The Tokyo Snap

Street Snap #54 Shibuya Station | KODAK Charmera Keychain Digital Camera debut

Dean — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:59:05 +0000

I photographed the area around Shibuya Station using the “KODAK CHARMERA Keychain Digital Camera.”

I usually document Shibuya with the RICOH GR IV. However, when I looked at the images taken with the “KODAK CHARMERA,” the impression was entirely different. Although it is the same place, it feels as if I am touching a different layer of the city. There is a strange sense of distance, and familiar scenes begin to emerge as something new.

With a camera this small and light, like a keychain, I initially doubted whether it could really take photographs. Yet the images it produced clearly captured the streets of Shibuya.

This time, I first tried all of the frames and filters. After that, I shot by randomly switching settings, following my instincts in the moment.

The Shibuya that appears in these images, while still a contemporary city, carries a texture that feels slightly out of sync in time. With its subtly muted tones and rough resolution, it resembles a kind of time slip back to 1987, giving familiar scenes an entirely different context.

For a while, I plan to continue carrying the “KODAK CHARMERA” as a keychain. I am interested to see what kinds of moments it will capture in everyday life, and how that experience might evolve over time. ■

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Street Snap #53 KODAK Charmera Keychain Digital Camera Unboxing

Dean — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 09:10:47 +0000

I purchased the “KODAK CHARMERA Keychain Digital Camera.”

It is a compact digital camera designed by KODAK in the form of a keychain. In 1987, KODAK introduced the disposable camera “KODAK Fling,” which made photography accessible to everyone. That same idea has re-emerged today in the form of the “KODAK CHARMERA.”

At the time of its release, it was highly popular and difficult to obtain. Now that supply has stabilized, I was finally able to get one.

Upon unboxing, I was struck by how small it is. Its size is perfect for attaching to a bag as a keychain. Each unit comes in one of seven colors, randomly packed, and not knowing which one you will get adds a small sense of anticipation to the experience.

With the “KODAK CHARMERA” in hand, I immediately walked through the streets of Shibuya. The photographs taken there will be presented in the next series. ■

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Street Snap #52 Makishi Market Area, Naha, Okinawa | GR IV

Dean — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 17:33:25 +0000

From Kokusai Street, a well-known tourist destination in Naha, Okinawa, stepping just a little off the main road reveals the Makishi market area. In this district, multiple shopping arcades intertwine and extend into one another, forming a complex, almost maze-like structure. I walked through and documented the area, from the busy main streets filled with visitors to the quieter back alleys just beyond them.

Scenes where newly opened shops stand beside long-established stores feel as if layers of time have accumulated without interruption. Vegetation shaped by the warm climate, vivid signboards, goods displayed in dense and unstructured ways, and the presence of people moving through the space all merge together, creating a unique and saturated atmosphere. It carries an organic, unpredictable rhythm that differs from the order of more structured urban environments.

At the end of the walk, I climbed up to a small hill in the adjacent Kibogaoka Park. The stillness that unfolds beyond the intricate network of streets, along with the natural elements characteristic of Okinawa, sharply contrasts with the liveliness experienced just moments before.

For this series, I experimented with the newly introduced “Cinema (Yellow)” image control on the GR IV. Through this color profile, I aim to capture the market area of Okinawa with a subtly nostalgic texture. ■

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Street Snap #51 Shibuya Station Construction, May 2026 | GR IV

Dean — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 11:53:40 +0000

These are street snapshots I regularly take around Shibuya Station. The area in front of the station, in particular, is in the midst of a large-scale redevelopment and continues to change its appearance day by day. Temporary barriers, scaffolding, cranes, and constantly shifting pedestrian routes. A sense of the extraordinary, belonging to a city still in the process of becoming, lingers in this place, different from that of a completed urban landscape.

Shibuya has always been a place where chaos and vitality coexist, but the redevelopment site seems to amplify that character even further.

For someone who lives in Shibuya, photographing this scenery on a regular basis does not feel like a special act, but rather a natural extension of documenting everyday life. It is not only the finished city that matters, but also the time that exists along the way. (Though it might also be said that a city like Shibuya is never truly “complete.”)

This time, I used the “Vivid” image control on the GR IV. I wanted to capture the colorful atmosphere of Shibuya using the distinctive color rendering of this camera. I hope to continue recording the “present moment” of Shibuya Station as it keeps changing. ■

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Street Snap #50 Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum | GR IV

Dean — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 13:06:57 +0000

I visited the Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo. This was the atelier and residence where Taro Okamoto lived and continued his work for more than forty years. Photography is permitted throughout the museum, and this time I explored the space with the GR IV in hand.

Okamoto’s works possess an intensity that seems to reject established frameworks and balance. In contrast, the building itself, designed by architect Junzo Sakakura, presents a composed and restrained form. The tension between these two elements gives the site its distinctive atmosphere. The carefully ordered architecture functions as a “frame” that contains the works, acting as a device that holds back their imminent sense of explosion.

Inside the museum, Okamoto’s artworks are interwoven with life-sized figures, an atelier bearing traces of his creative process, and a garden enveloped in greenery. Together, they create a vivid presence, as if Okamoto were still working here even now.

For this series, I used the GR IV’s “Vivid” color image setting. By emphasizing the contours of color, I sought to record more clearly the relationship between Okamoto’s ideas and the space that absorbed and sustained them. ■

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Street Snap #49 Illuminated “The Eye of Shinjuku” | GR IV

Dean — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 07:58:13 +0000

On New Year’s Eve in 2025, I learned that “The Eye of Shinjuku”, a public artwork installed in the underground passageway beneath the former Shinjuku Subaru Building, would be specially illuminated. With a GR IV in hand, I went to photograph it. Created in 1969, the piece was originally designed to light up, with a rotating pupil at its center. For several decades, however, it had remained unlit. To be honest, I myself had not even known that “The Eye of Shinjuku” once emitted light.

A constant stream of people passes in front of the artwork. It no longer feels like something to be consciously viewed, but rather an object fully absorbed into everyday life. Although the Shinjuku Subaru Building was demolished as part of the West Exit redevelopment of Shinjuku Station, “The Eye of Shinjuku” was preserved and remains in its original location. This special illumination brought it back into the spotlight. There was no way I could let such a historic moment pass unnoticed.

When I arrived, many people were already gathered, cameras in hand. Some photographed it from a distance, others moved in close to capture the details. Each person faced the scene at their own distance. Blending into that flow, I too recorded “The Eye of Shinjuku”, glowing once again after decades of darkness.

For this shoot, I used the “Vivid” image control on the GR IV for the first time. It allowed me to capture the glow and colors of “The Eye of Shinjuku” as it emerged vividly within the underground space. ■

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Street Snap #48 Shibuya on New Year’s Day captured with FUJIFILM QuickSnap

Dean — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 14:23:47 +0000

On New Year’s Day 2026, I photographed Shibuya using a FUJIFILM QuickSnap.

First released in 1986, QuickSnap is a disposable camera that integrates film and camera into a single unit. Before the widespread adoption of digital cameras, it was once a hugely popular product.

I chose to use QuickSnap on New Year’s Day, a moment that carries a quiet sense of significance. The location was Shibuya. It is a place I have photographed many times, a kind of personal home ground. By returning to a familiar setting, I hoped the distinctive qualities of photographs taken with QuickSnap would become more apparent.

Using QuickSnap again for the first time in decades, I was reminded of its inherent limitations: the slight mismatch between the viewfinder and the final image, and the inability to review photographs on the spot. These constraints felt both nostalgic and unexpectedly refreshing. The limitation of just 27 frames also sharpened my attention to each exposure, allowing chance and unpredictability to play a more visible role.

The photographs taken with QuickSnap carry a sense of nostalgia, yet they unmistakably belong to the present. I would be glad if viewers could sense this quiet tension between memory and the present moment within these images. ■

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Street Snap #47 Fragments of Okinawa | GR IV

Dean — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 14:42:20 +0000

This series brings together fragments from walks through the city during my stay in Naha, Okinawa. As I moved through the streets, I photographed places that caught my attention and scenes where I naturally stopped to look.

Each visit to Naha reveals many details worth noticing. The city’s character emerges through its distinctive buildings, plants shaped by the warm climate, and an urban atmosphere formed by overlapping cultural and historical contexts often described as “champuru” culture.

For this series, I used the GR IV with the “Negative Film” image control. Its restrained color and contrast are well suited to recording the layered sense of time in the city and the traces of everyday life in Okinawa, without unnecessary emphasis. Rather than presenting a finished or polished view, these photographs document one aspect of Naha as it appears in the flow of daily activity. ■

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Street Snap #46 Okinawa Hotel Cultural Heritage Tour | GR IV

Dean — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 16:28:46 +0000

In 2023, four facilities of Okinawa Hotel were registered as Tangible Cultural Properties. When the hotel began offering a cultural heritage tour, I decided to take part.

Okinawa Hotel was founded in 1941 at a different location from today, on the western coast of Naha known as Naminoue. It was established as the first tourist hotel in Okinawa and went on to play a leading role in shaping the region’s hotel culture from the wartime period through the postwar era.

The designation as a Tangible Cultural Property centers on the prewar Ryokan Building, which has remained in use since the early Showa period. Alongside it are the rare brick-built Brick Wing, the Tile-and-Stone Wall composed of traditional Ryukyuan red tiles and limestone, and the Daido Gate with its traditional design. Together, these elements have been reevaluated as a valuable ensemble representing postwar hotel architecture in Okinawa.

Participating in the cultural heritage tour allowed me, through direct experience, to reflect deeply on the hotel’s unique character, its long history, and the future direction Okinawa Hotel might take. It proved to be an exceptionally meaningful experience.

In particular, I sensed great potential in the brick-built wing. As a registered cultural property, its historical value—something that can never be recreated—must be fully respected. At the same time, I found myself imagining possibilities: carrying out appropriate seismic reinforcement and renovating the interior spaces so that more people can experience the building, reconnecting with the intentions of its original creators, and reactivating it as a hotel that preserves and passes on its authenticity. I also considered whether it could be repurposed as a restaurant, café, or auxiliary facility of the hotel, and my spatial imagination continued to expand.

From its beginnings in Naminoue to its relocation to the present site, Okinawa Hotel has continued to evolve. Looking back on its past, sensing its present appeal, and feeling its strong potential to develop into an even better hotel in the future, the cultural heritage tour left a lasting impression.

For this series, I applied the Negative Film image control of the GR IV. Through its retro color tones, I documented Okinawa Hotel as a historical cultural property. ■

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Street Snap #45 Naha Air Base Air Show 2025, Okinawa | GR IV

Dean — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 12:02:58 +0000

On December 14, 2025, I visited the Naha Air Base Air Show 2025, held at the Japan Air Self-Defense Force Naha Air Base in Naha, Okinawa.

The weekly forecast had predicted continuous rain, but as the event approached, the outlook gradually improved, with sunshine expected later in the day. On the morning itself, strong winds and intermittent rain persisted, yet as time passed, the sky slowly began to brighten. By the time the main event, the Blue Impulse aerobatic display, was about to begin, patches of blue sky were already visible through the clouds.

The venue was filled with visitors carrying telephoto lenses. Amid them, I chose to photograph the air show with the GR IV, equipped with a 28mm wide-angle lens. Rather than focusing solely on the aircraft, I wanted to include the people gazing upward and the atmosphere of the venue itself, capturing the distinctive scene that could only be found at Naha Air Base.

For this shoot, I applied the Positive Film image control on the GR IV. The aircraft, the spectators, and the constantly changing expressions of the sky are rendered as high-contrast images. I hope these photographs convey the experience of the air show at Naha Air Base as seen through the GR IV. ■

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