Where Time Thickens
There are places I return to — not because I need to, but because each time they quietly put things back in place.
Over the last few years, especially since photography became central to the way I move through Japan, one of the most beautiful discoveries I’ve made has been up in the mountains of Tōhoku: far enough to feel like “elsewhere,” close enough to Tokyo that I can keep coming back.
Aizu-Wakamatsu carries real historical weight, especially in the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate. It was one of the stages of the conflicts that led to the shogunate’s collapse and the beginning of the Meiji era — a turn toward modernity that rewrote the country.
And yet, for me, Aizu often means almost the opposite: a slowing down.
It’s a place the days seem to have a different rhythm. Where photography becomes less about chasing images and more about staying with what’s already there. Details that don’t offer themselves immediately.
Whenever I go (and I’ve been many times), I try to stay around Higashiyama Onsen — for the evening quiet, and that feeling of being just a little outside of time.
It’s tied to many memories. And over the years, it’s become clearer to me how precious this kind of “authentic Japan” still is. Aizu is history, yes, but it’s also the taste of time passing: an atmosphere slightly left behind, where nature slowly takes back what remained from the economic bubble of the 1980s.
That’s why Lee and I chose to make it a focal point of the first part of our November workshop, right in the heart of the autumn foliage season.
Aizu will be our base—quiet streets, fading towns, and the landscape behind them, lit by autumn colour. It’s a place where autumn and history fit naturally with the kind of work we want to do: photographs that hold together, that become a short, coherent story.
At a glance: Nov 4–13, 2026 — Tokyo, Kamakura + Fukushima (Aizu area). Small group (5–8 participants). Approach: street + landscape + storytelling, with in-field feedback.
If the workshop is for you, you can find the full details here:
