I sometimes go to Kawagoe town a few times a year.
It was early spring, and I thought there was still a little time before the cherry blossoms would bloom. I walked around with my Lumix G9 Pro II and Leica DG12-60mm.
Kawagoe, the Little Edo, is now a popular tourist destination in the suburbs of Tokyo. I guess those are what you would call image photos.
Scenes like this of the old “Town of Old Warehouses” are probably what attract tourists all over the world. It’s a great success as a tourism promotion measure, but it’s becoming a bit of a problem for photo walks as there are too many people.
Even the area around the “Bell of Time” in the center of the town, which used to have a calm and elegant atmosphere, now is like this.
There are also streets nearby that still retain the atmosphere of the old Kawagoe that flourished from the Taisho to the Showa periods, and it’s like walking through a movie set, so it’s quite enjoyable. However, the popularity of this Taisho Roman Yume Dori is also gradually increasing, and the number of people walking through it is increasing rapidly.
It’s also getting harder to take photos calmly here.
By the way, I thought that this photo might fit the image of Kawagoe, so I took it in RAW format and developed it using an Adobe profile that mimics the “L Classic Neo” photo style that comes with the G9PROII, and then made some fine adjustments to finish it off.
According to the LUMIX official website, this is a photo style that “gives a nostalgic, gentle feel reminiscent of color film.” I think the “L” is the “L” that can’t be clearly stated for adult reasons.
Now, feeling a little overwhelmed like the average tourist, when I come to Kawagoe these days, I take a little detour from the center of the old town and go for a photo walk.
Benten Yokocho was originally a geisha district lined with row houses from the Taisho and Showa era, and later became a drinking district, but it fell into decline and eventually became a ghost town, with only the entrance gate sign remaining. It’s not a beautiful sight, but it’s a rather emotional view that lends itself to a film-like photo style.
Around 2020, a local shopping street revitalization NPO, made up of local shop owners, took over the abandoned building and started a project to attract young creators and entrepreneurs. If you go down the alley, you’ll find it has been renovated like this.
There are a lot of nice shops and restaurants lining the street, and they are slowly multiplying. It seems to be a hot spot known only to the locals. I hope it will continue to thrive, but I don’t want it to become too well known by tourists (lol).
It was just about lunchtime, so we had lunch here.
To be continued next time.
