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is walking around Yanaka and Ueno with a couple of cameras, at least one being an sx-7o.

I went to Chiba Minato to put in my application to extend my visa for another 3 years. They have this system where you take a number, and then wait for your number to be called. I got 71, and they were on 52. So, an hour later at 11:57 they finish with #70. And then they quickly announce that they will be closing for lunch, and will be back at 1pm. This Japanese guy with his Korean wife lost it and freaked out on the desk workers about how maybe this method of working is not the best for everyone. He did this verbal judo thing where he called the staff stupid, and said that they were “not trying their best”. Then if they countered by repeating his words back to him (and they did) he refuted them by saying “I never called you stupid, I never said you weren’t trying your best”. Oh man. Glad I brought a book. Also- if you are in the Chiba Minato Immigration office and get stuck there during the lunch break, make sure you get downstairs and get a lunch before they are gone. There is NOTHING else around the building in terms of places to eat. However, in the basement they do have a 1 hour photo shop. With truly awesome signs like these:

Left:
“To you who who uses a digital camera, but does not print your photos… It’s easy! Beautiful! Colors won’t fade!”
Center:
“Are there people you know who take your photo, but still won’t give you a copy? Print your digital pictures at a photo shop”
Right:
“I am a person who prints my photos at a photo shop.” (thumbs up)

No one seems to want to talk about the interesting issue that a lot of our physical material-based snapshot culture is going to be missing from here on out. These signs are asking people to actually print out their (goddamn) pictures.

Back in the waiting room: right at 1pm they called my number and then 5 minutes later I was out the door walking back to the station.

From the train into Tokyo –>

The best picture of the Ocean I’ve taken:

Passing through Onishi sensei’s station:

My plan was to pick up some more photo paper in the size I need in Shinjuku. Here is a hint; Get enough paper in the size you need before you go all out printing.
I was in the darkroom from 9am to 7pm on Saturday, and then for another 8 hours on Sunday making exhibition prints. I got about half my photos done during this time, but still needed more paper.

The quickest way from Tokyo Station to Shinjuku is the Marunouchi line. Which, if you get off at Yotsuya San-chome you will be near Roonee, a photo gallery and up the street there is this bookstore on the corner:

I don’t know the name, but it is on the north side of the street across from the AMPM near the exit of Shinjuku Gyoen Mae station. Coming up from Yotsuya on the Big Street Into Shinjuku (not it’s official name) it is after the Wendys, but before the Freshness Burger. It is a family run affair, with quite a few Araki books, and all kinds of 1960-70s-80s photographic & literary ephemera. I picked up a copy of Araki’s “Kyoto White Sentiment” for 2500 yen this afternoon.

After that I saw a Freshness Burger across the street and popped in for a cheeseburger and a pepsi. For you Nebraskan Readers, this chain is close in decor to a Runza shop. For those of you not from Nebraska, the inside of every Freshness Burger looks really, really old-timey “American” the way a Nebraskan Chinese restaurant looks oh so “Oriental”.

Just after finishing my burger I looked over to my right and saw Mai Tanaka take a photograph of her boyfriend. Then I scooted over and pulled up a chair to chat because I had not seen her since March.

I’ve written about Mai before. She hates it when I point my camera towards one of “her” models, you can kind of see this in the second picture from the top in that link. She takes beautiful pictures of beautiful women and you can see such photos on her blog.

FASHION TIP: A brown Lacoste shirt, a skirt and a Contax point and shoot is pretty hot.

She and He needed to get to their jobs, and so I again started back up the street into Shinjuku, first getting sidetracked for a few minutes to check Place M, a photo gallery near the park. Unlike Roonee, it was open today and had a pretty good show up. I’m not sure to what extent, but I’ve heard that Moriyama Daido has something to do with this gallery, and if you want to see contrasty, grainy, and harshly black and white street photography- Place M is the spot to see it. They publish books, many of which are of contrasty, grainy, and harshly black and white street photography. In particular I think they have the market cornered on Shinjuku Photography (At Night with Flash pictures in particular) with several books for sale by different photographers on that very theme.

But back to the paper quest. I thought that I could find more 14×17 (半切 hansetsu) paper at Bic Camera in Yurakucho, or Yodobashi in Akihabara, but it seems only to be found at the (glorious) Darkroom floor at Yodobashi honten in Shinjuku. Picked up six 10-sheet packs of Hansetsu paper (27oo yen each), some smaller sized paper for test strips, developer and fixer mix. That and 2 new plastic trays to fit this new paper size. The previous ones I had were either for 11×14 (too small) or 16×20 (way too big). I went with the 16×20 size for everything in the past 2 days, but having to stand over 8 liters of fixer (on the floor of my bathroom) for more than even 5 seconds was tough. Hopefully the smaller size will be easier on both my bathroom fan and lungs since they will hold only 5 liters, which is just enough.

On the way home At/From Yoyogi Station: