Prayer boards, Ebara Jinja Shrine, Shinagawa, Tokyo © Tony Redhead

Japan holds a special place in my heart. After the breakup with my two partners in Electric Paint, I joined Leo Burnett-Kyodo in 1992 and set up their first internal digital studio in Tokyo. It was an exhilarating time, and the experience of a country and culture that surrounds you in Japan alongside the hustle and bustle of the world of Advertising led to many readjustments in my life.

I have very few visual mementos from that period. Still, I did have the opportunity to briefly revisit Tokyo in 2012 on my return from the Russian Far East and spend a day on a walking tour of several temples in the Shinagawa region.

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is often referred to as the Land of the Rising Sun.