This is a hardcover book I made as a gift to my partner, Hannah. The book catalogues our adventures in Japan, where Hannah spent summers growing up and where much of her family still lives.
When Hannah was invited to participate in a neuroscience conference in Niigata, I tagged along and we made a trip out it to celebrate our one year anniversary, adding stops in Nagoya, Okute, Kyoto, and Tokyo. The book is organized into five chapters, one for each city we visited, and each chapter includes a diary entry describing moments from our time there. Snapshots, mostly: a sacred 1,300 year old cedar tree, sake vending machines, a scalding sulfurous onsen, smoke baths, a green payphone. The food we ate.
We visited her uncle Hiroo Amano, a prolific sculptor, and his wife Keiko, a masterful quilter at the former elementary school that they’ve transformed into a sprawling studio space on Peach Mountain. Some of my favorite memories and photos are from the afternoon we spent together.
Scroll through the carousel below to view a sampling of the book.
