The Secret Map
Travel Essays by Simon Slater
Category: Japan
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“Perception is projection.” The following series was taken one evening in a small studio apartment on the outskirts of Yokohama, Japan. The idea and execution was spontaneuous, involving a camera, a projector, a traditional dressing gown (yakata), my then partner and by-proxy model, Erico, the brooding resonations of Massive Attack’s Mezannine, and, almost certainly, some…
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It was August 2020, I’d flown to Kansai prefecture with my then partner, Erico. She had just three days to return to work in Tokyo, I had about a week to return to my job in Yokohama.. Narita airport had been the scene of science fictional emptiness you’d imagine an international transport hub in 2020…
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A recent trip to land of the rising sun has placed further evidence to a case i’ve been filing that Japan could be the greatest country in the world. It was my fourth visit, and, flying into Kansai with my brother, we took a train straight to Shirahama beach in southern Wakayama where we met up with a friend. Thus began…
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Kansai is a region that stems from the metropolis of Osaka and spreads out to the the prefectures of Nara, Kyoto, Kobe, Wakayama and more. I’d missed the area and it’s people since my last visit a year prior. The following photographs were taken over a week on the turn of 2014. To begin the…
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Wisdom is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two. John Cheever Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/good_and_evil_2.html#rMK9PcgYdEJGekvz.99 If time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion. Herman Hesse Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/good_and_evil.html#Z76jZSIigQJbyQAC.99 Wisdom…
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“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” – Oscar Wilde “Horror is the removal of masks.” – Robert Bloch …
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Nestled in among the multistorey comic book shops, video game arcades and electronic stores lies a similarly devoted specialty shop. In the Nipponbashi district of Osaka, Japan, the multilevel sex shop is seems nondescript at first glance. Whether for covertness or a lack of stigma, it blends in with it’s surrounding environment. Yet this isn’t…
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“Why do you care about monkeys so much” asked my Kyoto-based Couchsurfing host. It was a good question, and one i hadn’t thought about too much before. I mean, the answer seemed obvious enough – monkeys are awesome. Little furry people who chuck poo and cause mischief. Who doesn’t want a pet monkey? I mean, in…
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Back in Japan. A week doesn’t seem enough time. It is. If you do it right. First stop: Nara. The ancient capital of Japan is thankfully underrated. With seemingly more free-roaming deer than tourists, our accommodation was reminiscent of an old samurai film, a century-old building with a zen garden at the center. The…
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Big in Japan: A Link to the Future is a series of three short films I made over one week during a trip to the Kansai area of Japan. After making an impromptu biking video last summer, I felt compelled to make a film about one of my friends who featured in it, Kevin, along with…
The Secret Map 