Stills

As with Matt and Politkovskaya, so here I had to google Elmo. I now know where Elmo originated but it means nothing to me either! I like the speed of the train though and the messy little corner in the underpass beneath the bridge and the indication that cyclists have to squeeze between cars and trains. I am convinced though, that there should be elements of the picture that should be darker to provide some hint of the transition from underpass to light top left. Or am I imagining it?
 

Well, I'm guessing that elmo is on one of those bits of paper on the notice board or, perhaps, flapping in the wind.

I appreciate Colin's tiredness feeling with this image as I can imagine the train full of commuters who would rather be elsewhere. It’s certainly not an image I can say I 'enjoy'.
 

Elmo is right under the poster of the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers.

I find myself wanting to take one big step to the left to put the curving line and bulletin board closer to the right hand edge of the frame. The bit of chain link fence seems like a distraction.

Nice tonality btw. A little darker and fuller feeling than some of your recent posts.
 

The bit of chain link fence is more important to the picture than Elmo - without it I suspect that the scene would be too bland and lack depth.
 

I too Googled Elmo and even watched a youtube video of a toy ROTFLOL and then getting up and starting again! Googling Yoyogi-hachiman Tokyo brought up this image as number 3!!

This image makes me ask questions, like what time of day is this busy, who queues up, who normally locks their cycle to the pole, does the sign say no cycles, is this part of a station plus lots more. This has a photo journalistic feel.
 

The Where's Elmo series will be a photographic/internet interactive gallery - find and click on Elmo and you can see the next picture. Not all of them will be works of art but at least they will hopefully get you looking at photographs a little longer than usual.. Based upon the Where's Elmo series of books which I think in the UK were less popular than the 'Where's Spot?' books.

Elmo is dressed up as a Japanese fireman and asking (in his best squeaky-voiced Japanese) are you prepared for an earthquake. The posters were only up for a couple of weeks and I only spotted one at the end of the period. Thus a frantic rush round to locate a few more of them for the series.

Was interested in the complaints of inducing tiredness and the correlation of number of doors with purpose of journey.

Yoyogi-hachiman jinja is my local large shrine. This area is very close to Yoyogi Park too. Yoygi-hachiman station is both overground and on the Metro lines. The overland train line is a private operated communter line which links the centre of Tokyo (Shinjuku) with Odawara, the coast at Enoshima and the mountains in Hakone. It has a train every few minutes for most of the day and this section (close to the terminus) is only two tracks.

Just out of the picture to the left is a level crossing (and the station). In rush hour it is very rarely up for more than a few moments. Further down the line (away from Shinjuku) they are elevating/burying the line as well as making it four track to ease running times and disruptions to other modes of traffic. The section in this picture will reamin as is due to cost, exisiting housing and it's only five minutes from the terminus.

The road on the left is relatively quiet. As for the fencing and the 'footpath', this is about as good as it gets for pedestrian protection. A thick white line at the side of the road usually demarks the wheeled from the footed - you don't see many kerbs or raised footways in Japan. Bicycles switch effortlessly between the two and probably cause more accidents than cars - which should be abiding by a 30kph speed limit.

Thanks for the comments and I'll let you know when the 'Where's Elmo?' photographic experience is ready for your expectant delight!
 

Akikana - many thanks for the local colour. Elmo remains redundant for me! But the transport details (apart from the sheer effort and efficiency in getting trains to run fast and frequently) very much echoes the relative free-for-all in UK; certainly the disdain for the pedestrian. Could you get a shot from high up some time to give an overview of the district?
 

John - The bridge the train is passing under has pedestrian access. I'll pop along this weekend and shoot some vistas for you.
 

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John - have posted five pictures from around the area at Flickr. Couldn't get much from on the actual bridge above in this picture so the five were taken from nearby pedestrian foot bridges.

Flickr Set
 

Akikana - many thanks for putting those 5 pictures on Flickr. Not much wasted space! All the architecture and utility spacing is very utilitarian but looks less hostile to the urbanite than equivalent spaces in UK.
 

I've finally got round to coding and uploading the 'Where's Elmo?' set. Hope you enjoy trying to find Elmo.

Where's Elmo?
 

It must have taken some time putting that set together, but well worth it. This particular picture was around second or third favourite; number one being the cylist beneath rows of wires. It think that Colin has put it well on his site and my thoughts were very similar. I remain detached from Elmo but managed to find him in each picture; a neat 'next' button. That he is in the pictures is irrelevant though: it is the accumulation of urban detail that is both visually and educationally stimulating.