Posted on Sat, 7 May 2011

Brainfood – Tokyo On Foot

If you want to find out about the REAL local Tokyo, Tokyo On Foot by Florent Chavouet (Tuttle Publishing) hits the spot. This is a wonderful gem of a book, which pushed us to do this very rare book review on SimplyFab. It’s a quirky, graphic ‘guidebook’ filled with beautifully rendered and detailed doodlings that capture vignettes of the city seen through the eyes of a resident, rather than a tourist.

Rather than listing information about where to go, Chavouet captures the mood, vibe and feel of Tokyo from a local angle. Everything is presented visually at ‘eye level’ and he weaves in local information and personal comments in his rather lighthearted and amusing captions. Flip through the pages and you’ll know what I mean. It’s like you are walking through parts of the city and looking at it through your own eyes. The buildings are drawn realistically but the people are amusing caricatures that show up the eccentric, colourful ways of the people there.

So who’s he? Chavouet is a graphic artist who spent six months exploring Tokyo. Each day he would set out on bicycle or on foot with his coloured pencils and a sketchpad to visit different neighbourhoods. In his drawings, he captures the ordinary folk going about their ordinary business – the policeman, the people waiting at the train station, the old lady at the grocery store, the salary man and his internal thoughts. I like the sketch of the inside of a typical home, his experience at a police station, and the strange little details about Japanese life that catches his eye – a ladybugs at the bottom of the metropolitan government office, a Kirin beer can, a statue of Godzilla on a pedestal. It’s like reliving a previous trip to the city, so this makes a fantastic souvenir of the city. Tokyo On Foot is organised by neighborhood, with the local police building marking the start of each chapter.

It’s a gem of a book. Irreverent and funny; part comic book, part guidebook and part personal commentary with loads of humour. It makes a very amusing read, and if you’re stumped for a present for a friend, this is it if she is an intrepid traveller. Definitely a must-buy for those who like travelling to Japan or its culture!