Time may have changed him, but we still have these nostalgic photos of how music legend David Bowie used to be.
As the saying goes, “All good things come to an end”, and while that may be true for the most part — as we will unfortunately no longer have another new David Bowie album to look forward to — we still have the artist’s decades-long legacy to look back on and enjoy.
Over the past couple of weeks, Japanese fans have been remembering the late musician in their own way as they began to rediscover these old photos of David Bowie from the 1980s, when he lived for a short while in Kyoto, the cultural heart of Japan.
Here we find Bowie in front of a train on the Hankyu Kyoto Line, which takes passengers between Kawaramachi Station in Kyoto and Umeda Station (梅田- the destination of the train in the photo) in Osaka.
▼The Hankyu Line train now… Not much has ch-ch-ch-changed!
Bowie also took a stroll through the Furukawa shotengai (shopping street) and stopped to buy something to eat. The owner of the food stall, who is still there today and proudly displays this photograph, said that the hungry artist bought yawata-maki—vegetables (most prominently burdock root, in addition to others such as carrots and green beans) simmered in a sweet soy sauce broth, then wrapped and grilled in thin slices of beef.
▼The shop, Nodoya, where David Bowie stopped at still boasts the image proudly
And of course, what would a trip to Japan be without doing “Japanese-y” things like posing in front of a traditional wooden machiya house, or wearing a yukata? No one else could do it better!
The man behind the camera, Masayoshi Sukita, photographed Bowie a number of times throughout the years. His works, for those interested, are even available to purchase through the website Snap Galleries, so you can admire David Bowie forever in all of his glory.
Source: japaaan, Fundo via Twitter, Suzuki
Top image: Twitter/ @BAD_BATSUMARU, @his_asaki