tokyo on foot is a wonderful graphic diary of a 6-month stay in the world’s largest city. the author joined his girlfriend in japan, where she was interning, and spent his days discovering this one-of-a-kind metropolis.

tokyo on foot

the book is a very entertaining labour of love, an endearing insight into every day tokyoite life. you should not expect it to feature the attractions you will find in travel guides though. it is divided in chapters, each dedicated to a separate district. the readers are taken on a virtual private tour of his favourite everyday places. he introduces us to the bits of japan he’s come to know and love. we read about fruit prices, recurring police episodes, types of people, all the cute weird things that make the city what it is.

tokyo on foot 1 tokyo on foot 4

i identify with the feelings he has for tokyo. and i love reading his personal maps. knowing most of those places, it’s great fun to figure out the imperfect geography and see what he deems worthy to be drawn.

tokyo on foot 3tokyo on foot 2

i’m so envious of him! he had 6 months to get to know the city. it may not be sufficient but it’s quite generous. he was taking his bike, crayons and fishing chair and he was drawing tokyo as if he was taking very personal pictures with very long exposure. i’m also envious of the bike day trip he took to kamakura. and i certainly know how he felt when he wrote: in a month, i won’t be in japan anymore. i’m not so keen about that

tokyo on foot 6 tokyo on foot 5

read the book and i promise you: it’ll put a smile on your face, especially if you already like tokyo!

tokyo on foot 7tokyo on foot 8

i plan to scan a few pages and blow them up. it’s been a couple of months since my mood board last changed, i think it’s time for a new one. in the meantime, i will follow florent on his blog: he’s currently biking around taiwan and okinawa!

courtesy of tuttle publishing – the very kind, biggest-in-the-world publisher of books about asia. thank you!

tokyo on foot 9

photo credits: little aesthete (i mean i took my own pictures of florent’s book)

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