Traveler’s Tales

“Traveler’s Tales” is an ongoing collection of photos made in Japan.

My day job as a translator and writer for the Japanese entertainment industry doesn’t leave much time for photography. I make up for it by carrying a camera wherever I go, walking whenever possible, and often getting off a train one stop early to steal an extra twenty minutes of shooting time on the way to a client’s office.

While many of these shots were taken while moving from point A to point B, I’m not the traveler in these tales. Tokyo, and the nearby seaside town of Kamakura where I live, is full of people on the move, chasing their own stories. I’m drawn to those moments in which there is a break, a pause where our hero considers a new challenge, a change in direction, or a quiet moment before the train arrives and the next chapter begins. The buildings themselves add their own quirky cast of characters to the mix. I am continuing this series and others in photos and the occasional written story on Instagram. Follow @aokajiya for more.