Sketched over a period of six months while he traveled and explored the city, Tokyo on Foot : Travels in the City’s Most Colorful Neighborhoods is a fascinating sketchbook by Florent Chavouet, a graphic artist/author from Paris.

Florent’s meticulous and witty drawings, realized by the artist’s amazing skill with colored pencils and keen powers of observation reveal an intriguing underbelly of the sprawling metropolis rarely seen by tourists, who usually flock to city’s more famous sights. As someone who lived in Tokyo for good amount of time and did my fair share of exploring by photography, the whimsically caricatured street scenes are hugely endearing to me.

(above & below) Takadanobaba, the birth place of Osamu Tezuka ( Astroboy ) and one of my favorite haunts. My film school Toho Gakuen was situated there.

(above & below) I lived in an old house situated in Tanashi ( Seibu Shinjuku line ) that very much resembled these drawings.

A delightful visual exploration of Tokyo’s neighbourhoods, which in my opinion are much more interesting that most of the tourist spots. Florent Chavouet’s art work is stupendous, his annotations funny, and I cannot recommend this book enough.

“Tokyo on Foot : Travels in the City’s Most Colorful Neighborhoods” art book details :

Dimensions – 7.2 x 0.6 x 10 inches
Soft cover, 208 pages
Full color, In English

Buy From Amazon CA | Amazon JP | Amazon UK | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Amazon DE | Amazon ES

You might also be interested in these items :