In full bloom

It’s easy to get lost in Tokyo. There’s so much going on, everything moves so fast, the locals barely speak English, and the Japanese have a penchant for the strange. And yet these qualities are what make the city so welcoming. I said this maybe 10 minutes after landing at Narita Airport  the vibe is different in Japan. It was a feeling I couldn’t explain; couldn’t put my finger on. But after a four-day whirlwind business trip, I found out what it was: love.

I recently traveled to the Japanese capital with my good friend Carlo Mendoza (you may be familiar with his work  he’s the award-winning cinematographer behind Asiong Salonga, Bwakaw, and Rosario). We joined renowned photographers Manny Librodo and Pilar Tuason, who are my fellow Sony ambassadors. Sony had invited us over to just meet the engineers who make our cameras. It was a routine trip, though, that turned out to be more than we had imagined.

Our trip started with a meeting at the Sony headquarters, where the engineers told us the secrets of the Sony RX-1 and Alpha 99, with their full-frame sensors, Translucent Mirror Technology system, OLED view finders, and other advancements. They also briefed me about my Handycam, the NEX-VG 900. See, Sony approached me last December with this camera and told me to see if I like it. I did. Two things really impressed me: It’s interchangeable lens system (which means I can use pretty much any lens I want, including Zeiss lenses), as well as the 5.1-channel mic that the camera has built in. Four months on, and the NEX-VG900 still surprises me  the Sony engineers told me about a little add-on that allows the camera to shoot uncompressed video, just like the cameras Hollywood uses!

We then got to visit the exclusive Sony showroom, called The Square. The place has a waitlist to get in; trips have to be scheduled months in advance; and they screen everyone who applies to get in. It makes sense  The Square has Sony’s most cutting-edge technology. I pretty much creamed my pants seeing their 3D cameras, as well as the new F65, the 4K camera that they used to shoot the Tom Cruise-starrer Oblivion on. 4K is a resolution that is more than two times bigger than the 1080p that most of today’s cameras shoot on, which means clearer, more vivid movies that make you feel like you’re inside the scene.

Japanese tradition

After our meetings at Sony headquarters, Manny, Pilar, and I, along with our hosts from Sony Japan and Sony Philippines, took the Tokyo Metro to Asakasa, where we sat down for a traditional Japanese dinner. We had some kind geishas to serve us, and more importantly, sake. Lots and lots of sake.

On the way to the dinner, we saw a beautiful sight: streets lined with flowering trees of pink, and everywhere, light-colored petals, floating in the air. We found ourselves in the middle of the Sakura Festival, when the cherry blossoms are out and Japan becomes a living, breathing painting.

“This is amazing!” exclaimed Pilar, whose beautiful work you see at the top of this page. “I’ve been to Japan many times, but this is different because it’s the first time I’ve seen the cherry trees in full bloom.”

Perhaps it was the beauty of the Sakura  or perhaps it was the sake  but over dinner, Manny, Pilar, Carlo and I began talking about Japan and what makes it tick, and we discovered that we all had a common attraction to the place.

“It’s the people and the culture,” said Pilar. “You see that they maintained their history. The culture is so strong. In the city, in the outskirts, you’ll see people walking in their kimono. It just shows that they’re proud of their culture. And I find that the Japanese are genuinely nice people.”

Manny agreed. “I find the Japanese very gentle. Very soft-spoken,” he said. “At first I thought, based on an experience in the past, that the Japanese only feel they’re superior. But now I see, it’s not about being superior. It’s about being proud of their heritage.”

Lost in translation

I was hooked, and I needed to see more. So while Manny and Pilar headed to Hakone to shoot with a geisha, Carlo and I ran away, took the Metro and got lost. We wound up in Harajuku, in Shibuya, in Roponggi. We met up with Japanese friends and planned trips to Akihabara and Shinjuku.  There was too much to do, and too little time. But by our third day in Tokyo, we were taking the subway like we were locals, eating like we were Japanese, and dreaming in the beautiful colors that the cherry blossoms grow.

And in the middle of the busy intersection of Shibuya, where thousands of people cross daily in a pedestrian “dance” that’s mesmerizing to watch, it hit me. See, this is the place where Bill Murray said goodbye to Scarlett Johansson in Lost In Translation; that heart-breaking final scene where he whispers a secret in her ear; words only she and him were meant to hear. It hit me: It’s easy to get lost in Tokyo  not just because there’s so much going on, everything moves so fast, the locals barely speak English, and the Japanese have a penchant for the strange  but because it absorbs you. The people, the place, the culture, the history, the food, and ok, the heated toilets  they leave such a unique, indelible mark that they suck you in. Japan is a place that is difficult to leave. I would go back in a heartbeat.

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I shot a video diary of my trip, using my Sony NEX VG-900. Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PepeDiokno or add me on Facebook at http://facebook.com/PepeDiokno and I will post the video soon!