The kawazu blossoms are still going strong, but I wasn't in the mood to brave the crowd so I just walked around and explored. Let's follow along with my walk.

We'll start with this one:

At some point I ended up at the station. I didn't go in, but I've lived here long enough to know the spots where you can get close enough to the platform without actually buying a ticket to get onto it. This is the first class car you're looking at. It's not too much to get a first class seat, a few hundred yen more, so I sometimes get it when I'm taking a 30 minute or longer trip.

Outside the station, some steps!

This is what my buddy Tom McLaughlan would refer to as a ministract, his overarching term for minimal photos that also are a bit abstract. I don't search out such images, but sometimes when I zoom in they pop out at me. I'm not nearly as good as Tom because he's been focusing on this type of photography for 20 years. Go check him out.

But speaking of zooming in...

If you know Japanese beer, you'll know this guy. Yes, I was a bit under the influence during the photowalk. I have been known to duck into convenience stores to buy one and quickly drink it down in the cafe area of the store or in the parking lot.

While I was enjoying that drink, out the window:

I'm not sure what kind of petals those are. There were no cherry blossoms near this place, nor are many cherry blossoms even blooming yet. Plum blossoms usually don't rain down in this way. So.... it's a bit of a mystery. Hmmm. Looked nice anyway. I could enjoy it a little as I sat there.

This was somewhere on my walk. I guess I was a bit more in the ministract mood than usual. It's not lined up perfectly because I was using my phone for this shot, but I almost prefer the imperfection. It reminds me of my Holga days. @boxcarblue recently did a great post with some Holga-esque photos—go check it out.

Again not lined up very well, because such things are not so easy to do with a phone. The beer I had earlier might have had something to do with that too. Hmm. Small parks with one or two pieces of equipment, often just swings and a slide, are fairly common every few blocks in many Japanese cities.

A close up on one of the slides:

The ministract mood hit again. It does sometimes, and this photowalk was one of those times. I had my dSLR with me, but most of the time I was just using my phone. Using the phone seems to inspire more artistic images sometimes. Not sure why exactly that is.

Back when I was teaching more photo workshops I would take students on walks without cameras, just with frames we made with sticks. It was an idea I took from another buddy who teaches photo classes up in Tokyo, Alfie Goodrich. It's a nice way to get students to think creatively by getting them to just use these frames and imagining composed shots. Maybe using a smartphone inspired something of the same as that exercise does.

Back to the station:

I was probably leaning in a little too much for that shot. Those fright trains pass through quickly in Japan!

Those trees on the opposite bank are someiyoshino cherry blossoms. They are starting to bud—you can see a bit of color if you look closely—but not there yet. Maybe in a week or so.

Another ministract!

And we finish with a mirror exposure:

I always enjoy that with high contrast monochrome. That was a name plate on someone's front gate.

And that was my walk. Thanks for coming with me! If you have any questions about anything you see, ask away in the comments.

ABOUT

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.