The Hotel Queen is another abandoned love hotel on the banks of Lake Tama. I first saw it the first time I went out there to shoot the Akasaka and the Red Blossom about 2 years ago. At the time it looked semi-abandoned, with a chain roping it off. I tentatively strode over the chain only to be blasted by a motion sensor alarm. I froze like a deer in the headlights, saw a nearby open door, shoes on the ground beside it, and decided not to push my luck any further. I cycled off, heading for the real meat. …
Remnants of the US Air Force Base in Tachikawa, Japan
The abandoned US Air Force (USAF) base in Tachikawa is a bramble-choked memento from the early days of Japanese/American war and peace. It was annexed by the USA shortly after World War II, in co-operation with the still-active nearby Japan Army (SDF) Base, then abandoned in the 1970’s as the Vietnam war came to a close. Its three huge chimneys are still visible from the exterior, brick-red and lined up like masts on a rudderless ship, slowly sinking deeper into the smothering sea of green jungle. Its airstrip now swims with weeds, and bamboo forests have grown through the foundations …
Keishin Hospital 4. Model Shoot
After the grand luck of Dom and Liduina contacting me for a wedding haikyo shoot a few months back, I figured I couldn`t bank on the same thing happening again. If I wanted to shoot models in haikyo more, I`d have to get out there and find them myself. So I put out a casting call, not sure if anyone would reply. Well, several did, which was great. The first I organized a shoot with was Sara, at the Keishin Hospital.
Outdoor Japan Haikyo – Sports World
The March-April edition of Outdoor Japan was my second time to present a feature article on haikyo, including photographs. This time I focused on Sports World, my all-time favorite haikyo. They did a wonderful layout in spooky black with the photos given ample space to shine. In addition I had the chance to go through the copy of the whole magazine with Gardener the editor and help out with proofing in general, which was great fun. You can buy back-issues of OJ and of course Subscribe to future issues here.
Kindred Spirit Interview- The Spirituality of Ruins
I’ve mentioned my sister Alice on this site before– when she got her book ‘The High-Heeled Guide to Enlightenment‘ published. She spent a year of her life experimenting with various forms of spirituality- going to shamans, doing sweat lodges, having reiki crystal therapy, being regressed through past lives, etc… It’s a fascinating read I’d recommend to anyone interested in that sort of thing. Typically I’m not, but I’ll admit some of it got me thinking. Anyway- since that book came out she’s been hard at work promoting the book and writing pieces for magazines based around the topics of the …
Burnt Down House haikyo
When I went on the wedding haikyo shoot a few weeks back we stumbled upon this burnt down house. Normally I`d bypass it in favor of the target- in this case we were looking for the Hume factory, but that turned out to be demolished. We had some time to kill, so after looking into the nearby Pachinko Hall we decided to check out the house. Dom and Liduina posed a bit in front, but the light was going and none of us were really in the mood to do a proper shoot, so we just poked around inside.
Untitled Haikyo Book
Another book I’ve put together and recently sent out to select agents is my haikyo book. I have sent it out before, but then only to a limited spread of Japan-based publishers. This time I went more international. Already I got a few replies, some of them advising me on which agents I should approach. The comments I’ve got have been positive, with one main proviso- that it’s quite esoteric. It’s true, haikyo is a specific niche, but I think ruins in general appeal broadly. Hook that market, plus the Japan-loving nerd market, that’s not a bad niche. Here are …
Haikyo Pachinko Hall
Last week`s haikyo wedding shoot at the Volcano Museum was supposed to only be the first of two locations. We scarpered out of there at double-time to make it to the Hume Cement Factory in Saitama, a place I visited only 5 months ago, along with fellow haikoyists Mike, Mike, and Lee. Liduina would don a second outfit she`d brought along, a kind of kimono, and we`d explore a whole other kind of shoot. What we found instead.
Volcano Museum 4. Haikyo Wedding
I`ve been thinking for a long time about shooting models in a haikyo. I bought a flash (SB-600), a flash-stand, and even took a lesson on flash, but still the thinking remained thinking and not shooting. I had no desire to go on a practise shoot that wasn`t in a haikyo, but I was too shy to take a model solo to a haikyo without any experience. Quite a quandary. In the end the answer came to me, in the form of Dom. Dom found my site and got in contact about his vision for a wedding photo shoot; him, …
Hiroshima A-bomb dome
At 8:15 on August 6 1945 the first nuclear bomb in the history of warfare detonated over Hiroshima, obliterating the city within a 1.5 mile radius and killing outright some 80,000 people, with around another 70,000 dying of radiation and burns by the end of the year. Japanese pilots flying on reconnaissance missions to the city after all radio transmissions went dead said that `practically all living things, human and animal, were literally seared to death`. The A-bomb dome (genbaku dome, originally Hiroshima Trade Promotion Hall) was only 150 meters away from the blast hypocenter. It survived because of its …