東京での12日間 12 Days in Tokyo (People looking at their phones)
2025

One can easily feel invisible while in Tokyo. On arrival, I sensed this quickly while riding the metro from Haneda Airport to the residential district of Ojima. Unlike western China, where a laowai (老外, foreigner) is often spectacle, Tokyo’s locals rarely pay notice to the Gaikoku hito (外国人, foreigner) in communal areas (unless there is a sale to be made). I'm uncertain if this is due to the size of the city (Greater Tokyo hosts rough 37 million people). There’s also the politeness and emphasis upon respect imbedded in culture. And a friendliness to introversion plays a part, quietness and personal space are commonplace. These images feel to be metaphors of this invisibleness as I work upon a book on this experience.