I used to perceive Japan as just another Asian country. After four weeks’ of exploration there in the summer of 2005, I’ve found it standing on the borderline between East and West, a unique country where tradition and modernity contrast with each other yet somehow coexist in harmony.
Such cultural complexity is beyond what my camera could grasp within a month. So I simply pointed my lens to the simple elegance that can be found around ordinary Japanese storefront: weathered restaurant signage, menu boards, split curtains, lanterns, and architecture details. Most of the images here were from the historical Gion District of Kyoto, my favorite.
