One of my favorite Japanese fall flowers is “leopard plant,” called tsuwabuki (ツワブキ) in Japanese. Many traditional gardens use it, and it looks like it could be growing wild by the stream.
自然より、スマホの方に興味があるようです。 At Yoyogi park.
雨のあとで、橋はこの感じでした。
サンフランシスコの道路では、梅の花びらも紅葉も一緒に見えます。可笑しいでしょう？
After living in Japan, seeing autumn foliage in background, and plum blossoms in foreground is a confusing mix of seasons. In California, there’s a wet and a dry season, with little temperature difference from month to month. It’s odd to see both plants from 2 season regions like the Mediterranean, South Africa, and Australia, and also from 4 season regions.
Called keyaki in Japanese, these elegant trees give distinction to Tokyo’s global brand shopping street. These trees are gorgeous year-round, but especially in fall.
秋の代々木公園が一番きれいだと思います。ハープと洒落た服が秋の紅葉と共鳴しています。
小さなトラックは、エキゾチックな南米の都市にあるバーの雰囲気を東京の都心に連れて来ます。この秋の日に、ハイキングスタイルとウエスタン男子ファッションは面白いと思います。
Biking through Yoyogi Park you never know what you’ll run into. One weekend, Shibuya Camp appeared with gorgeous tents and folk music. This truck brings a Buenos Aires Bar to Tokyo in fall. Based on the men’s fall outfits, you might think you’re at the start of a mountain trail in South America.
Whenever biking towards Shibuya or Aoyama, I make sure now to bike through Yoyogi Park. The weather has been beautiful, the leaves just starting to fall, and plenty of others enjoying the sunshine.
In the park next to Higashi Koenji.
The kilometers of mature gingkos lining Omeikaido make this wide and busy boulevard much more enjoyable. The yellow leaves are now, of course, all gone. But since I am posting more film photographs, I want to share some of my favorite fall photos that were recently developed. Fallen gingko leaves, school uniforms, umbrellas, face masks, and a slow-moving sidewalk bike are a perfect urban scene.
I stopped at the local shrine today to offer thanks for my visa renewal. The gate and the ginkgo leaves made me stop.
新宿御苑に、大きなイチョウは黄色になりました。
新宿御苑に、新し温室が開けました。
An amazing, tropical place to spend a cold day. Yesterday, I enjoyed watching the park’s fall foliage through the enormous glass walls.
お祭りのときに、素敵な着物を着たおばあさんが、路上で踊っています。友だちのバスと、９月の芝のお祭りに行きました。
On a wide boulevard normally devoted to multi-lane auto traffic, nothing could be more beautiful than the site of elegant ladies in matching kimonos and hats dancing in synchronized movements. The summer and fall Shinto festivals transform business Tokyo into a series of village parties evoking an agrarian culture rarely sensed inside the megalopolis.
Below are photos from the Shiba matsuri. The sub-group near my friend Bas’ home displayed photos from the 1945 festival, just a month after the end of the war in which the entire neighborhood and much of Tokyo was burnt to the ground. The last photo shows a man who is both telling stories and selling bananas, a continuation of an Edo-era festival character.
In the photos you can see how on a special holiday, the streets, overpasses, convenience stores, and other mundane urban spaces are transformed into a very social and well dressed public environment.
