I’m really busy at work, because my high school is having tests. But I was able to take a few shots with my Canon Ixy while I was walking around today. I focused on things that weren’t beautiful, for the most part. I had fun looking for things that most people just walked right past. As I have mentioned before, photography can make you more observant of your surroundings, and that is a good thing. 
I’ll post more of the pics later, but here is one to whet your appetite. This is a railing in front of Ichigaya Station with some graffiti. You don’t see a huge amount of graffiti in Japan, but there is some.
(Click on the image for a larger view.)
on Oct 16th, 2008 at 11:40 am
It’s interesting, the evolution of this form… into gallery art and books of art… really interesting… so do they paint pictures too? or is it primarily names tagged?
are there stiff penalties for it? or is it just something that doesn’t catch on culturally?
on Oct 16th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I took a few other pictures. Sometimes they do pictures, but usually it seems like just words.
The graffiti I see tends to be along train lines, which makes me think part of the thrill is climbing a fence to mark areas that are usually off-limits to people.
I guess I am old-fashioned, because I don’t really have much respect for graffiti as “art,” to be honest. I mean the art itself is nice, but I just don’t think vandalizing other people’s property (or public property) is a good thing. But again, that is just my opinion.
I am not sure about penalties, but I would imagine they are stiff. But I think that traditionally, things like this would be seen as extremely bad; for many younger people, this is the attraction, of course.