Yaizu is in Shizuoka, about an hour down the coast from Tokyo by Shinkansen. I travelled there for a few days last week with editors Lucas and Kaori (HERE) for an upcoming story in the next issue of their magazine – Papersky. We stayed with Kaori’s family, in their house by the beach. All the neighbours are old friends and the grandmothers spend their days cooking and talking together. Many of them lost husbands in a tragic sinking during the ’50s, so they have formed very strong bonds with one another.

At one time Yaizu was Japan’s largest fishing port; it is not anymore. The old men in the photo above were fishing for ‘Tachi’, a long silver fish; the name means ‘sword’ in Japanese. “We will fish as long as the tide comes in” said the old man on the right. He was quite infamous among the other old men; they all paid him a lot of respect. It turns out he used to be a captain in his day, sailing all over the world. Now he builds glow in the dark lures and tries to catch fish named “Sword” for as long as the tide comes in.