s Niigata heartlands. To me it’s a symbol of all Japan hopes to leave behind with the recent election. I was up there earlier this year and took this picture of the late Tanaka’s statue outside Urasa station. The Economist calls him “an astonishingly corrupt politician”.

Tanaka’s railway was less a way to transport Tokyoites to Niigata than a way to funnel government money back to his constituents. He built hulking Shinkansen stations in sleepy rice farming villages which would probably be lucky to see one local train an hour.

The waiting room at Urasa wasn’t exactly packed:

Nor the platform.

Not much work for taxi drivers outside the station.

Some traffic at last!

Have we seen the back of Tanaka style politics? I’m not holding my breath. The first thing I saw on the TV the morning after the election was a beaming Tanaka Makiko, Kakuei’s daughter. She’s now a DPJ politician.

Up in Niigata I heard a rumour that she was responsible for the canopy over Tanaka’s statue.

A new word: phojo.

Seem to have lost my phojo (photo-mojo) these last few weeks. Perhaps it is the summer heat? Perhaps it is the drip drip drip of desperate news on this industry? But I am shooting less than usual and severely lacking inspiration. I’m even leaving my GR1 at home at the weekends.

Anyway, have you ever lost your phojo? How did you get it back?

Here’s a fun photo story from the Reuter’s blog. A group of Japanese expats in Paris are helping tidy the city in an attempt to ammeliorate the symptoms of “Paris Syndrome”.

According to Wikipedia, Paris Syndrome is:

“a constellation of symptoms primarily affecting mood which affects visitors working and vacationing in Paris, France.”

Basically, Japanese women who grew up reading  Palace of Versailles set manga and watching films like Amelie arrive in Paris to have their illusions instantly shattered by cigarette-butt littered streets and narky waiters.

Some vistors are driven to nervous breakdown. In 2006 the BBC reported that the Japanese embassy in Paris had to repatriate four tourists with a medic on the plane to help them in their distressed state.

I’ve always suspected a corresponding Tokyo Syndrome actually, people who come expecting servile robots and nymphomaniac women (or perhaps the reverse).

And there’s no-one repatriate the victims of that malady! I guess they  just take up residence in the corner of a Roppongi Irish bar.

“Amateurs worry about equipment, professionals worry about money, masters worry about light.”

Very wise words from Mattias’ blog.

It made me think of the time a few years ago when I interviewed a Japanese singer and sat in on the photo shoot afterwards. Since I’d just bought my first pro Nikon digital camera, I was keen to see what kit the photographer would use,  and maybe pick up some tips.

After he set up the lights and backdrop though, he pulled out one of these. He had another two battered veterans his bag (“because they keep breaking on me”). Needless to say, the photos were fantastic.

By the way, does anyone know where or who the quote above comes from?

Sorry for the blog hiatus . . .

New Year’s Resolutions

1. Blog more often
2. Don’t get freaked out by the poor economic climate depression
3. Dive into multimedia (watch this space)
4. Shed my aversion to Photoshop
5. Take LOTS and LOTS of photos – preferably of things no-one’s photographed before. At least not in the same way.

Anyone have resolutions they want to share?

When Hayao Miyazaki spoke at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club in Tokyo he said he could never be the Prime Minister of Japan because “you can’t tell the truth to people who do not want to hear”.

But here are 10 reasons why he SHOULD have the top job. (Who knows, there could be a vacancy soon)

1. He loves nature, so he won’t build any more roads and bridges.
2. He’s fabulously rich and doesn’t need the kickbacks.
3. He’s popular in China, and the rest of Asia, and the rest of the world.
4. He could make Japan children-friendly and solve the birthrate problem.
5. He knows about Shinto but isn’t a right wing fanatic.
6. He has a beard (when was the last time you saw a Japanese politician with a beard?)
7. He’s not a LDP politician.
8. He’s not a DPJ politician.
9. He’s not a politician.
10. He has imagination.

Ahh. Back in Tokyo. Here are two things you probably wouldn`t find anywhere else!

Decibel display on a building site. Musn`t disturb the neighbours.

Erm . . . cheese curry pot noodle

Japanese construction worker fashion! Very cool article from Ping Mag

And if you don’t believe they are serious . . . press release (bottom of the page)

the recession must have ended!

poster on the train asking people to “sit in the correct way” with their legs behind the line

the reality!