I lived in Tokyo for ten years from 2001 to 2011. Shortly after the Dotcom crash, I moved there to pursue my first Japan-based design job. I raised a family there and lived in the suburbs. For me, this sprawling city actually feels small, with all the familiar places and faces. But not being Japanese myself, there’s also a strangeness in the culture and language that I know yet don’t completely understand. I speak the language but not perfectly, I know the customs but not as someone raised there. It’s as if I wasn’t connected to a part of my body. These photos chronicle my return to Tokyo during the pandemic in spring 2022. I walked the city with my camera and around every corner, I had familiar yet strange encounters.
