It started with a telephone call, just like any other day.
I’m Kenji, Kenji Harada. Everyone calls me Ken. I take
photos. It’s my job. I take photos for newspapers, for anybody
who wants to buy them. I take photos of famous people.
I have a Nikon camera and a darkroom in my flat.
Sometimes work is good, sometimes it’s bad.
Like I said, every day starts with a telephone call from
Tokai Photo Agency. They buy my photos and sell
them around the world. Sometimes they give me a lot
of money for my photos but sometimes they give me
very little.
It was Thursday, 8.30 in the morning. Work was bad.
It was often bad in January, February and March. It
was April now, but it was also bad. My wife wasn’t
happy. She wanted money. She always wanted money.
I answered the telephone. It was the boss of Tokai
Photo Agency. His name’s Kenzaburo Yoshimoto. It’s
a big name for a small man. A very small man.
‘Go to the Tokyo Garden Hotel at 10.30,’ Yoshimoto
said. He never said ‘good morning’ and he never said
‘please’.
‘Takahanada is going to the Tokyo Garden Hotel with
his new girlfriend,’ Yoshimoto said.
Takahanada! He was a famous sumo star in Japan.
‘And be quick,’ Yoshimoto said. ‘Every photographer
in Tokyo is going to be there.’
Takahanada was very good-looking and very rich, and
his new girlfriend, Kumiko Okada, was a beautiful
actress. People said Takahanada wanted her to be
his wife. Wow! I could sell a good photo of them for
millions of yen. I dressed quickly, putting on my new
black suit. I took my camera. I didn’t have time for
breakfast. I thought about the money.
Twenty minutes later I was on the streets of Tokyo.
There was a lot of noise and there were a lot of people.
I love Tokyo. It’s a very beautiful city and it’s mine!
I took a taxi. I didn’t have much money, but I didn’t
want to be late. At 9.45 I was at the Tokyo Garden
Hotel in Shinjuku. Shinjuku has a lot of expensive
hotels and restaurants. There were about twenty-five
photographers near the hotel.
‘Hey, move!’ said one photographer to another
photographer, and then pushed him. Everyone wanted
to get the photograph. Everyone wanted to be near
Takahanada and the beautiful Kumiko Okada. Every
photographer had an expensive camera and a very big
lens. I saw my friend, Jun. He was a photographer too.
‘Hey, Jun!’ I called. ‘They’re coming in this door,
right?’
‘Sure,’ called Jun, smiling.
I looked around. Where could I wait? I didn’t know.
There were a lot of photographers by the door of the
hotel. It wasn’t easy to take a good photograph from
there. I walked down the street and looked around.
Next to the hotel was a coffee shop. I looked in the
window. It looked nice, with white tables and flowers,
and I was hungry and thirsty – I wanted a coffee and
some breakfast.