Lured by Matsuo Basho, one of Japan’s best known haiku poets and the author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North, I traveled to Japan in search of insights that could be crystallized in simple words and images. During our 17-day trip, I took at least one smartphone photo to post with an accompanying haiku every day. This practice allowed me to routinely reflect on the contrasts between old and new that I found most striking in this place where tradition and technology collide: schoolgirls in demure uniforms boarding streamlined bullet trains, kimono-clad teenagers snapping selfies and a woman hiking to a mountain temple in high heels. It also helped me to focus on moments of joy in nature: seeing Japanese macaques for the first time near Nagano, capturing the nighttime reflection of white-lit Black Crow Castle in Matsumoto and watching herons land in rice fields along a canal-lined bike route near Takashima. It’s a writing/photography routine I’ve continued to follow every day since.
—Ellen Girardeau Kempler
Silent geisha watch,
but can’t help navigate.
Born before Google.
. . .
unfurl like neon banners.
Trains rattle and blur.
• • •
rain rolls off hats peaked like roofs.
Work goes on.
• • •
Umbrellas bloom in
Kanazawa.
A wedding party crosses the street.
. . .
Genbaku Dome glows at dusk.
In Hiroshima Peace Park,
a bell rings.
. . .