The Long Night

Asakusa on 500 & 800T.

There’s nothing like exploring Tokyo at night. In a city this massive, there are pockets where everyone’s lights are out at 9 p.m. alongside blocks of bars, shops, and restaurants that are open until all hours. There is no shortage of night life, if that’s your thing. But, if you’re someone like me who likes to keep things moving, stopping only briefly for a drink or two before carrying on, there is plenty of opportunity to do just that.

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These photos are from a night where I decided to walk from my place in Ryogoku to Tokyo Skytree. Once there, I spent time exploring that area and then headed to Asakusa for some night photos of the iconic Senso-Ji temple to end the evening.

It had been raining all day - and I mean really raining. It was the only day where I hunkered down in my apartment, only venturing out to the ramen shop around the corner for lunch. The forecast said the rain would eventually clear up around 7 p.m., so I waited it out and enjoyed some Japanese cable programming, which is always a treat, and at times bonkers in the best way.

My weather app was correct, the rain did clear up on time, as promised. So I grabbed my Nikon F80 kitted with the 50mm 1.8, already loaded with a fresh roll of CineStill 800T, with another half roll of 500T in my pocket, an umbrella (just in case), and hit the pavement, ready to shoot some dang film.

The distance between my apartment to Tokyo Skytree was deceptive. The Skytree was visible from my apartment, every place I visited that night, and always seemed so much closer than it actually was. Don’t be fooled though, Skytree is massive, so even at a distance it feels fairly walkable. It ended up taking me two hours (and two beer) to get there.

Once I finally reached the tower, I explored the shopping area below it for a while when suddenly the rain decided to pick back up - quickly moving from a drizzle to straight up pouring once again…I made the best of a damp situation. I grabbed some melon pan and hunkered down in the mall entrance to wait it out. Luckily it only lasted about 15 minutes before letting up and I was back on my way.

Not wanting to miss out on the lights at Senso-Ji, I quickly headed out, sticking mostly to the main road which leads directly there from Skytree.

Reaching the Senso-Ji area, I quickly ducked into the Asakusa Underground to see what was poppin’. I took quite a few photos there, some of which I’ve put aside for my forthcoming zine, so I only have a few to share from that detour here.

Back outta the Underground, I finally headed into Senso-Ji Temple. There were a lot of people already cleared out due to how late it was getting - which was nice. So I got to steppin’, as I knew the lights would eventually turn off and there were certain things I really wanted to capture before I left.

Just outside the temple area, there are streets full of little bars and restaurants, so I walked around for a while, trying to find interesting compositions amongst all the busyness. I tried to shoot without including people in the frame, a difficult task as most streets were packed outside the main temple grounds with folks getting food, having drinks, and lining up in queues.

In most cases I just camped out and waited until the streets emptied out so I could capture the scene and the glow of the street lamps without any humans around - a rare sight in this part of town.

I stuck around for a little while after all the temple area lights turned off; I wanted to catch a glimpse of how the area winds down. There were swarms of people leaving through the many narrow, winding streets and pathways leading to and from the temple. I waded through the crowds and it felt oddly relaxing. As the final shop lights shut down and the streets grew dark, the only lights left were the ones needed for utility. The vibe was instantly different, but interesting in its own way.

I decided to walk back to my apartment rather than catch a cab or a train. The walk was long, I was out of film, and it was very late. Walking back, the streets were empty and quiet, as I approached home-base I stopped for my obligatory konbini snack and drink. I got home and was feeling pretty good, I’d ended up packing in about a full day’s worth of photos into one evening. Not friggin’ bad!

Stay focused.