visual journalism in shinjuku

I recently spent the afternoon in a commercial district called Shinjuku. i did these smug drawings. they are not meant to look finished, or even aesthetically pleasing for the most part. rather, they're just exercises, and expressions of being related to where at the moment i was.

sometimes i just like to observe. i don't really take a lot of pictures, because i figure that while most people fill memory cards up with every step they take, i like to just kinda explore. i have nothing against it, and i'm really glad my friends all do this, if for no other reason than that it gives me the luxury of not having to worry about doing it myself. i know it may be less personal in this sense, but when i go to an extravagant temple or a drum & bass club at 3:30 AM in shibuya, i don't want to be experiencing it through the lens of a camera. i feel like if i'm too worried about recording this moment and saving it for later, then that very compulsion stunts my excitement for what's happening in the present. instead, my thought process is a bit more detached: "so this is what i'm doing in the spring semester of my junior year in college.. i'm in shinjuku right now.. cool... who knows where i'll be in a year? i bet i'll be having fun.. it's a nice day out... yeah... word..."

kind of like, there needs to be no proof i chilled in shinjuku that day. i know i was there. and as for remembering my travels years down the road, thats why i write and draw. much like the photographer, my actions are the result of a compulsion. i couldn't tell you where it comes from, i just know it's something i gotta do sometimes. it's my way of becoming intimate with the space i'm interacting with, while simultaneously preventing myself from getting too caught up in making sure everybody (most importantly myself) knows i was there. after all, as you'll read in some of the passages below, it takes a lot more motivation even just to scribble something down than it does to push a button. and i am a lazy boy