Later at night every night on the streets and in the subways you encounter drunk Japanese. In my experience most were men, salary men after work but I also saw many drunk women, some in groups, some by themselves,
To sure if alcoholism is a big problem here, more so than other countries but it certainly seemed so. Getting drunk late at night midweek (every night?) before getting up very early the next morning to return to work seemed a bit of an issue to me. How long can photographed you keep that sort of thing up before you had serious health concerns?
Will tell you about a scene I photographed on my last night. I had been walking, running, juking and jiving thru the serving crowds and was tired so decided to go to the opposite side of the stations walking area to some empty seats there. As I approached I Saw what looked to be a man lying face down on the ground. He was well dressed and groomed with long curly hair but a mess because of over drinking. In front of him on the ground was a little towel some clear liquid he had thrown up and strangely a beautiful yellow flower in a plastic skip style bag.
I photographed in the position I found him then sat and waited to see what would happen next. A minute or so later he rolled over in a fetal position on his right side. I stood and made some photos. At that point he realized I was there and looked up at me in surprise (a similar expression to my earlier made frightened lady Burmese migrant worker photo).
I then kneeled down and spoke to him, while making the occasional photo, most blindly, some not. I asked him how he was, recommended he sit on the nearby chairs or at least sit up. He asked about the photos, I explained what I was doing. I asked him about the flower he laughed out loud with a wide open mouth several times (still drunk), He said it was for his girlfriend. We then spoke about drinking a bit. “Too much saki?” “Yes too much saki.” We also spoke of Canada and some time he had been in St. John’s New Foundland. I mentioned I was from Edmonton.
He then asked me for my name card, I scribbled my email address on a piece of paper for him. He then wrote down his email for me. I will se;d him some photos later on. Sort of a new friend I guess. Another little photo adventure from this trip. I hope he can control his drinking in the future, it is bound to catch up to him.
