I had to take my Ricoh GR IV in to the repair shop located in Ginza on Monday.  I had been meaning to stop by the Ricoh Camera Service Center for a while but just haven’t been able to make the time.  There was a bit of dust on the sensor and I knew the only way to get rid of the dust was to have the experts take a look.

I dropped the camera off and took out my GRII as a backup camera.  It was only about 2 hours after the eclipse and the sun had finally chased all the colds away.  It was perfect weather for getting lost in the backstreets of Ginza.

For most people Ginza means all those super brand stores and large department stores like Mitsukoshi, of course, Ginza has all of that, but I am not really attracted to all that glitz.  I prefer those neighborhoods that are on the fringes.  On Monday I spent most of my time walking the streets between Ginza, Higashi Ginza, and  not quite as far as Tsukiji.

There is a wonderful mixture of eateries, homes, and businesses that I have no idea what they do.  It doesn’t really matter.  It is the journey that really counts.  I had plenty of time to walk about with my old trusty camera as my GR IV wouldn’t be ready to about 3 p.m.

Sometimes the best way to find your way is to get totally lost.  That pretty much happened to me.  I turned a corner to discover that the Kabukiza (Kabuki Theater) that had been torn down about 2 years ago, was nearing completion.

Turning another corner, sliding down between the narrowest of alleys.  For me that is the honest Ginza.  Not the flashy stores or the bright lights.  Its the quiet streets that people call home.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Photography Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.