Tokaido was the most important of the Five Routes of the Edo period in Japan, connecting Kyoto to Tokyo. Traveling on it was mainly made on foot, taking between two to three weeks to complete; and for that reason, along the route there were fifty three government sanctioned post stations that developed around the need for travelers to rest as well as lodging, food and other services.

    Today, it's one of the country's main rail line and the modern high speed train covers the distance for an average of two and a half hours; stopping at 15 stations or less; major cities that, as a response to this connection between them, have been increasingly developing ever since. 
    But while these metropolises have been growing and expanding without a pause, small towns and villages on the outskirts that are not connected to this network are facing their death.

In this new project and through the use of narrative photography, I'm looking at both faces of a reality that is often hidden in plain sight, such as the life in large modern and hectic metropolitan areas, in contrast with the more remote smaller towns and villages that are not well connected and seem to have been forgotten in time. 
    Therefore, I'm exploring the contemporary Tokaido stations and their surrounding areas, searching for the connections between them and the people living there; to understand how the places we inhabit have an effect on us, and in turn we on them. 

Tokaido has been going on since October 2023, when I decided to come to Japan and start working on it, all funded by myself alone. However, it soon became clear that what initially was planned as a six months production piece, was gaining momentum and the desire to grow larger and stronger. An idea that has surpassed the initial expectations, and that at this stage, the funds to keep working on it at the scale it deserves are scarce, limited and needing external support; that's why I'm launching a Kickstarter campaign.

The main challenges at this time are not only the project production costs, but also several other areas that are ofter not visible to the public, such as a visa status that needs to be changed and the legal assistance to do so; besides the maze that is banking, accountability and the taxes for donated funds.

     That's the reason why at this stage the project needs your help.

     This will not only serve as a platform for the villages and towns to be seen and share their concerns, as well as for younger and brave minds to consider a different future from the one we seem to be going to at the moment; but also to show that we have the technology to shorten distances and rethink how we approach the ideas behind the places we call home. 

     And to conclude, it will see the light as a photobook that aims at creating a space to question how we are living today and how we’d like to live in the future on this spaceship Earth.