His shirt says Captain Santa...
After spending nearly a week in Tokyo, I headed for a week of travel with a Shinkansen bullet train rail pass. On the suggestion of Alfred and Thi, my friends and perfect hosts in Tokyo, I immediately headed for the monthly market held at one of Kyoto's many shrines just a 15 minute walk from where I was staying. There's a phenomenal flea market included but, because the trains leaving Tokyo were delayed two hours due to an accident, I just caught the tail end of that. Happily, the festivities carried on into the night while I wandered and was captivated by the local color. Glad to see more of what I had begun seeing in Tokyo... people, and especially kids, having a great time together in groups, good food, friendliness and a lot of charm. Perhaps the most enjoyable time I had photographing, although that's a tough call.
While bicycling along the Kamo River in Kyoto, and stopping to photograph... I noticed "encampments" under the bridges. The first I saw looked like small flea markets or rummage sales that were out of place. The people living there were collecting all sorts of stuff, probably a lot of it given to them. It looked like an art installation and from a distance I wasn't sure what to make of them until getting closer and realizing that the city was allowing people to build housing. I'll be posting more pictures of a few of the settings that included major pack rat mode. The pictures here are of the camp of a relatively ordered couple. They weren't there when I started to photograph, but arrived soon after. Fortunately, they were quite friendly and mostly went about their business at first, and answered questions when I asked... the man spoke a fair amount of English. He had cut himself while setting up for the night and his wife immediately dressed the wound. I didn't get their names, but he proudly told me their dog's name was "Daisuke, number one dog in Kyoto."
