It's Friday! Time to break out my happy shoes!

And here they are:

This was shot in a craft store area in Zhezhiang, a Ming-dynasty era town near Shanghai. Filled with canals, crafts and ancient houses and structures, it's well worth the visit.

As I was walking down one of the narrow lanes between the buildings, I noticed these traditional Chinese children's shoes in a store. Irresistible image.

Shibuya Starbucks

Did a lot of walking round Tokyo in the hot summer sunshine when I was there last. There's just so many places to go to, and so much to see, that you really can't keep in one place for too long. Well, I couldn't, but then I do have that problem when travelling. Just can't be satisfied with where I am, I need to see what's round the next corner - same as when I watch TV, channel-flipping every thirty seconds, totally obsessive-compulsive. The great thing in Tokyo: whatever's round that next corner is always going to be interesting.

The problem with my channel-flipping style, though, is that you literally can't go on forever. There's going to be a time in your day when your energy levels bottom out, and you need somewhere to regroup and refuel.

My favourite spot for this, in the middle of the day, was Starbucks. Boringly. But not just any Starbucks. The Starbucks in Shibuya, overlooking one of the busiest intersections in the world, where 1500 pedestrians cross the road each time the traffic lights change.

The thing about people in Tokyo is that they're just interesting. There are a load of different styles and cultural subgroups, and how you dress is a very important way of identifying which group you're in. Gothic, cosplay, kimono, punk, post-punk, arthouse, modern, 1920's, salaryman, pretty much any style you can think of you'll see walking round, and all pulled off really well. Here in Hong Kong, people don't have the same sense of style, and most of the street culture here is pretty monolithic - folks aren't creative about how they dress. There is some punk and very rarely some cosplay/dress-up, but you can tell the people are doing dress-by-numbers from a magazine. In Tokyo, you can tell people really live their subgroup. They don't look out of place at all.

The best place to see this, of course, is Harajuku, not Shibuya. But in Shibuya I could sit on the second floor of the Starbucks, armed with a 70-300mm, and drink my coffee while waiting for interesting things to happen. When they do, you just need to lift and shoot, and then go back to your coffee. With the crop sensor on the Nikon D50, I was able to get even closer to the action.

And when I got tired of people watching, there was a great Tsutaya to go and rifle through, looking for all the music that's hard to find in Hong Kong Records: Booka Shade, Justin Robertson, whatever I looked for, I could find. Pity there was only so much I could buy.

Lake Toya

Following on from yesterday's post, I'm thinking about Lake Toya in Hokkaido. Caldera lake, active volcano area, beautiful scenery and fantastic onsen. This really would be a great place to visit in winter. And I'd really like to be there right now, just wandering round in the dressing gown like everyone else in a Japanese spa resort town. Seriously, that was one of the more bizarre sights of my holiday: pulling in to the town on the edge of Lake Toya and seeing eveeryone strolling round in bathrobes with their hotel's name all over. Good way to see the most popular hotel, I guess, and all advertizing is good for business.

This is the view across the lake, to the island:

and a final view of some weird statue, and the last sunset at Toya:

Here's the room we stayed in. Traditional Japanese style, or ryokan. Looked greta in the beginning, but there's nowhere to put your stuff, so the room was a total mess in about 3 minutes.

Hokkaido Calling!

Spring seems to have started here in Hong Kong, which always makes outdoor photography difficult: overcast, foggy, rain, rain, rain. Not saying that you don't get moody atmospherics, but you definitely need some hardcore covering for your gear. I'm not sure even my Nikon D300's famed weather seal would hold up to it: it definitely wouldn't have through last June's downpours, when we had a record 1346.1 mm according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

SO seeing the grey clouds this morning, and the fog, while I was in bed drinking my morning coffee, I just felt the call of a Furano summer in Hokkaido, Japan. I went up there last year, and I've been longing to go back there ever since. Definitely not my last trip.

Here's the antidote to grey skies:



Same field, different angle:

And this is a another view from around the same field:




These shots were taken in a field between Furano and Biei, which really is heaven in summer, and seems like a great ski place in winter, too. If there's any way I can get to spend a couple of years up there, I'll grab the chance. 'Till then, I'll keep dreaming, especially during Hong Kong's spring rains.