From Tokyo to Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, Himeji, Tsuruga, Obama, Matsumoto, and back to Tokyo. Slow travel in Japan with the Seishun Juhachi Kippu (青春１８きっぷ, meaning something like "Youthful 18 Ticket"). It is a seasonally available railway ticket, which offers five single days of unlimited, nationwide travel on local and rapid JR (Japan Railways) trains for only 12,050 yen, or 2,410 yen per day. It cannot be used on bullet trains neither on special express trains so going to faraway destinations requires changing many trains which if planned well, it can bring a traveller to interesting local places. Within each day of travel, one can make as many stops as they want. The travel days don't have to be successive either.

The life of Japan's giants. From an early morning training to an actual tournament, sumo captivated me.

Tokyo to Kyoto to Tokyo 3-6 April 2014 Text by Androniki Christodoulou I live in Tokyo where the pace of everyday life is fast. People run to go to work in the morning, they travel in fast trains and when a trip outside the city is required, they take the Shinkansen, the so-called "bullet train" (max speed 270km/h). Time is money and people don't want to "waste" it. The faster the better. You can calculate your daily activities by the minute and you expect that things will go on schedule. Some times I miss the slow pace of living in countries like Greece where I come from, where daily activities are not scheduled so tightly and there is always time to take a break having a coffee or lunch with a friend. I grew up thinking that it is more important to enjoy everyday life and human relationships than just running after career and money. I knew for some time about the "seishun 18 kippu", a cheap train ticket that allows unlimited traveling with local trains (ex. Tokaido line: max speed 120km/h) around Japan for 5 days and I wanted to try it. It is actually a set of 5 24hour tickets that can also be shared among people traveling together. Within each traveling day, it is possible to get on and off trains as many times as you want, to visit places along the way. In April 2014, I embarked on a "seishun 18 kippu" 4-day train trip together with a female friend. Our final destination was Kyoto. We prepared our schedule with the many trains we had to change on the way and started traveling from Shinjuku station. It took two days of travelling to reach Kyoto as we also deviated from the direct route in order to visit a Zen monastery in Obama city. The way back took us about nine hours. We left after lunch and changed many trains with only a short stop for buying drinks and snacks. It was the last day of a three-day holiday and many people were traveling. We guessed that some were like us as they were also running from train to train trying to catch some empty seats. Most of the route between Tokyo and Kyoto is on "Tokaido main line" (functioning between Tokyo and Kobe). "Tokaido" was the name of the most important route connecting Tokyo and Kyoto during the Edo period (1603-1868). There used to be one train running along all the route, but now it is broken to parts and travelers have to go through many transfers. It is expected that a normal traveller would use the much faster Shinkansen that covers the Tokyo to Kyoto distance in about two and a half hours. Our time was a well worth trade though, for our slow travel let us experience the changes along the route, the local people, and ourselves in a moving meditation. Something that the comfort of the Shinkansen couldn't offer us with the trains filled with the same salarymen we see everyday in the city and no time to enjoy the passing landscapes because of the speed or the protective walls along its tracks.

Otaku—nerd, über-fan, obsessive collector. Since the 1980s, the term has been used to refer to fans of Japanese anime, manga, and video games. The word appeared with no translation on the cover of the premier issue of Wired magazine in 1993. These portraits are part of the book OTAKU SPACES that was published in 2012. The book is a collaboration with writer Patrick Galbraith. The people in the photos can be called otaku as their hobby has become an important part of their lives. Their rooms are filled with items of their collections, manga, toys, figures, games, costumes, etc. Some of the girls are "idols" playing an important role in the scene and others live seemingly ordinary lives but when in their rooms or in the company of likeminded friends, they can become superheros, play games of visit the latest maid cafes in Akihabara.

Yabusame is an old Japanese equestrian archery shinto ritual that is still performed in many shrines around Japan The photos were shot in 3 shrines during shinto festivals where the Ogasawara School performed yabusame: Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine in Kamakura, Tado shrine in Mie prefecture and Asakusa shrine in Tokyo. The Ogasawara family has been teaching yabusame for 800 years and it is one of the most famous in Japan. Yabusame was designed as a way to please and entertain the myriad of gods that watch over Japan, thus encouraging their blessings for the prosperity of the land, the people, and the harvest. A yabusame archer gallops down a 255-meter-long track at high speed. The archer mainly controls his horse with his knees, as he needs both hands to draw and shoot his bow. As he approaches a target, he brings his bow up and draws the arrow past his ear before letting the arrow fly with a deep shout of In-Yo-In-Yo (darkness and light). The arrow is blunt and round-shaped in order to make a louder sound when it strikes the board. To hit all three targets is considered an admirable accomplishment. Yabusame targets and their placement are designed to ritually replicate the optimum target for a lethal blow on an opponent wearing full traditional samurai armor (O-Yoroi) which left the space just beneath the helmet visor bare. Yabusame demonstrations have been given for the formal visits of US Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. A yabusame demonstration was given in the United Kingdom for Prince Charles, who reportedly was fascinated and pleased with the performance. To be selected as a yabusame archer is a great honor. In the past, they were chosen from only the best warriors. The archer who performs the best is awarded a white cloth, signifying divine favor.

Daily life in Hosshinji, a monastery of Soto Zen Buddhism in Obama, Japan Hosshinji is one of the few Japanese Zen monasteries, which westerners who were interested in Zen Buddhism have been visiting from as early as the 1920s. Some of them became monks and with their teachings and the books they wrote, they helped introduce Zen Buddhism to the western world. Some of the most famous were American Philip Kapleau (1912-2004) who in the 60s wrote the book "The Three Pillars of Zen" that is said to be the first book to introduce the paractice of Zen to westerners, and German Hugo Lassalle (Aiun-ken Hugo Makibi Enomiya-Lassalle) (1898-1990), who embraced both Roman Catholic Christianity and Zen Buddhism and in the 70s wrote the book "Zen: A Way to Enlightenment". It's current abbot is the well known Harada Sekkei Roshi who has served as the official representative of Soto Zen Buddhism in Europe for three years. He has been back to Hoshinji since the end of 2004, teaching the trainee monks and visiting practitioners the way of Zen.

TSUNEISHI is a location by the sea which is part of Fukuyama city in Hiroshima prefecture. The shipbuilding company there that bears the same name is the biggest of the medium size shipbuilding companies in Japan. This photo-essay follows the works at the shipyard and the last stages of the building and the naming ceremony of a ship that was ordered by the Greek shipping company N.J. Goulandris Maritime Inc., one of the many foreign shipping companies that have been building their ships in Japanese shipyards since after WWII, when shipbuilding became one of the major Japanese industries.

Nichome (2-choume) is the gay neighborhood of Tokyo with many bars and clubs. An area where the typical Japanese reservations disappear and people feel free to express themselves naturally and lovingly. Maybe the most free area in Tokyo.

For almost a year in 2005, I explored the colorful secret world of the Tokyo fetish scene. Inspired by the people I photographed, the photos came out provoking and tempting via the playful "voyeurism" of the camera. The present an atmosphere now long gone, according to some of the then participants.