My Neighbour the Past
Historical change reveals itself not through grand events, but through subtle shifts in how spaces are used, how gestures are performed, and how time is marked across daily routines. This is no more apparent than in Japan, where centuries-old shrine pathways double as pedestrian shortcuts for office workers, and where seasonal festival rhythms still punctuate the calendar of an otherwise hyperdigital society.
The ordinary commute, shopping trip, or sidewalk encounter can become a stage where inherited customs and modern habits quietly intersect. The present is not a break from the past, it is an overlay of behavioural codes and technological adaptations from different eras. In this collection of urban scenes, I attempt to frame the past as an ongoing negotiation, one that shapes the present without ever fully surrendering to it.
Historical memory surfaces within the mundane flows of city life, far from designated heritage sites.
A thousand days of study. Hiroshima, December 2025
Schools are near-permanent societal institutions, established long ago but focused always on the future, preparing each new generation for a modernity barely yet conceived. The Japanese expression "Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher" encapsulates a timeless principle that is as true today as it was centuries ago. In Hiroshima, a place with much cause to flee its past, it is understood that forgetting is the worst of all outcomes. The vintage stylings of Japan's education system reflect a respect for timelessness in the face of rapid change.
Jazz eyes. Tokyo, December 2025
Shimokitazawa is renowned for its circular economy, where nothing that can be reused is truly disposed of. This spirit extends to ideas and tastes as well as to products. And so its vinyl music scene prospers with thousands of records for sale in several huge stores, as local residents and visitors alike expand their music catalogues with albums from decades long gone by, cultivating personal soundtracks that help preserve the enjoyment of vintage melodies.
The limits of my language are the limits of my world. Tokyo, December 2025
Cities tend to be where diverse communities mingle, drawing citizens from far beyond a nation's borders. And with digital borders disappearing, the younger generations are acutely aware of the need to interact using dialects other than their own. As the marketisation of multilingualism creates new pressures to acquire a second language, economic forces have shaped a pedagogical ecosystem in which language learning has been appified. Among the traders on the high street stand salespeople hawking downloadable language-learning solutions, offering discount codes to passersby curious to expand their linguistic horizons.
Anime army on manoeuvres. Tokyo, December 2025
The anime aesthetic captures human diversity within fixed artistic modalities, presenting instantly recognisable character shapes to Japanese and international audiences. In Akihabara, anime characters jump out from billboards, shopfronts, and other types of street art, while cosplayers line the sidewalks. But also apparent are the throngs of young people who mingle in this place, their fashion sense akin to its own shared uniform, characterised by shades much darker than the bright neon hues used to project excitement and adventure from the screen. Two communities coexist: the colourful characters frozen within their frames, and their more muted consumers, who pass by in their thousands, going about their day.
We all earn salaries now. Tokyo, December 2025
In Japan the concept of a 'salaryman' reflects not just a career path, but also a personal ethos: employees who prioritise their job over all other things, work long days, socialise exclusively with colleagues, and dedicatedly wear generic business suits as if subsuming their personal identities within that of their employer. But as the modern economy evolves, career agility begins to emerge. The new economy has different priorities, and the salaryman existence begins to appear anachronistic. Today the rush hour commute features an increasingly diverse range of workers, reflecting different social backgrounds and workplaces, and distinguished by different professional uniforms. Old economic certainties are being gradually eroded by shifting economic sands.
Signals. Tokyo, December 2025
Street fashion subcultures like gyaru have long used bright, non-natural hair colours to defy traditional Japanese beauty standards of pale skin and dark hair. In anime too, pink hair often symbolises sweetness, energy, and even idealism. This confluence of ideas, blending nonconformity with cheerfulness, signals how traditional values can be perceived as austere, helping to explain why young people are often motivated to see themselves as culturally independent of their ancestors. Psychologically, of course, pink hair is also highly conspicuous. It vividly announces its presence to onlookers. In this way, cultural change is not merely embraced by the young, it is broadcast proudly to everyone in society.
Single step. Osaka, December 2025
An ancient Asian proverb advises that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" (in Japanese: 千里の道も一歩から). This phrase has become extremely well known around the world. It highlights how everything we do, however small, contributes to our future; each of us fulfils life moment by moment, even if our thoughts or ambitions encompass months, years, or even decades at a time. As we walk, the ground beneath us accumulates an imprint of all our steps. Across Japan, more than 6,000 municipal manhole covers document local history, landmarks, and popular culture. Together, these intricate works of public art create a record of the country's social and cultural development, reflective of and experienced by the millions of ordinary citizens who walk across them every day.
In awe. Kyoto, December 2025
Visitors to a country often seek immersive ways to experience local culture. In the historic districts of Kyoto, tourists can rent a kimono or have their hair restyled in the traditional Japanese way. Of course in the modern age very few Japanese people actually groom themselves in such a manner. And so what results is a conundrum. To walk the cobbled streets of Gion today is to experience an inversion of realities: a place where most of the traditional outifts are worn not by Japanese people but by foreigners, who then catch the attention of local onlookers with a parade of cultural heritage.
Steel kitchen. Tokyo, December 2025
Japanese restaurants traditionally place value on allowing customers to see their food being prepared, with guests often sitting at counters that face directly onto a working kitchen. In many places, especially in crowded cities where efficient space management can require the kitchen to straddle an exterior wall, the chefs will also be viewable from the street. Large windows create powerful advertisments for the outside world, living billboards conveying sights and smells that trigger the appetites of hungry passersby. They are also useful for establishing trust: potential customers can see for themselves the cleanliness and quality of how food is being prepared. But most of all the arrangement harks back to ancient Japanese traditions of theatrical craft. The window becomes a screen, the kitchen a stage; pedestrians can pause to admire the skill and speed of the performing cooks. In such places, food preparation is more than a logistical necessity; it is, by legacy, an art form.
Nighthawks of Shibuya. Tokyo, December 2025
Japanese public spaces balance modern high-intensity functional brightness with a deep cultural appreciation for diffused, shadow-rich aesthetics. The country's spatial design has historically appreciated gradients between light and dark rather than completely eliminating blackness. Electrification is often blamed for displacing an older version of Japan, but technology does not entirely retrict how people customise their environments. Reminiscent of how shoji screens filter natural illumination, many modern public interiors employ traditional architectural shapes with modern LED-based smartlamps in ways that emulate the diffusion of light into gentle, calming glows. While lifestyles and accessories rapidly evolve, in Japan the living environment continues to bear a distinctive ambient tonality.