My name is David, and Somewhere in Japan is a long-term personal project in learning how to tell the stories I want to tell in the ways I want to tell them. Starting out, though, the first task is to clarify what that means:

• What are the stories I want to investigate and tell?
• How can I tell the most effectively, within the context of my personal creative style?

I must answer both questions through experimentation and exploration. This simply means that, while I don’t really have great answers to these questions at the moment, but I am figuring it out. In time, with effort, all will become clear.

I came to Japan to do my life’s work, and this is part of that. I came here to learn, explore, create, and share.

Topically, the site will follow the shape of my personal interests, which include but are not limited to: architecture, urban studies, food, design, religion, history, transportation, and urban infrastructure.

2021 was the first phase of the project, during which I produced two short essays a week. The goal was to reestablish the habit of writing through public practice.

In 2022, this project is moving into a second phase, marked by these changes:

• The “dispatches” posts (the short essays) are reducing in frequency from twice a week to once a week, to provide time and energy for additional creative work.
• There will be a greater emphasis on photography than there was last year, including the posting of photographs several times a week in the photos category of posts.
• A new project is beginning: A Thousand-Meter Radius. In this project, I am studying a section of my city in as many ways as I can think of over the next year or two.
• I will record and release a podcast version of the dispatches from 2021 over the course of the year. This is also a form of practicing in public, as I work to teach myself audio production skills.
• Experimenting with new post types/topics, including travel-related posts and food.
• Expanded overlap with my general photography work, so my activities here will be also integrated with my main photo site at davidrmunson.com (currently being redesigned)
• Much-expanded activity and behind-the-scenes documentation onthe Somewhere in Japan Patreon, which will include not just activity related to this site/project, but also my greater efforts to transition out of teaching English and into doing creative work full time.

I will do my best with these things over the coming months. I sincerely appreciate your presence here, and as I figure out how to do what I want to do, I’m hoping you’ll the find value in it I hope to provide.