There's something quite frightening about ticking a place off the very top of your bucket list. For the longest time Tokyo was the subject of many "one day" conversations.
"One day, I'll get to go there."
"One day, I'll eat fresh sushi at the fish market."
"One day, I'll see it for myself."
When you really want to visit a place, somewhere that's been built up in your head by pop culture and living vicariously through friends' holiday photos, you start to worry that maybe if you do get to go "one day" it won't live up to your hopes. I was nervous when I booked the tickets, nervous when I packed my bag and nervous as the plane touched down on the runway after a twelve hour flight to the place that I'd longed to visit. I didn't need to worry... Tokyo was everything that I hoped and then some.
I knew that I wanted to photograph my adventure, but I was also wary of spending time stuck to a camera screen, over-shooting, distracting myself with the luxury of digital photography. I have always loved shooting film and on many of my trips I have shot a few rolls here and there... I'm currently writing a specific post on the subject soon so I won't waffle on too much now but shooting film regularly helps me to relax and be in the moment... I decided this trip was going to be fully analogue aside from the odd phone photo for my instastories. I packed my trusty Canon 1V with a 50mm lens and a simple lightweight compact camera I picked up on eBay recently, a Samsung AF Slim. I took along a big variety bag of film, containing all sorts of exciting rolls including Portra 800, Cinestill 50D, Natura 1600 and more.
So, armed with a bag full of film and a couple of cameras I explored Tokyo... don't get me wrong, it was by no means a thorough trip and I still have plenty more to go back and see... but from the sensory overload of Shinjuku to the calm of the city's parks and the vibrant suburban neighbourhoods, I felt like I saw a good taste of what the city has to offer a new visitor. I also tasted a lot of incredible food and drink, including adorable cream puffs, life-ruiningly good noodles, plum wine, the freshest of sushi and the unexpected delight of cans of hot coffee from vending machines. Here's some of my favourite shots from my week in the city I had always hoped to visit, that totally surpassed every expectation and stole my heart... Tokyo, you were really something...
