Tokyo 2020 — Japan’s capital 1-year until Olympics
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Twins, who go by Kunika and Kuniho, 17, record a greeting for their social media followers in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, June 2, 2019. Harajuku is one of the most popular shopping neighborhoods in Japan.
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Thousands of candles are arranged in the shape of the Milky Way to celebrate Tanabata, a Japanese star festival, at Zojoji Temple in Tokyo, July 5, 2019.
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Bukkyo University cheerleading squad leader, Yamaguchi Karin, right, leads the school song in front of the school’s baseball players in Tokyo, June 17, 2019, after the team placed second in the 68th All-Japan University Baseball Championship.
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A man walks through a tunnel filled with smoke from yakitori restaurants underneath a train track in Tokyo, June 12, 2019.
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A man pauses briefly while walking down a narrow staircase of a bar in Golden Gai, a bar district in the Shinjuku neighborhood of Tokyo, June 1, 2019, where more than 200 bars are crammed into narrow alleyways.
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Wearing rental kimonos, tourists visiting from Hong Kong order gelato after their visit to Sensoji Temple in the Taito district of Tokyo, June 3, 2019.
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Commuters fill the street during the evening rush hours in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, June 12, 2019.
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Bar owner Marie Yoshida, left, drinks with customers in her bar that seats eight people in Golden Gai, a bar district in the Shinjuku neighborhood of Tokyo, June 1, 2019.
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A sightseeing boat floats on the Tokyo Bay as the city’s skyline is seen from the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo, June 6, 2019.
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A Japanese dance and vocal group called Banquet performs on the street outside Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, June 4, 2019.
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Mijo Nakamura, 38, works in her tiny food truck named Charming Restaurant in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, May 29, 2019. Serving fusion Asian food, Nakamura’s food truck only opens for lunch. Food is prepared at a bar owned by her friend because her apartment is not big enough for cooking.
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Kiyoshi Ozawa, 77, takes pictures of the Skytree, the world’s tallest tower in Tokyo, June 20, 2019.
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Laurent Colin, a 46-year-old tourist visiting from Australia, settles into his pod at the 9H capsule hotel in the Chiyoda district of Tokyo, May 30, 2019.
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Staff members at the Hie Shrine clean the steps of the shrine in Tokyo, June 8, 2019.
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Two children pose for photos with the Olympic Rings in front of New National Stadium in Tokyo, June 23, 2019.
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Smartphones are propped on tripods in the observation deck of the Mori Tower to capture Tokyo’s skyline view in Tokyo, June 17, 2019.
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Pedestrians are seen through an advertisement as they walk along the busy streets of the Shibuya district in Tokyo, June 9, 2019.
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A journalist is silhouetted while taking photos of New National Stadium in Tokyo, July 3, 2019. The stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
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A store clerk dressed in a black suit and white gloves holds a door for customers at a Louis Vuitton store, June 2, 2019, in the Shibuya district of Tokyo.
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Bruce McCullough, who moved to Japan 22 years ago from Vancouver, Canada, sits in his mobile clothing store in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, May 29, 2019.
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The Summer Olympics will return to Tokyo next year for the first time since 1964. The world’s best athletes will be on display, of course, but so will Japan’s sprawling capital — a dense mix of the traditional and the eccentric.
Small shrines and ancient temples nestle alongside gleaming towers and high-tech gadgetry. Pedestrians meander through a labyrinth of alleyways lined with places to eat or drink, while passengers wedge silently into subway cars or ride on sleek bullet trains.
It all seems to fit together in near-perfect harmony, says Associated Press photographer Jae Hong, who is beginning a yearlong assignment to capture the flavor of Tokyo before the games begin.
“It seems like the whole city is run by people reading the same manual, and everybody follows it,” Hong said.