Tokyo Calling (2025)

Hello, fellow photography lovers! Joey J 📸 here from ​​LASTLIGHTS.NET​​. Since recently switching my website to a simpler one-page, Linktree-style setup on Carrd, I’m now sharing my posts through this newsletter. This time, it’s “Tokyo Calling (2026)” — a sequel to “Tokyo Calling (2025)”, which I shared a few months ago.

Tokyo Calling (2026)

Born in the western part of Japan, Tokyo was always a city I admired from afar. 😍 Even after spending the past 20 years in Singapore, that feeling has never faded, perhaps because I have never lived in Tokyo (at least not yet). I visited there a few times in my 20s (1990s), then in 2008, 2025 and in this February, I went back to Tokyo to stay seven nights.

Before the trip, I ambitiously listed seven blue hour photography spots to photograph, one for each day. In the end, however, I only managed to shoot at four: Tower Hall Funabori, Sunshine 60 Observatory, Daiba Park, and Toyosu Gururi Park, as the weather didn’t cooperate on some days.

With a short holiday like this, luck plays a big part, especially when it comes to the weather. So, my modest goal was simply to return home with one photo I could truly be happy with, which, unfortunately, didn’t quite happen this time. 😨

Walking Through Familiar Unknowns

Besides shooting in the evenings, I made a few visits to Yodobashi Camera, a must visit electronics megastore when you are in Japan, and wandered through neighborhoods I had only heard about on TV or radio when growing up, but had never actually seen for myself, such as Koenji, Asagaya, and Kichijoji to name but a few.

It felt like being 20 again, exploring Tokyo for the first time and feeling effortlessly cool. 😅 For those who live in Tokyo, Koenji is probably just a regular residential neighborhood. But to me, it was somewhere I had only known through song lyrics or novels, so finally standing there felt strangely exciting!

What Remains When Time Fades

Looking back, I vaguely remember walking alone down a dark street somewhere in central Tokyo about 30 years ago. I do not remember exactly where it was or why I was there. The details have faded over time and only fragments remain.

In another 30 years, I wonder whether my 80-year-old self will still remember what I saw and felt on this trip. 😅 Will I remember the cold air at Daiba Park, the quiet anticipation before the city lights came on at Sunshine 60 Observatory? Or, will it all fade into vague fragments again?

That is where photography comes in, as a way of preserving memory. I hardly remember my visits to Tokyo in the 1990s or in 2008, perhaps because I have no photographs from those trips. Yet I do remember the places I have traveled to with a camera over the past 15 years.

I didn’t start shooting cityscapes to collect memories. I simply loved (still love) seeing and photographing cities under the blue hour sky. Then, I realized a happy byproduct of shooting cityscapes is memories preserved along the way. 😊

In the end, everything fades. Yet the photographs we take remain, holding the moments close long after the trip has ended.

My Photos Are Now on Glass 🎉

I recently set up a gallery on Glass, a platform designed for photographers who want a clean, distraction-free place to present their work. You’ll find many of my favorite photos there — from blue hour cityscapes to cat photos. 🐈 Take a look here: https://glass.photo/lastlightsnet​

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