Get all the info at the Fuji website:

Fuji’s X-Pro 1 page

Being a keen synth nerd, a visit to this synthesizer heaven was high on my list of places to visit since arriving in Tokyo and on Saturday an expedition was finally mounted. Actually that’s not entirely true as I had popped along on Thursday, only to find the place locked up – something worth bearing in mind if you’re thinking about visiting.

Finding the place was no problem – the closest station is Harajuku on the JR line. To get to the shop take the Takeshita exit out of Harajuku station, cross the road and head north up the hill. After about 25m you’ll see the Le Ponte building on the left. Five G is on the 4th floor.

The first thing you see as you enter the shop is a N.E.D. Synclavier. A few more steps into the shop and you come face to face with their monster modular system (they’re the Japanese dealers for Doepfer and Analogue Systems.) Note the Roland System 700 casually dumped on the floor in front of the Doepfer gear.

A glance to the right gets you a look at the various drum machine/groovebox-type machines they have on offer. Not often you see 3 Roland TB303′s for sale in a shop.

The rest of the shop is pretty much split into 2 ‘corridors’ of synths and a sectioned off repair area. I forgot to take photographs of the first corridor, but here’s some from the 2nd corridor. As you can see it’s pretty much floor to ceiling synths! I’m annoyed that I didn’t photograph the glass cabinet that contained 9 Roland System 100M’s.

As always, I was in shy mode and didn’t introduce myself to any of the staff. The atmosphere was certainly friendly enough and I got the feeling that they were used to people wandering in for a gawp. I think the deal with all the synths stacked up on the floor is that they either aren’t for sale, are already reserved or awaiting repair.

It’s funny as up until my visit to Five G I hadn’t ever seen a Prophet 5 in the flesh. This photo shows 4 of the buggers! And there were more scattered around the rest of the shop.

5 Arp Odyssees! At this point I caught sight of the humble Roland SH101 (seen at the top left of this photo) and had to brush away a tear as I thought of my SH101, which I have left behind in the UK.

So, all in all, a fun and worthwhile trip. I think that I’ll go back again sometime as I don’t really feel I quite took it all in during the one visit. Lots of the gear was plugged in so it’d be fun to go back and play with some of stuff. In particular I’d like to fart around with the Doepfer system they have on display as I’ve had a ‘modular itch’ I’ve been waiting to scratch for some years now.

Amongst the analogue selection there weren’t really any bargains to be had and things were priced on the high side. I think the pricing was fair though, given that a) they’re a shop, which is never a cheap place to buy secondhand gear, b) everything was in tip-top condition and c) I’ve read that everything gets serviced before being put out for sale. That said, there were a few cheapie items amongst the digital synths, such as a DX7 for less than £100.

Since coming across Charlie on flickr about a year ago, I’ve always looked forward to seeing his latest shots appear in my flickr contacts stream. By taking the wide-angle-lens-and-flash aesthetic pioneered by Bruce Gilden, transposing it to the streets of Tokyo, and then dialling the whole thing up a notch or ten, Charlie has created a signature style that is very much his own. It was on this basis that I promptly made my way over to the directors website to cop a gander at the film.

Overall, the documentary was pretty successful in so far as I came away knowing the who, how’s, why’s and where’s behind the photos he makes. Seeing the ease with which he engaged with the strangers he was photographing made me feel pretty inadequate about my own demeanor (no eye contact and painfully embarassed!) whilst producing my timid efforts on the streets of Tokyo. Judging by the some of the locations used for the interview sections of the film, there’s an outside chance this ‘ease’ was, in part at least, fuelled by a little ‘dutch courage.’ This could be a tactic I may have to adopt myself in the future!

I think the coolest thing about the film was getting to see someone out and about shooting on the streets of my new home town!

The best place to access the documentary is via the blog post of the guy who made the film, Adrian Storey.

Here’s a photo of the film refrigerator at Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku.

Amazing! And the cool thing is that all the emulsions are stocked in all formats – 35mm, 120, 4 x 5, 8 x 10….

The only shadow-y cloud hanging over this film heaven is the recent announcement from Fuji about cuts they’re making in their film ranges. Whether or not the steady erosion of available film types will continue into the future remains to be seen over the next few years…

The last one he linked to coincided with the week of my arrival so I popped along to have a look and it was really quite something. So many pristine cameras in one room – mostly quite pricey, but a few bargains to be had. The number of Leicas on display put even Map Camera to shame.

Unfortunately, after the spending spree at the first fair (a Contax T2 point and shoot and a mint CF150mm for my Hasselblad) I’m not going to be in a position to buy anything at the fair coming up. Honest.

Here’s a few shots from the first roll out of the new Contax T2 I bought: