Well, "Japan"—it's all Tokyo, from what I can tell; and a fairly typical depiction of it as well. The photographs are nice, and some of the shots are really stu

Well, "Japan"—it's all Tokyo, from what I can tell; and a fairly typical depiction of it as well. The photographs are nice, and some of the shots are really stunning, but there's so much more magic in the nights of Japan than just in Tokyo. In cities like Fukuoka, and Sapporo, as the sky darkens, a warmish glow rises from the central and side streets. The polished office towers and department stores that grab your eyes during the day fade alongside the sun, and, soon enough, it's the tiny izakaya and restaurants, nestled in side-streets or sandwiched between larger buildings, that become the centre of attention. All around, people in suits and shirts alike stumble across and through the streets with little order or care. For many of them, it seems as though this is the only time in the day when they're not going somewhere. In contrast, smaller places like Hakodate, or Fukushima, and even much of Tokyo, lose their bustle entirely. There might be the occasional young man or woman, standing outside a izakaya, trying to entice the last few wandering gaggles of businessmen in, but otherwise, it's as though the entire city has shut down. There are few stray lights in any of the surrounding buildings, and while the periodic street-lamps keep the path ahead visible, they do little to relieve the sleepy calmness that seems to permeate everything. The parks are empty; spots in parking lots are only filled sporadically; and even the bicycles, that are usually littered across Japanese sidewalks, largely disappear. And there are many, many more varieties still, in different cities and different regions. I find it unfortunate that there are so few photographs of these scenes of Japan—so much focus is put on certain unique things: sakura, Fuji, the Tokyo Metropolis and the like, that the smaller deviations on more familiar things are ignored. If one only looks at these photographs, they may get the sense that Japan is much more different than it may actually be, especially if one's from North America or Europe.