An interesting limited edition photo/narrative documenting a 960 kilometer walk from Tokyo to Kyoto. Mod is an American who has lived in Japan for his whole professional career, which seems to be that of a freelance thinker.
The book is a bit eccentric: As a travelogue, it doesn’t have all that many details. As a chronicle of an arduous solitary journey, there’s not much interiority. The author stops in at 29 different Kissa, an eccentric, forgotten style of Japanese roadside diner which specializes in an American-inspired specialty called “pizza toast.” A particular way of life, ordinary, but unique, is documented just before it vanishes.
The balance of about 400–500 words per photograph is just right, and the author’s Leica shots are fantastically reproduced on a hefty matte off-white paper. The production is clearly a labor of love. As the cartoonist Rory Blank recently noted: nostalgia used to be considered a disease.
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