While visiting Koishikawa Korakuen Garden, I took a walk around the Kagurazaka neighborhood.
This area has many tasteful backstreet scenes, which are often used as subjects by various people regardless of whether they are professional or amateur photographers. I thought I would try my hand as a lowest class amateur.
Since this is a continuation of my previous trip, I have a Pentax K-3III camera and four single focal length lenses in my bag, ranging from 15mm to 77mm, but this time I take only smc FA31mm limited F1.8 on camera.
Let’s get started.
The indescribable age-old hue of the handrail is really good.
I don’t know how it is in general, but in my mind, typical Kagurazaka scences for me are these tasteful staircases and…
…a cobblestone-lined alley. Is it strange?
Cobblestone pavement here, too. The atmosphere of Kagurazaka, which used to be a old hanamachi (red light district), remains today, and at nightfall, don’t you feel as if you might see Geisha girl walking toward a ryotei (traditional Japanese restaurant)?
This alley seems to stimulate many people’s Viva Kagurazaka minds, and no matter what time of day you come, many people passing by are taking pictures with their phones in both directions. I took one myself too.
I can’t get enough of the natural way the stones are laid out in the narrow alley, which doesn’t look “paved”.
I think the so-called “Kagurazaka” popular these days refers to the area of the slope from Iidabashi st. to Bishamonten, Zenkokuji and its back streets where there is a concentration of shop & restaurants, but you can also find quite tasteful backstreet scenery in the residential area around Akagi Shrine and Kagurazaka subway station a little further on.
This narrow street leads to the Akagi Children’s Park, where the famous Elephant Nose Slide is located.
When you are walking along thinking you are in a residential area, you may suddenly see a fascinating Ryotei gate like this. You can never be too careful.
Since I’ve only lined up photos that show the ground all this time, I’ll include one last photo that raises the eye a bit. This is Sugitama, a cedar ball, which shows “this year’s first Sake is coming!” hanging from the eaves of an alley.
The restaurant was closed, so I don’t know the details, but it must be a drinking establishment that prides itself on its sake. But how early is early December for Sugitama? Or is the first sake already available? I wondered.
So, this was a Kagurazaka photo stroll from start to finish, just back alleys. 31mm FA limited is sometimes said to be a lens that “captures the atmosphere,” but I wonder how well I was able to capture the atmosphere of Kagurazaka alleys.
*I had an idea while pasting the photos I took side by side in my blog post. That story will be in the next issue.
