Click Click Click

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Imagine taking this picture.
You certainly don’t want your phone to go ‘Click! Click!’ Or ‘Shht’. Right?! Because people come to the Shinto shrine to pray or to do their job and it might be annoying to have silly tourists around taking pictures.

And yet we all do it. As. Silently. And. Discretely. As. Possible. What if that is not an option anymore... What if you accidentally melted your old iPhone in a desperate attempt to prolong its old life and then had to be very consumistic and buy a new one in Japan. (seriously I could not find anything without google maps. And I could not make it to the end of the day without taking pictures, etc. etc. so I am totally smart-phone-dependent). I was so happy all my data were on the cloud - the accident only happened to have financial consequences and anyway I actually needed a new one.
But what I did not know was an important consequence of buying an iPhone in Japan. SHWOOSH!
Believe it or not, the shutter sound effect cannot be switched off. CLICK! CLICK!
 No more sneaky snapshots! Everything very open for everyone to see and hear. Just like Dutch houses without curtains: we do not do anything you would not do. Look inside whenever you like! Be warned every time a take a picture!
So, these are just pictures everyone would take if they spent a nice afternoon in Tokyo on a gorgeous winter day. While walking around following today’s desires (shinto shrines and ramen) and google maps.
But please imagine a loud noise while watching every picture.

Comments

  1. Elisa22 January 2019 at 22:50

    This makes my heart ache for Tokyo...still a half a year to wait. I feel sorry for you being bereft of the quiet clicks; sneaky snapshots are the gist of sightseeing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. chiararobbiano23 January 2019 at 00:02

      I love how you put it Elisa: ‘being bereft of quiet click!’! But I found a pretty good solution: I switched on the ‘live’ function: it makes a much friendlier, far softer noise and... it makes it after a couple of seconds-- when the pic is already taken 😊

      Delete
  2. yokoarisaka24 January 2019 at 08:01

    In the days silent pics were possible, there were so many „illicit photos“ of girls and women taken by men in the trains (were other problematic cases bug that was what catalyzed the prohibition), so they banned it - maybe more than 10 years ago...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. chiararobbiano24 January 2019 at 16:47

      Yes , thanks Yoko, I have read about it, but I do wonder whether this helps. Anyway, 'live' is a great solution!

      Delete
  3. Tatiana Bruni28 January 2019 at 13:24

    Ciao Chiara.... what are all those notes on those lovely wooden pieces hanging out of the temple? Are they prayers, or wishes, or thank-you notes for having received 'una grazia'? By the way, in the post about sleeping in the freezing cold you asked for additional tips... in the Netherlands you probably have seen or even have had an electric blanket (which is not really a blanket but a matrass cover...)... you might want to check out if you can buy one there... un abbraccio

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. chiararobbiano28 January 2019 at 16:06

      Ciao! Who are you?
      The wooden pieces are ema: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ema_(Shinto)
      You buy them, you write a wish on it plus your name and address and you hang them at the shrine.
      The pieces of paper are some kind of horoscope: if you get a good one (good or excellent fortune) you usually keep it with you. But if you buy one and it turns out to tell you have bad luck, you hang it at the shrine and let the wind and the kami take the tough luck away.
      And thanks for the tip- I have now a blanket under the sheet, an extra blanket to seal off any possible draft at the feet end and a hot water bottle: all this works miracles!! But I will keep it in mind.

      Delete

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