Asakusa Photo Session

Posted on April 2, 2007 by Omer Gottesman

Spring is the season during which Japan's famous SakuraRefers to both ornamental cherry trees and their blossoms. (Cherry) trees blossom. By far the most beautiful time of the year in Japan, as would tell you nearly all residents, both foreign and native, who happen to live there. During the few weeks in which the Sakura flaunts it's magnificence to the world, all the streets are packed with sightseers, be them tourists who are witnessing these sights for the first time, or Japanese who lived with those sights their whole lives.

But this is as far as I'll go describing the Sakura in this article, as I have something else I would like to talk about, for which the Sakura phenomena is only a required background knowledge.

What I would like to talk about is a rather small incident, but one which I found interesting and would like to share. As I was walking through Asakusa, a street in Tokyo featuring marvelous rows of Sakura, I saw a group of about twenty Japanese, trying to get a group photo taken - one which will include all of them. Rather than asking one of the numerous strollers around them to shoot them, they fidgeted for long minutes with the timer of the camera, and spent considerable energy erecting a tower out of all available objects in the area, to act as a tripod. I went up to them and using my limited Japanese and my rather developed body language (developed out of necessity here in Japan) I asked them if they would like me to photograph them. I don't know what surprised them more, the fact that I offered my help of my own account, or perhaps they were simply amazed by the concept of using the help of a stranger. Either way, I was amazed at how exited and grateful they were for the gesture, which took approximately three seconds of my time.

I have only been in Japan for three weeks now, but I've already been greatly surprised by the Japanese' way of thinking on more than a few occasions. Most of the times it's the small, nearly insignificant events, that surprise me the most. I guess it will take sometime until I get used to their ways and understand their thinking. But then again, that's what makes this trip so interesting.