Something about Japan

Japan. Cherry blossom, sushi, the bullet train. The usual picture of a geisha, real or a fake. The usual stereotypes. Since my first time in Japan, almost twenty years have passed. For almost eight years I have been living there. I cannot count how many times italian friends asked me if I was tired of sushi every day. Of course Japan is not just sushi and these pictures are an attempt to show something different. Or, more likely, are a diary of the years I spent in the country. Describing Japan by means of photography is very difficult. It is very easy to end up with stereotyped snapshots indeed. Therefore I tried to select the images that better represent the new world I discovered while living in Japan. As already stated, this set of images is mainly a diary. A collection of the emotions I felt visiting Tohoku, the area devastated by the tsunami in 2011. A testimony of what is the other face of rich Japan: Nishinari, area of Osaka where homeless live separated by the productive world, like real ghosts. And people I encountered, places I visited.