Tag Archive for Sleep

Let The Poets Cry Themselves To Sleep 2017 – 1 year later series

"Im not sure what the trouble was that started all of this" Let The Poets ©Uchujin-AdrianStorey

“Im not sure what the trouble was that started all of this” Let The Poets Cry Themselves To Sleep 2017 ©Uchujin-AdrianStorey

As part of a series of posts marking 1 year since I left Japan after my 10 stretch I am posting new photos from my most well-known photo series “Let the poets cry themselves to sleep”.

(published all over the world including CNN, The BBC, The Guardian, La Revue, Der Spiegel, GUP magazine and countless blogs)

It wasn’t long after first arriving in Japan I started noticing people asleep on the streets.

As an insomniac I have always been very interested in sleep and coming from a country where if you slept on the street you would likely wake up without your wallet and your shoes (and probably far worse), I was fascinated.

What started out as a very personal exploration of my own relationship with sleep turned into a commentary on overwork and alcohol abuse in Japanese society.

The full series can be viewed on my main site HERE and the 10 new,  mostly never before seen photographs below….

I keep waving at the taxis; they keep turning their lights off – 1 year later series

As part of a series of posts marking 1 year since I left Japan after my 10 stretch I am posting never published before photographs from my archives.

May I present a completely new series “I keep waving at the taxis; they keep turning their lights off” a companion to my “Let The Poets Cry Themselves To Sleep” series which I am also posting new photos from.

A road close to my old apartment that ran along one side of a lovely park was used by taxi drivers to park up between their obviously long shifts, they would use the public toilet, watch baseball games in the park, eat and day or night sleep in their cabs.
I would walk past them every day and it would always make me feel a little sad to see these mostly older men eating their unhealthy convenience store cup noodles and grabbing an uncomfortable little sleep in their taxis.

Like the “Let The Poets” series it is intended as a comment on Japanese societies unhealthy and frankly terrifying over dedication to work at the expense of everything else.