Live from Ikebukuro

You see something interesting in Tokyo every day. While I was in Ikebukuro hunting down stickers to bribe students with, I came across a huge pedestrian bottleneck right in front of the station, where the police had cordoned off a pedestrian crossing. For those who remember the Japanese salute I wrote about in my entry on the Winter Comiket, it was in full swing here with everyone and their dog whipping out their mobile phones and cameras to take photos. Having my SLR with me, I of course brought that out started shooting once I figured out what was going on.


Looks scary, doesn't it? I read in the paper later that the bus was empty and on its way back to the depot when the driver careened into the subway entrance. Three pedestrians were slightly hurt, but other than that there were no casualties.

Thing about carrying a huge-ass camera around, is that you get to meet the most interesting people. While getting my scoop on the crash, I was approached by this guy who had another SLR and got the distinct feeling that he was trying to chat me up. He asked if I could follow him so that he could take a few pictures of me, but that immediately rang a few very loud alarm bells, so I gave him the slip as graciously as I could. On less sinister occasions I've been asked multiple times on the same day if I could help people take photos, simply because it looked like I knew what I was doing. Story of my life. Guys, just because my camera looks impressive doesn't mean I can take a good picture. Meh.