Tokyo Memoirs

When I hear the word “nostalgia,” I am immediately transported back to Tokyo, where I spent the past few years of my life. I miss it. It burns in my heart. As I sit here in New York, Tokyo and that season of my life remain a blurred memory to me, almost dreamlike. In fact, I can’t help but feel that dreamlike is the best way to describe my experience in Japan. As on of my favorite poets Richard put it in his collection June 30th, June 30th, which catalogues his Japanese travels:

Japan begins and ends
with Japan.

Nobody else knows the
story.

. . . Japanese dust
in the Milky Way.
Tokyo
May 18, 1976

It’s true. I don’t know the full story of what it means to be Japanese and although I learned from my Japanese friends and my own observations, my experience will always be tinted by my foreignness. And my memories will always be dreamlike since that foreignness creates mystery in what wasn’t translated or understood. This photo series pays homage to those memories. It captures the nostalgia that grips me when I hear a song I listened to while living there or even when I understand a conversation in Japanese from a passerby here in New York.

Although this series is specific to my time in Tokyo, I hope it more broadly captures the nostalgia in the hearts of people who have moved cities, countries, or returned home from life-changing trips.