Home on Toto Tvalavadze

Vault Tasks

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Vault Tasks is an Obsidian plugin that gathers Markdown tasks from across the vault into one organized view.

I built it because I wanted a global task list that stays lightweight and native to Obsidian instead of turning the vault into a separate task system. Vault Tasks pulls everything into one place, keeps it organized, and lets me act on tasks without losing the context of the notes they came from.

What it does

Collects tasks from across the entire vault into one place
Groups tasks by note and optionally by section
Filters by pending, completed, or all tasks
Filters by section name across notes
Keeps pinned notes at the top of the list
Adds quick note and task actions through inline controls and context menus
Supports note-level defer and hide behavior
Writes task changes back to the original notes

The settings pane covers vault-wide defaults such as open location, filters, related notes, folder scope, sorting, and task-status actions, so the view can match how a particular vault is organized.

There is also a read-only companion CLI, vault-tasks, which renders the same organized task view in the terminal. It respects the plugin’s saved settings and relevant Obsidian settings, and can emit human-readable output, summaries, or JSON for scripts and AI agents.

Source

The source, releases, and development notes live on GitHub:

Plugin: totocaster/vault-tasks-obsidian
Companion CLI: totocaster/vault-tasks-obsidian-cli

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2026.03

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Made a leather-bound pillow guestbook with debossed covers—first attempt, and it actually worked!
Published whoopy, a CLI client for the Whoop API, written in Go.
Published withingy, a similar CLI for the Withings Health API.
Published a Go CLI app template on GitHub for quickly spinning up new command-line tools.
Started building HyperContext, a local-first personal context store that aggregates health metrics, journal entries, and agent memory into a single searchable interface. Got it to a usable state and began work on CRDT-based sync.
Completed the first maquette of Scent of Time—perfect bound from prints cut during a five-hour bookbinding class session. The print house delivered the wrong binding spec (perfect instead of sewn) and shifted the colors, but the prototype served its purpose.
Presented Scent of Time at the FotoFilmic Book Program retreat in Ebisu. Three days of reviews with Greg Girard, Takayuki Kobayashi (Flotsam Books), Titus Spree, Naoko Uchima, and Naoko Ohta. Incredible experience and very valuable feedback received. Excited to announce the book and work on it in the open.
Visited the Railway Museum in Omiya, Saitama—overwhelming collection, on par with Technik Museum Sinsheim.
Flew Tokyo → Rome direct (15 hours). First long-haul nonstop flight ever.
Started building a macOS app for plaintext task management. Got it surprisingly fluid on the first day.
Received a Space Selfie from CrunchLabs—forgot I even ordered it.
Ordered a Saturn 4 Ultra 16K resin printer as the first tool for the Rome studio.
Began studio renovations: stripped wallpaper, masked windows, tested primer. The ceiling is intimidating.
Visited Centro della Fotografia for its opening exhibition—Irving Penn and Silvia Campironi’s Atlas of Italy series.
Saw the Wu Jian’an: Metamorphoses exhibition at the Baths of Diocletian.
Visited the Capuchin Crypt. Every photo could double as a death metal album cover.
Watched Hoppers (Pixar) in theaters, adorable.

I had lunch at a Georgian restaurant in Rome. Realized I can date when Georgians living in Europe left the country almost to the year by how they present themselves. Possibly a good portrait project to practice portraiture and make a small book.

Highlight of the month was definitely the photo book program retreat in Tokyo. Finally meeting Greg in person and also getting to know many amazing people in the art scene, both teaching and curating. I had an incredible experience and received very valuable feedback. Excited to finally announce the book and work on it in the open.

No less of a big deal is a nice studio space in Rome. It needs remodeling, but Ludo and I already started working on it. It’s big and located quite close to where we live. I love the Kyojima area a lot, but it was a one-hour commute from my Shinjuku house and limited me a bit when I wanted to tinker with books or electronics spontaneously.

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Withingy CLI

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Withingy CLI is a Go CLI for pulling Withings data from the terminal. It started as a transplant from Whoopy CLI, keeping the same JSON-first operator experience while swapping in Withings-specific auth, activity, body metrics, sleep, and workouts.

What it does

Withingy keeps health data accessible through a single binary with predictable output for humans, shell scripts, dashboards, and AI agents. Common tasks:

withingy stats daily --text aggregates activity, sleep, and workouts for your local calendar day.
withingy activity today --text renders a human-readable activity summary.
withingy weight today --text shows the current day’s weigh-ins without needing a manual date range.
withingy weight latest --text shows the most recent body-weight entry.
withingy sleep today --text renders the latest sleep summary in a readable table.
withingy workouts export --format csv exports workouts as CSV or JSON Lines.

JSON is the default for scripts and agents; --text switches to readable terminal output where available. weight and measures JSON timestamps are emitted as RFC3339 UTC values, while --text output renders times in your local timezone. weight list defaults to the last 30 days when you do not provide a range, and today shortcuts plus stats daily without --date follow your local calendar day.

Agent-friendly by design

Withingy follows the same conventions as my other Project Humane tools: quiet success, non-zero exit codes on errors, deterministic JSON, XDG-friendly config, and shell completions for zsh, bash, and fish. That makes it straightforward for AI agents and local automations to inspect body metrics, sleep sessions, workouts, and daily aggregates without relying on a browser-first workflow.

Authentication

Withingy stores config and tokens under ~/.config/withingy/. The current auth flow supports browser login plus a manual fallback when localhost callback auth is inconvenient. Credentials and endpoint overrides can also be provided through WITHINGY_* environment variables.

Get Withingy

Install it via my Homebrew tap:

brew tap totocaster/tap
brew install withingy

The source and release notes live on GitHub: totocaster/withingy.

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Whoopy CLI

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Whoopy CLI is an unofficial WHOOP data CLI written in Go. It wraps WHOOP’s OAuth flow and developer v2 APIs so humans, automations, dashboards, and AI agents can pull workouts, sleep, recovery, and stats securely from the terminal.

What it does

Whoopy gives full access to WHOOP data through a single binary with consistent, scriptable output. Common tasks:

whoopy stats daily --date 2026-03-03 --text aggregates workouts, recovery, sleep, and strain for a single day.
whoopy workouts list --sport running --min-strain 8 filters workouts client-side.
whoopy workouts export --format csv --output workouts.csv auto-paginates and streams data as CSV or JSON Lines.
whoopy sleep today --text shows a human-readable sleep summary.

JSON output is the default for scripts and agents; --text switches to aligned tables for human reading.

Here is an example of whoopy recovery today returning JSON, ready for piping into jq or consumption by an AI agent:

{
  "recoveries": [
    {
      "cycle_id": 1345285100,
      "score_state": "SCORED",
      "score": {
        "recovery_score": 81,
        "resting_heart_rate": 66,
        "hrv_rmssd_milli": 39.19,
        "spo2_percentage": 94.85,
        "skin_temp_celsius": 32.93
      }
    }
  ]
}

And the same day’s sleep as a human-readable table with whoopy sleep today --text:

Start                          Duration  Perf%  Resp  Nap  ID
Tue, 03 Mar 2026 23:40:19 JST  8h27m     90.0   14.8  no   eab936b2-…

Agent-friendly by design

Whoopy follows the same conventions as my other Project Humane tools: consistent flags, quiet success, non-zero exit codes on errors, and deterministic JSON output. This makes it straightforward for AI agents like Claude to query WHOOP data, build daily dashboards, or integrate health metrics into broader workflows.

Authentication

Whoopy uses first-party OAuth with PKCE. Running whoopy auth login opens the browser for WHOOP authorization, then persists tokens under ~/.config/whoopy/. Tokens refresh automatically; whoopy auth status shows remaining lifetime and scopes. Headless workflows are supported via --no-browser and --manual flags.

Get Whoopy

Install via my Homebrew tap:

brew tap totocaster/tap
brew install whoopy

The source and release notes live on GitHub: totocaster/whoopy.

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AI Coding Took Off Because the Tooling Was Already There

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Coding has taken off as a use case for AI because of the prior existence of mature tooling. The software industry had tools for creating (files, CLI, scripting), collaborating (git, pull requests), verifying (linters, test suites), and measuring success (compilers, logging, analytics) — all before AI wrote a single line of code.

When AI started generating code, it landed in an environment already designed to absorb, validate, and correct machine output. The feedback loop was there.

Most other industries don’t have any of this. There’s no git diff for a building design (I think?). No pull request for a film edit. No CI pipeline that validates a legal argument.

The fields that get comparable tooling for creating, verifying, and measuring will be where AI appears to suddenly “get good.” But it won’t be the AI that changed. It’ll be the infrastructure around it.

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2026.02

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Shot a photoshoot for a Rome-based collective with two friends (Thank you Kaiki and Rana!).
Started a family documentation project: bought two Konica Big Mini F film cameras—one for me, one for my partner—to shoot daily life on 35mm. Made custom canister stickers and camera labels. Targeting 80–100 rolls per year.
Walked the Tama River banks from Futako-Tamagawa to Tamagawa during a snowstorm. Tokyo got about 5cm of snow the next day.
Did an 11km river walk from Mitaka to Hamadayama along the Tamagawa Josui and Kanda River. Found a stretch of seaweed beds that reminded me of the underwater scene in Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979). Discovered OU, a nice café/workspace near Hamadayama.
Hiked 8km in Chichibu with friends—403m elevation gain.
Finished a book restoration with slipcase at bookbinding class. Also learned western-style paper marbling.
Designed and 3D-printed a corner cutting jig for bookbinding—published with free STL downloads.
Had a productive session with Greg Girard on the book project—positive momentum on the direction.
Improved Arrowhead CLI performance using the new Codex model.
Workshopped and published the initial spec for the Universal Content Bundle—a self-describing file format for packaging any type of content, readable by humans, software, and AI agents alike.
Set up a pop-up for Jinny Street Gallery at NININI’s anniversary event.
Secured a 40m² studio space in Monteverde Nuovo, Rome.
Finally received my Japanese visa renewal—ending the cycle that started back in November 2024.
Launched an app at work after a sprint to close out the last complex items.

I’ve had this belief—shared by many people around me—that every seven years you need to reinvent yourself, or at least introduce a big change in your life. I had a massive shift in 2020, and I suppose a year here or there doesn’t make much difference in the count. 2026 will be my last year in Japan as a resident.

I have mixed feelings about it. There are still so many people and places I love here, and parting with that will be hard. But I’ll keep coming back for the same reasons. After twelve years, I feel like there are other things I need to try—especially around my homeland. Starting in 2027, I’ll be splitting my time between Rome and Tbilisi.

Ludo (my partner) and I have already secured a studio space in Rome, so the tinkering headquarters—along with some new projects we both have in mind—will be taking shape there. I’ll be announcing more within the year. This move opens the door to design and photography projects I’ve wanted to explore since I was much younger, and I’m genuinely excited about that part, even as I feel a quiet sadness about leaving Japan behind.

Onward, forward.

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Corner Cutting Jig for Bookbinding

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A simple jig for cutting clean 45-degree corners on book board. Slide the board into the slot, run a knife along the angled guide, and get a consistent mitered corner every time. No measuring, no marking.

The jig comes in six versions for common board thicknesses from 0.5mm to 3.0mm. Pick the one that matches your board (or the closest fit) and print it. I used PLA on a Bambu X1C at 0.16mm layer height — nothing exotic needed.

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Universal Content Bundle

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Universal Content Bundle is a file format for packaging any type of content (text, images, data, code, media) into a single self-describing bundle that humans, software, and AI agents can all read and work with. No external dependencies, no proprietary schema registries, no opinions about how the content should look on screen.

The problem

Content today is trapped in app-shaped containers. A literature review lives in one tool, its source PDF in another, the highlights in a third. A photo essay scatters images across a folder while its captions and sequencing live in an app’s database. The content can’t describe itself. It depends on the app that created it to make sense.

Universal Content Bundle inverts this: the bundle carries everything needed to understand what’s inside. A reader (any reader) can open it and decide how to present it.

Core principles

Self-contained: the bundle carries everything needed to understand its content. No external dependencies.
Self-describing: a manifest describes what’s inside, the types, and the relationships. No external schema registry.
Purely declarative: the bundle says “I am these things, in these relationships.” It has zero opinion about rendering.
Renderer-agnostic: CLI, desktop app, spatial computing, web, and AI agents all read the same bundle and choose their own rendering.
Semantically atomic: one bundle = one coherent concept. The boundary is semantic, not technical.
Primitives over binaries: irreducible content (images, audio, video) stays binary. Everything else is described, not embedded as opaque blobs.

What a bundle looks like

A bundle is a directory (or a zipped archive for transfer) with a simple structure. Two roots live beside each other: content/ for canonical materials and workspace/ for reader-specific scratch space.

my-research.bundle/
  manifest.toml       # manifest (required)
  content/            # all content files (required)
    paper.pdf
    notes.md
    highlights.json
    figures/
      fig1.png
      fig2.png
    experiment/
      run.py
      data.csv
  workspace/          # optional sandbox for reader apps (purgeable)
    com.example.viewer/
      layout-cache.json

The optional workspace/ directory gives reader applications a scratchpad scoped to this bundle. Apps can create namespaced subfolders inside (e.g., workspace/com.example.viewer/) to persist layout caches, UI preferences, or render-state checkpoints. Each app owns its own namespace, so multiple readers can coexist without clobbering one another. Everything in workspace/ is disposable—purging it simply resets that specific reader’s memory of the bundle.

The manifest is a TOML file called manifest.toml. It describes every part of the bundle:

[bundle]
name = "Understanding Neural Networks"
description = "Literature review with annotated source paper and experimental data"
author = "Toto Tvalavadze"
created = 2026-02-21
version = "https://ucb.org/1.0.0"

[[content]]
path = "paper.pdf"
mediatype = "application/pdf"
main = true
description = "Original 2024 paper by Hinton et al."

[[content]]
path = "notes.md"
main = true

[[content]]
path = "highlights.json"
description = "Page-anchored highlights from the source paper"

[[content]]
path = "figures/fig1.png"

[[content]]
path = "experiment/run.py"
description = "Reproduction script for Table 3 results"

[[content]]
path = "experiment/data.csv"
description = "Raw experimental output"

Rules are minimal: [bundle] metadata is required. Each file gets a [[content]] entry with a path. Mark primary content with main = true. Add description when it’s not obvious. Omit everything else; consumers infer what they need. The version field should be a URL that points to the exact specification (e.g., https://ucb.org/1.0.0) so parsers know which contract this bundle follows. Any workspace/ entries are intentionally absent from the manifest to underline that they’re cache-only and safe to purge; readers can recreate them on demand without breaking the canonical record.

Specs for humans and agents

The bundle website will host canonical specs for people and agents side by side. Every version URL (such as https://ucb.org/1.0.0) serves the human-readable document plus machine-friendly representations (TOML, JSON, JSON-LD) so code, CLIs, and AI assistants can reason about the same contract humans reference.

Bundle examples

A movie: video file, subtitles, chapter markers, poster image. Just a film with its context attached.

A literature note: source PDF, highlights with page anchors, reader’s commentary, bibliographic metadata. The highlights point back to specific locations in the PDF.

A scientific paper: full text, figures, raw data, executable scripts, generated charts. A capable reader could re-run the analysis, challenge the conclusions. The paper becomes a living argument with evidence attached.

An article: text, embedded images, pull quotes, related links, author bio, revision history. Every piece travels together.

The separation

Two layers, deliberately independent:

The bundle (the standard): content, manifest, provenance. This is the universal part. It doesn’t know or care about any specific application.

Consumer applications (implementations): each reads the manifest, understands the content, and renders it however it sees fit. A CLI tool might list parts and dump text. A desktop app might build a rich multi-pane layout. An AI agent might generate an entirely new representation based on intent. Their architecture is their own business.

The bundle is the truth. The rendering is the consumer’s choice.

Open questions

This is an active design effort. Key questions still being worked through:

Packaging: directory on disk (inspectable, editable) vs. single archive (portable)? Probably both: directory as working format, zipped for sharing.
Collaboration: CRDTs inside the bundle for real-time editing? Or immutable-once-published, where commentary becomes a new bundle referencing the original? Automerge is on the radar.
Inter-bundle references: bundles referencing other bundles: embed or link? Content addressing (hash-based) could solve both.
Relationship graphs: how to express connections between parts? Flat triples, typed edges, or anchored references à la the W3C Web Annotation Data Model?

Prior art

The idea has deep roots. macOS .bundle and .app directories pioneered the directory-as-file concept. EPUB packages content with an OPF manifest. IIIF describes images and annotations in JSON so any viewer can render them. Frictionless Data Packages put schema next to data files. Jupyter Notebooks combine code, output, and narrative.

Further back: Ted Nelson’s Xanadu imagined documents carrying their own context. Bret Victor’s Explorable Explanations made documents interactive. Alan Kay’s Smalltalk objects carried their own behavior. HyperCard bundled content and interaction. More recently, Ink & Switch (Potluck, Cambria) and Geoffrey Litt (Wildcard, Riffle) have been pushing toward malleable software that adapts to data shapes rather than forcing data into app shapes.

Universal Content Bundle is part of Plaintext Commons, continuing the thread that files, not apps, should be the durable layer for knowledge work.

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2026.01

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Traveled to Hong Kong and Macau for New Year’s—my first time exploring the city. It has become one of my top five favorite cities.
Returned to Tokyo and set up Hank, an OpenClaw-based local AI assistant running on Mac Mini with TRMNL display integration and WhatsApp interface. I’m rethinking how computer UI should feel.
Experimenting with the Ralph Wiggum Loop—an interesting concept, but I’m not sure going back to waterfall is the right way to do software again.
Set up an LPL DS-4 copy stand with Leica Bellows-R (16860) system for ultimate scanning setup. I use simplified VNS adapter for it.
Created three new Unbound notebook covers, I’m getting really fast at making those.
Had a productive Book Program call with Greg Girard—feeling more confident about the project direction.
Opened Michibiki Vol. 3 exhibition at Jinny Street Gallery.
Went on a ski trip to Urasa, Niigata.
Admin meetings with various lawyers and tax accountants for new business setup in Japan, targeting launch by Sept-Oct.
Published my first long-form piece on LinkedIn about AI and software development. Somehow I still find LinkedIn one of the oddest places to publish anything.

January felt like hitting the ground running after the holidays. Between Hong Kong explorations and diving deep into AI assistant experiments, the month had a good balance of travel and tinkering. The FotoFilmic sessions with Greg continue to be a highlight—finally feeling like the book project has real direction. Most weekends were split between studio work and wedding prep, which is starting to feel more real now that invites are going out.

I’m still waiting for the Japanese visa renewal. It’s been close to four months—and all for the one-year visa.

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2025.12

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Eenewed focus on Rust and AI work.
Admin continued – immigration paperwork moved forward again.
Set up multiple Jinny Street Gallery efforts, including the Yu Asobi mini-exhibition at Kosugi-yu Sento and installation work for The Creators’ Club Exhibition.
Published v0.2 of the Plaintext Commons website.
Signed The Resonant Computing Manifesto.
Finally found a use for TRMNL and build an health display plugin for daily weight and trend tracking.
Learning restoration for in bookbinding practice.
Invested further into film workflow tooling: acquired scanning lenses and spent time designing and iterating on a VNS (v3.0) adapter and bellows-based scanning setup in CAD; to be published in 2026.
Closed the year with travel to Hong Kong and a New Year’s countdown with friends.

December was split between maintenance and momentum. Early in the month, lingering sickness and heavy admin (immigration, bank restrictions) competed for attention. At the same time, the health project became more structured: removing sugar first, then moving into a deficit and tracking protein/carbs more deliberately, with the explicit intent of building a dataset worth analyzing later.

The creative work snapped back into place. Shooting became regular again, and editing felt frictionless in a way I’d forgotten. That energy fed into everything else: gallery installs, bookbinding experiments, and a renewed push on the “tools around the practice” layer—Plaintext Commons, the TRMNL dashboard, and the physical design work for film scanning. The month (and the year) ended in Hong Kong. The final sunset of the year was spectacular.

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Paper and Permission

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hello Walkers—

Paper is a strange technology. It can be a border guard, or it can be a gift.

October began with the border‑guard version.

I finished my visa renewal documentation as quickly as I could submit it. Japan’s current posture on immigration has a way of turning personal life into a ledger: dates, proofs, stamps, the quiet anxiety of being legible to a system. In a status‑conscious society, being a university dropout running an international (i.e., non‑Japanese) business doesn’t exactly help either. I’m thinking more seriously about what I want next—not only in Tokyo, but in general. Submitting the paperwork didn’t solve that question, but it did remove the immediate weight. It gave the month back to me.

And once the bureaucratic paper was filed away, I could return to the paper I actually care about.

In the summer, I was accepted into FotoFilmic’s mentorship program, led by Greg Girard (and a few other people who really know how books become real). If it all goes according to plan—which it already isn’t, because nothing honest ever does—then I might end this with my debut photobook, available in the places where photobooks are allowed to exist with dignity: shelves, hands, bags, coffee tables, libraries, the quiet corners of other people’s lives.

The photobook is now real in the way projects become real: it has consequences.

I met with a potential publisher and a book designer, and suddenly the project stopped being a bunch of JPEGs on my hard drive and became a set of decisions—sequencing, paper selection, binding approaches, the tempo of turning pages. It’s intimidating, yes, but it’s also a relief. Watching Greg navigate my haystack of color work was truly impressive.

On the tools side, Arrowhead CLI has been taking a lot of my attention: an Obsidian‑aware search and discovery layer for my vault. The goal is simple (and hard): keep the folder as the source of truth, keep the files durable, and build tools that can help humans and AI work with the corpus without turning it into a locked garden.

Plaintext Commons is now public as the manifesto behind that direction: folder as platform, file as protocol, tools—including AI agents—that assist without annexing the archive.

At a minimum, I want my future self to be able to open a folder and understand what I was thinking. No migrations or exports required.

Back to photography, and to a different kind of belonging: Tokyo now has its own authentic Georgian restaurant—Ajika (map)—tucked into the labyrinth of Kagurazaka. It’s created and run by people I know, and I’m very proud of them. It’s a small miracle, and it removes one of the stranger needles of homesickness: the craving for a taste that isn’t just flavor, but memory.

I hung four photographs at Ajika and then bartended multiple nights there as part of the mini‑exhibition, serving alongside Leon Gallo. It was nice to serve people and talk with a few of them about photography and my hometown—the subject of the photographs on the wall. If you’re reading this in the right time window, the photos will be up through the end of 2025.

I also supported Jinny Street Gallery this month: a few workshops and a Kohei Shibusawa show at NININI.NI. We also launched a small pop‑up exhibition at Kusugiyu right in the middle of Omotesando—an especially nice end to a walk after wandering around the gallery.

The older I get, the more I believe that “culture” is mostly infrastructure—frames, walls, lights, and people willing to show up.

What I looked at:

Pedro Costa’s photographic work at Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. Portraits and still videos that made “stillness” feel like a verb.
Mike Brodie’s (a.k.a. The Polaroid Kidd) prints from A Period of Juvenile Prosperity up close—made between 2006 and 2008 while freight‑hopping across the U.S. (thank you, Jeremy!).
Sazaedo Temple in Fukushima—famous for its double‑helix spiral staircase (and a weekend of autumn foliage).
A System for Writing by Bob Doto.

Two photobooks that landed on my shelf:

A Woman I Once Knew, Rosalind Fox Solomon
Uncommon Places, Stephen Shore

With that, see you around the corner.

—Toto

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A low-noise smartphone [that works]

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Dumb phones do not work. So I came up with a few tools and tricks to make a modern smartphone work for me.

I came up with a few rules that apply to everything I do on the phone, and I find it helpful.

1. Phone cannot ask for my attention

This means no notifications and badges are allowed.

A few people are exceptions, like my partner, family, and a few friends. Everyone else needs to call me to reach me immediately; otherwise, I’ll see messages when I see them.
No app is allowed to send notifications—no exceptions.
- Many apps that need realtime updates implement activities (think Uber, delivery apps, etc.) and those work without notifications. I find small updates in my dynamic island or lock screen sufficient.

Web access is okay because most of the attention-grabbing things I block using SocialFocus extension (Dia on macOS, Safari on iOS).
I do have Instagram on iPad, which stays on my bookshelf 100% of the time. I use it only for posting.
SocialFocus blocks all algorithmic content (non-follow feeds, recommendations, reels, shorts, ads) on every platform.

Tools

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Dumb phones do not work

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The modern world assumes you have a smartphone. You hail taxis, navigate cities, pay for things, and even read restaraunt menus through it. In practice, it’s hard to function day to day without at least a browser in your pocket.

For all its attention traps, the smartphone is a genuinely useful tool. It is, by far, the best calendar, to-do list, map, navigation system, and always-available camera I’ve used—and that already covers a large part of modern life.

Modern “dumb phones” fail at the very thing they promise to fix. They remove social feeds, but they also make basic tasks harder or impossible. A lot of what we do on our phones that isn’t doomscrolling is actually necessary or useful.

I keep a separate set of tools, settings, and habits that let me use everything a smartphone offers while avoiding most of its attention traps.

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2025.11

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Traveled to Fukushima for a weekend trip photographing autumn foliage and visited Sazaedo Temple, known for its double-helix spiral staircase architecture.
Published Plaintext Commons and open-sourced Arrowhead CLI for plaintext note management.
Open-sourced Stamp, another tool for the Plaintext Commons ecosystem.
Started development on Backlog (TBA), an Anki-style spaced reminder system for plaintext notes.
Launched a redesign of ttvl.co with refreshed homepage.
Good prograss on photo book.
Made custom bone folders at bookbinding class at Marumizu-gumi.
Visited Mike Brodie’s exhibition A Period of Juvenile Prosperity at Gallery Ether.
Finished reading A System for Writing by Bob Doto.
Added thee photobooks to my collection: A Woman I Once Knew by Rosalind Fox Solomon, Uncommon Places by Stephen Shore, and one from the exhibition.
Began discussions about converting Jinny Street Gallery into a NPO.

It’s been a while since I was sick for this many days. Headaches and a sore throat lingered for over ten days, which derailed a few things, but I still managed to accomplish a lot in the first two-thirds of the month.

The book project is progressing well, though I’ve realized I’m short on images. I’ll be shooting more over the next three months and getting back into a regular photography schedule.

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2025.10

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I kickstarted work on my first proper photobook intended for publishing.
Developed Arrowhead CLI – A fast Obsidian-aware search and discovery that makes AI agents your true knowledge assistant. Open-sourcing soon!
Released Stamp CLI – a simple note naming and identification tool for the Plaintext Commons system.
Exhibited four photographs at Ajika restaurant in Tokyo; on display entire November.
Participated in meetings with a potential publisher and book designer for book production, design, paper selection, and binding approaches.
Completed visa renewal documentation and submitted all required paperwork.
Created and submitted a presentation for a potential Rome community studio space.
Bartended multiple nights at Ajika as part of my mini-exhibition, serving alongside Leon.
Completed a few more bookbinding projects.
Supported Jinny Street Gallery activities, including a workshop and Kohei Shibusawa show at NININI.NI.
Visited Tokyo Photographic Art Museum to see Pedro Costa’s photographic work, featuring beautiful portrait works with still videos.
Had a chance to see Mike Brodie’s (a.k.a. The Polaroid Kid) prints up close (thanks Jeremy!)
Migrated task management from Reminders.app back to Things.

October was full and rich with experiences. First and foremost, I completed my visa paperwork as soon as I could submit it—lifting a massive weight off my shoulders.

My research work has taken practical shape with the development of Stamp and Arrowhead—software tools that help with note-taking and bridge the gap between AI agents and personal knowledge bases. The direction is promising, and I’m excited to be open-sourcing these tools on GitHub in the coming days.

Perhaps most significantly for my photography practice, I’ve begun work on my first proper photobook intended for publication. I’m deeply grateful for the mentorship guiding this project forward. While it’s already presented challenges and will certainly bring more, I believe the resulting book will be something truly worth publishing and sharing.

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Arrowhead CLI

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Arrowhead (on GitHub) is the plain-text search engine and agent bridge for my Obsidian vault. It keeps everything indexed for humans and AI alike, combining fast full-text search, semantic vectors, and graph analytics under one CLI. Arrowhead is part of Plaintext Commons—my broader effort to build file-native thinking systems—with a public site forthcoming at plaintextcommons.org.

I built Arrowhead after years of bouncing between note-taking apps that locked away structure, links, and history. Plain text stayed the only constant, so the tool had to respect the folder as the source of truth. Arrowhead rewrites my earlier Synapse/Soma tools in Rust, trading a single-purpose search utility for a platform that feels at home on the command line, runs an always-on daemon, and speaks to AI agents like Claude and other that can help manage the corpus.

How Arrowhead works

The CLI is the control surface, but the daemon does the real work. Indexing, search, and graph features depend on the daemon staying alive, so the typical flow is to initialize once and let the service run in the background.

arrowhead (CLI) bootstraps the vault, manages the daemon (arrowhead index start/status/autostart), and provides search, graph, and CRUD commands.
arrowheadd (daemon) watches the vault, streams changes into the SQLite + FTS5 + vector indexes, and exposes health/status endpoints.
MCP transports (stdio + optional HTTP) read from the same live index so assistants can perform everything the CLI can.
Hybrid ranking combines boolean operators, field filters, semantic similarity, and per-result explanations to show why a note surfaced.

The stack is intentionally pragmatic: Rust for speed and safety, SQLite for portability, fastembed embeddings stored with the index. arrowhead init seeds configuration, starts the daemon, and can register launchd/systemd autostart so indexing stays on even after reboot. CLI searches and MCP calls read directly from the hot index maintained by the daemon.

Why it exists

Plaintext Commons treats files—not apps—as the durable layer for long-term knowledge work. Arrowhead is the search, discovery, and automation engine for that vision. It gives me confidence that vaults stay queryable, linkable, and agent-friendly without handing control to a silo. Whether I am debugging code, revisiting research threads, or asking Claude to draft a change, Arrowhead keeps the raw materials close while letting assistants do meaningful work.

Arrowhead also absorbs the ingest and transcription ambitions that started with Soma. Analog note capture will migrate here—paired with a dedicated helper tool once the ergonomics are nailed—so a single system handles vault search and the bridges back to paper.

Get Arrowhead

Install it via my Homebrew tap:

brew tap totocaster/tap
brew install totocaster/tap/arrowhead

The source and release notes live on GitHub: totocaster/arrowhead.

My setup

As of November 2025, below is the setup I use for my digital note-taking.

Claude Code (with Pro Plan) serves as my AI assistant and primary access point to the corpus. It uses the following tools:
- Arrowhead CLI for search and discovery
- Stamp CLI for standardized file names, following the Obsidian plugin conventions listed below
- MarkEdit for editing and viewing text, since copying from Terminal apps can mess with formatting
- Things URL Schema for creating (no read available) todos in my todo app
- things-cli for traversing my todos
- iMCP for access to my location and calendar (I seldom use this)
Obsidian (with Sync) is my main human access point to the corpus. I use the following plugins:
- Backlinks
- Unique note creator for fleeting notes
- File Cleaner
- Linter
- Local images
- Media Extended for lectures and video transcripts
- Natural Language Dates
- Paste URL into selection
- Quick Switcher++ as my human-accessible FTS

I prefer Claude Code over Codex when working with my notes (although the reverse is true for programming). I sometimes use Claude.app with Arrowhead MCP as well, but I find it a bit slower for tool calls (MCP tool calls vs. direct CLI usage). CLI agents are also better at picking up conventions since they don’t need to call the vault_conventions MCP tool every time; everything is laid out in AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md at startup. You can see my CLAUDE.md here.

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2025.09

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Received the lost-in-mail Out of Memory Vol. 10 photobook after six weeks — turned out chunkier than expected.
Started Greg Girard’s Fotofilmic book program; presenting my photography projects.
Repaired my Contax G2 camera body by cleaning contacts and fixing the autofocus hunting issue.
Got Remarkable Paper Pro Move; designed InDesign templates for daily logging and habit tracking. Perhaps a good companion for my Unbound System.
Developed an advanced file-based note-taking system integrating Claude Code, Obsidian, and my Synapse/Soma MCP CLI tool.
Added an AI Transparency and Usage page documenting the AI tools used across ttvl.co.
Implemented text-fragments support on ttvl.co.
Practiced color darkroom techniques, focusing on color balance calibration.
Completed another handbound book at Marumizu-gumi.

I’m back in Tokyo, returning to the routine of my studio: mixing chemicals for film and paper, making color prints, sequencing the project I’m working on now.

The Soma and Synapse application suite has morphed into a genuinely helpful software bridge between my notes, Obsidian, and Claude Code. I find this combination, set up in a particular way, extremely helpful for logging and retrieving information from my notes. It’s significantly more powerful than the memory features that most AI chatbots utilize.

I’m really enjoying the process of building this digital note-taking companion to Unbound, even though I haven’t settled on a formal system yet. There’s a lot of interesting work ahead. I’m thinking about documenting the evolution of this setup here on the site—sharing how it gradually takes shape, step by step. If that sounds interesting, let me know; I’d love to hear if you’d want to follow along.

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Stamp CLI

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Stamp CLI is my note-naming assistant for Plaintext Commons vaults and folders. It generates consistent IDs and filenames so humans, agents, and automations can keep a shared corpus tidy without manual bookkeeping.

What it does

Stamp is a single binary that prints filename suggestions to stdout. It is friendly to shell scripts, AI agents, and quick terminal workflows. Common tasks:

stamp daily produces a YYYY-MM-DD daily note name.
stamp fleeting outputs a timestamped fleeting note ID.
stamp project increments project IDs such as P0461-arrowhead-cli.

Each format follows the conventions used across my Project Humane tools, so new notes land in predictable places and link cleanly inside the Plaintext Commons corpus.

Obsidian-aware

Stamp is Obsidian-aware and automatically picks up Daily Notes and Unique Note Creator formats when run inside an Obsidian vault.

Why it exists

I wanted Arrowhead and my AI assistants to agree on the same naming rules without hand-coded prompts. Stamp serves that role:

The side effect is that all automation tools follow same instructions for naming using stamp and thus cross-linking, lookup and note creation is standartized.

Installation

Install via my Homebrew tap:

brew tap totocaster/tap
brew install totocaster/tap/stamp

You can also download release binaries directly from GitHub releases if you prefer manual installs.

Changelog

0.3.0 — 2026-02-21

Added stamp seq for general-purpose sequential counters, so you can mint predictable IDs for any object (projects, folios, bindery fixtures, etc.) without relying on a single hard-coded format.
Removed the legacy project-specific counters in favor of stamp seq <key>, keeping number generation consistent across every workspace.

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2025.08

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Published the Thermometer Panel for Jobo Systems guide.
Successfully mixed and tested replenishable C-41 color chemicals from minilab concentrates.
Attended a bookbinding exhibition featuring over 100 handmade books at Marumizu-gumi, one of which was mine.
Designed and made a custom engagement ring box for Ludo – she said yes.
Set up Kittyzilla’s exhibition — Where are the Cats? — at Jinny Street Gallery.
Visited Elliott Erwitt’s retrospective at Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome, and discovered sculptor Carole A. Feuerman’s work.
Made significant progress on pivoting Synapse/Soma towards an Obsidian companion app.
Attended Nini & Ozy’s wedding in Tbilisi – extremely happy for them.
Traveled between Tokyo, Rome, and Georgia, including visits to Batumi and multiple days in Tbilisi. Batumi is unrecognizable compared to a decade ago.
Began planning a dual-residency arrangement between Tbilisi and Rome for the upcoming year.

I survived the absolute toughest few weeks in Tokyo in terms of weather. I have never experienced such intense heat for so many days in a row. Flying to Rome and then to Georgia felt like a breath of fresh air—or like landing back on Earth after being trapped in my flat (and studio) in Tokyo, which felt like a spaceship.

Tbilisi is as magical as ever: alive, full of changes, and people enjoying themselves even in the face of the political challenges the whole country is going through. This really pushed both Ludo and me to finally make a decision: starting in 2026, we’ll begin moving to Tbilisi and Europe—initially Rome. Challenging and interesting times ahead.

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Thermometer Panel for Jobo Systems

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Problem: Jobo CPE and CPP3 processors are great for home darkrooms, but their temperature monitoring isn’t as accurate as it should be for color development. For equipment designed specifically for maintaining precise temperatures, the implementation feels outdated—these are essentially the same products manufactured for decades without the temperature control refinements modern tech could provide.

Solution: I designed a 3D-printed holder for four temperature probes that gives you more accurate temperature monitoring across your Jobo system.

The probes go in four locations: left side of the tank, right side of the tank, directly in the developer, and inside the rotating drum. Those last two are critical—if they read correctly, your development temperature is correct.

The drum probe extends 4-5cm into the tube. By pure luck, it clears the rotation mechanism without any interference.

I included label spaces on the holder because once installed, all the probe cables look identical.

Download STL file

Print it, mount it, and know your chemistry temperatures with confidence.

About Thermometers

Those thermometers are very generic and built under millions of brands. These are the specific ones I’ve bought, but I’m sure if you buy any of them from Amazon, you’ll get pretty much the same product.

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2025.07

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Designed and built a custom 4-probe thermometer panel for JOBO CPE-3 to achieve precise temperature control during C-41 film development
Published V2 of the VNS adapter with improved baseplate design bringing film closer to light source
Completed editing and submitted Out of Memory Vol. 10(!!!) for printing
Created and bound A Chair in the Sky for the bookbinding exhibition
Implemented full-text search functionality to this website; simply press ? key
Added OpenGraph social media cards to toto.photo pages
Published dozens of new Loose Leaves entries
Made significant progress on Synapse/Soma app, added Obsidian compatibility
Bunch of darkroom hours printing RA-4 chromogenic prints
Attended Rural Festival in Fukushima for three days of music and camping
Visited Luigi Ghirri exhibition at Tokyo Photographic Art Museum and acquired his Kodachrome book
Purchased artwork from Saki Otsuka’s Taking Back Myself exhibition at Gallery Ether
Co-led workshop at Jinny Street Gallery
Coordinated Yu-Asobi exhibition closing Jinny Street Gallery
Searching apparel factory partnership for Jinny Street Gallery merchandise
Luca successfully repaired Ricoh GR3 camera after I gave up on it few years ago. Autofocus isn’t working, but the camera turns on. Thank you, Luca!
Backfilled 12 months of log entries

July was brutally hot and relentlessly busy. Despite the oppressive temperatures, I’m proud of hitting several milestones this month—particularly completing two book projects, which always bring me the deepest satisfaction. Juggling these creative pursuits alongside my day job felt like a genuine achievement. Though much of my exhaustion stemmed from the Canadian visa application process: mountains of paperwork, endless uncertainties, and glacial processing times that have essentially grounded me for weeks.

Although this ritual of summarizing the month’s work certainly feels motivating and energizing. Onward, forward.

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A Chair in the Sky

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hello Walkers—

Right now, I’m nowhere near a sidewalk: I’m wedged into seat 29C, somewhere over Mongolia, on my fifteenth long-haul of the year. Flighty, my preferred enabler of jet-lag mathematics, tells me that tally already loops the planet a couple of times. With no Netflix account and no tablet to distract me, I pass these hours by reading, coding, or enduring the flight with eyes fixed on the seat-back camera that stares straight down at the earth.

Daylight departures from Tokyo are my favorite because the aircraft chases the sun all the way to Europe. When the clouds part, the screen offers a private atlas: the wavy rivers somewhere in China, golden planes of Mongolia, my own Georgia suddenly busy now that Russian airspace is closed, and finally the web of cute Italian villages as the plane banks toward Rome. Whenever the feed shows something, I lift my phone and photograph the screen. Two years of flights have filled an album called “Airplane Views” with these low-resolution frames.

A few weeks ago, my bookbinding course reminded me that every student, rookie or veteran, must enter its annual competition. I already had the pictures; all I needed was a reason to print them. So I sequenced the frames and then turned to Japanese stab binding, letting the stitches sketch an airplane icon on the edge of washi paper with a gradient mimicking high-altitude haze.

There is exactly one copy for now, sitting with the judges until early August. I am under no illusion that it will be recognized as anything, but the project reminded me how happy I am when my hands are busy—and how deadlines, though as pleasant as turbulence, keep me moving forward.

This urge to make something out of accidental imagery isn’t new. In 2021, I discovered that the doorbell camera in my Tokyo apartment quietly archived every visitor; those clips became a book too. Apparently, I have a thing for unintended surveillance imagery and the tiny screens they inhabit.

More soon—probably from another narrow chair in the sky.

—Toto

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2025.06

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Initiated the application process for a Canadian visa (I need one, as all Georgians do.)
Published the essay Where I Stand on AI—For Now to formalize my stance on AI tools.
Open-sourced mastodon-hugo, a tool to fetch Mastodon feeds and convert them to Hugo/Markdown format.
Made significant progress on Synapse MCP server—now capable of fetching and editing notes, comparing them with internet content, synthesizing new ideas, and storing them back in the vault.
Wrote and published Ruins in Print, the 11th dispatch of The Flâneur newsletter.
Visited and photographed the abandoned pansionats Medea and Imereti in Tskaltubo, Georgia.
Started exploring new software tools, including the Dia browser by The Browser Company and Claude Code as a terminal replacement.
Began discussions with the New York Academy of Arts about a potential exhibition at Jinny Street Gallery.
Returned to Tokyo after six weeks of traveling to Madrid, Rome, and Tbilisi.

I traveled a lot this month. It felt good, as does being back in the studio.

I dove deep into AI programming skills, much more than I expected. I like these tools. I think it’s a new way of programming, essentially using the English language to guide the computer on what to do, which is what programming is all about. Some say these tools will replace programmers, but I think they’re just another abstraction layer in computing that enables more people to interact with them. Think of compilers and high-level languages. English is becoming one above that.

I made good progress with the Synapse application suite and have completed the MCP server part of it. I have already started using it with the Claude macOS app in conjunction with my Obsidian vault. I’m considering a soft launch of Synapse as an MCP and indexing application initially and will add text editing and thinking tools as I progress. Essentially, I’m thinking of developing it in the open.

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Ruins in Print

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hello fellow walkers, tinkerers, and beautiful curious people. I’m Toto, and you’re receiving this dispatch because you noticed my new Instagram handle—and, frankly, took pity on me. If you’re new here, welcome, and thank you for subscribing.

I’m parked in a work-friendly café in Tbilisi—my hometown—after my third flight to Tokyo was canceled by the current turmoil in the Middle East. It’s the least I’ve felt upset about a delayed journey, since I genuinely enjoy being here. The city has transformed since I left more than a decade ago: despite its internal political tensions, it’s modernizing at a breakneck pace in a way that still feels cozy and motivating.

This is my first June back. I usually return in September for mild weather and the wine harvest, when everything and everyone recovers from August’s heat and seaside parties. But this year the air is surprisingly cool, and the hills around the city are exploding with wildflowers, so saturated that the green almost hums.

My partner and I took the road west to Tskaltubo, the Soviet-era spa town where political elites once came to bathe in “medical” mud and ballroom-dance in grand palaces. We had one mission to visit Medea, perhaps the most Instagrammed ruin in Georgia, recently featured in the Atlas of Ruins by Reuse Italy. Three of my photographs are featured in the book, alongside work by photographers from around the globe.

The volume is hefty, and wonderfully distracting if you’re drawn to abandoned places. You can still find it here (alas, no royalties). Even though the atlas lacks a map and stories behind the places, I found it irresistibly tickles the “What happened here?” impulse. The book doesn’t include much context beyond place names, but that mystery might delight non-photographers hungry for stories—something I care about greatly.

I didn’t shoot any photos on this visit, save for a few with my phone. To my surprise, the ruins felt even more drained than I remembered—and considerably more touristy, too. Every building hosted half a dozen curious souls or photographers, all framing the same shot, which I, of course, took a few years back as well.

Back in Tokyo, focus awaits—darkroom printing and deep work I’ve sorely missed.

Jinny Street Gallery, the walking-friendly outdoor space I co-run with Lorenzo, is hosting a fantastic summer exhibition in collaboration with the legendary Koenji sento, Kosugiyu, which just opened its Harajuku branch. I regret missing the opening thanks to my aborted flights, but the show runs through most of the first half of summer, and I’m looking forward to experiencing it as one of you.

Until next time, fellow walkers,

—Toto

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Where I Stand on AI—For Now

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Whether you’re a follower of Scronkfinkle or Pastus, AI-based tools are rapidly taking over the world. Both sides agree that they’re reshaping how we use tools and potentially how we work.

I’ve noticed that people around me usually hold extreme positions on AI. I think this tech is genuinely transformational and not just another fad like NFTs or blockchain.

I’ve developed a nuanced stance on the power and use of AI in various aspects of my life, which I want to document in this brief note for myself.

Programming

A few years ago, if you asked anyone how AI could change industries, almost everybody would have agreed that programmers and software folks were pretty much in a safe zone—that their jobs would never be replaced. Ironically enough, I think coders are now facing the biggest change in their industry, and it will happen the fastest—because we are the ones who adopt these tools the fastest.

I think being a straight-up coder will basically not be a thing anymore. Everyone will be pushed to become an engineer, freeing up time for thinking and design, rather than producing lines of code (which never was a good measure of programming).

My view on AI in programming is quite positive. I think it will enhance skilled engineers in their work.

AI in programming is a net positive by a significant margin.

Productivity / Thinking

Using chatbots for brainstorming, exploring, and navigating my huge vault of notes has become a daily routine (see Arrowhead). It has enhanced both browsing and searching of my and external knowledge bases.

Assisting with decisions, planning events, or organizing projects has become easier and more structured with AI tools, giving me more time to actually do said projects. As context windows, RAG/MCP systems, and tooling become more capable, AI-assisted productivity will only improve, effectively unlocking automation for everyone, not only for nerds who like scripting or connecting nodes in visual programming tools.

I truly believe it will enhance human capability—not replace it.

Voice

This one is simple. I think both voice recognition and voice synthesis are massive wins for AI. There are no other algorithms that do both of those jobs better than AI-driven models. I’m not a native English speaker. I have a flat accent, but I’m sure I have one—whatever a Georgian accent in English is. So dictating to Siri or any other traditional voice recognition system was a moot point.

The ability to explore ideas, make notes, or write articles like I’m doing now, using AI speech recognition such as Whisper, has been a true enabler for me.

This is a clear win—especially for people who speak different languages or have accents. It opens up computing beyond the keyboard, mouse, or touchscreen.

Translation

Languages are complex. Context and nuance matter a lot when working with words. This is another area where AI models are massively improving on what the industry had before.

Pre-AI translation algorithms, even those as advanced as Google’s, were not capable of doing the job. Just look at all the memes of Japanese storefronts and services with English signs clearly translated using online services—they range from hilarious to misleading.

Like with voice, AI models turned something that was meh at best into something that actually works.

The translation and multilingual abilities of AI models are a net positive. A big leap forward.

Writing

Now we’re getting into more arguable—and, in my opinion, quite amoral—territory. While the text capabilities of AI are impressive and clearly useful for productivity (e.g., spelling, grammar, editorial advice—which is how I use it), however: It’s generating a massive amount of junk content online—useless garbage designed mostly to steer people toward ads.

Fortunately, as of writing this, I think a discerning eye can still spot AI slop. The generative writing style is immature, bombastic, and guenualy not good at actually. But that likely won’t last forever.

As much as I appreciate the editorial capabilities of LLMs, its ability to generate nonsense endlessly is alarming.

Image Making

As impressive as image generation is, I don’t think it’s adding much real value to humanity at this point. Sure, it can save money by avoiding [very basic] graphic design work. But in terms of generating meaningful value? Creative and impactful work? Not really. I think image-generating services are gimmicks at best.

While I clearly see use in some cases, such as Photoshop’s content-aware tools, I’m not a fan of AI image generation tools.

Video

Now we’re entering a zone I consider on a spectrum of useless to dangerous. Even if AI-generated videos become extremely good, I still find them useless at best—and weaponized at worst.

While watching Google I/O 2025, during Veo demos (Google’s AI video generation tool), I caught myself asking, “This is impressive tech, but what is the use of it?” Some companies like Meta and OpenAI tried to answer this question—see Sora and Vibes. I find those platforms extremely boring.

I see no meaningful value in AI-generated video—only risk. Especially for people who already believe everything they see on the internet.

Video with Sound

Just a much worse version of the above.

Music

No opinion as of June 2025.

Final Remarks

While writing this note, I noticed a pattern of two categories—human-enhancing and purely generative.

I’m quite fond of AI tools that enhance human creativity or productivity, whereas I find purely generative AI tools to be on a spectrum from useless to downright dangerous and misleading.

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2025.05

Sat, 31 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Completed printing workprints for Out of Memory Vol. 7 and Vol. 8, including custom storage boxes—now only two volumes behind digital archive
Designed and published a 40-roll rugged film storage box design
Listed all my 4x5 and 6x17 lenses on Mercari as part of ongoing gear decluttering
Launched photographic website at toto.photo!
Started an experimental photography sketchbook
Started year-long bookbinding class in Tokyo
Added photos of the Unbound Notebook System to the page
Prepared and printed materials for Jinny Street Gallery’s Big City Bathing exhibition (opened May 16th)
Activated the Jinny Street Gallery newsletter which now has around 130 subscribers
Traveled to Berlin for byLudo’s Green Product Award ceremony; met George Nebieridze who I haven’t seen in a decade.
Spent time in Rome working intensively on Soma and Synapse development
Made prototype Mac app for converting digital negatives to positives – not sure I’ll continue
Did portrait photography test shoot in Villa Pamphili Park
Traveled to Ariccia; food was amazing
Got confirmation for [redacted] retreat in late September in Canada – excited
Arrived to Madrid

The highlight of the month, particularly on the very last day, is definitely the upcoming retreat to Canada in September. I’m really looking forward to it. As a bonus, I’ll be doing it with my dear friend and fellow photographer, Leon Gallo.

Soma.app has grown into an entire ecosystem of thinking tools, which I’m calling Synapse. It’s a bit of an ambitious project and will require at least a year of work, but hopefully, I’ll have a working prototype and perhaps even an alpha program together in a couple of months. If you want to follow along with the progress, make sure to subscribe to The Flâneur, where I might announce a dedicated newsletter or work blog.

As usual, this month also felt empty before writing the summary above. It is astonishing how helpful this practice has become to my end-of-month routine.

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Rugged 40-Roll Film Storage

Sun, 04 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Problem: I bulk roll 200 feet of film for several of my black and white projects. I need a storage solution to keep both unexposed and exposed film organized and easy to locate. Additionally, I need a way to show undeveloped film at airports to security so they don’t dread having to swab each roll individually.

The Solution: I designed a simple box with film holders sized to fit both 35mm and 120 film. I can use the columns of the inserts as a “Kanban board” for the film, which moves from fresh re-rolled film to rolls that need to be developed and are already exposed.

I also designed a shallower bottom part of the case to fit only 35mm film, which is what I use for the Out of Memory series. It holds all 40 films needed to complete each volume of the project. The roll currently in the camera acts as a spacer between exposed and unexposed film.

Channel for the seal made to accept the TPU filament itself as a seal, eliminating the need to print TPU, which is notoriously difficult to print.

I don’t think the case is actually waterproof, but it is definitely more humidity-resistant than without the seal. The case has a tiny bit of space for a desiccant to be placed on top of the films if you live in a super-humid environment and want to have it inside the box.

Download STL files

Work Log

2025.05.04: Initial design and publishing.

Credits and License

Based on Rugged Box (Parametric) by Whity.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (4.0 International License) Attribution—Noncommercial—Share Alike.

Feel free to remix and do anything you want for non-commercial use.

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2025.04

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Made significant progress on Soma.app
Participated in Tokyo Zine Fest with Lorenzo to promote Jinny Street Gallery
Published The Flâneur No. 10: Gear, Gear, Gear‑Freeze!
Created a film rugged storage container for film project that holds exactly 40 rolls (matching my Unbound Notebook System template)
Developed and scanned all film for Out of Memory Vol. 10, began culling and sequencing for the book
Added llms.txt to ttvl.co to help LLMs better understand the website
Successfully set up and tested my new Jobo CPE-3 film processor
Led an Artist Walk for Pavel Sipkin’s exhibition Hundred Views of Edo Konbini at Jinny Street Gallery
Spent three days at RDC 2025 music festival – DJ Nobu’s set was mezmerizing
Experienced a two-day retreat at James Turrell’s House of Light in Niigata
Made the decision to drop Project Janus—6x9 3D-printed camera—to focus more on art creation
Enhanced Toto.app, my personal macOS menu bar app, with improved journal summarization capabilities.

Soma.app is becoming much more than just a paper-to-digital note scanner app. I’ve named this new project it spawned Synapse. It seems like I’m building a note-taking app that can surface insights by simply searching the entire ‘vault’ of notes. I’m unsure whether to start with an Obsidian plug-in or a brand new macOS app. My disdain for multi-platform apps might push me towards the latter, but an Obsidian plug-in could be a good start since I’ve already implemented a command line version of Synapse.

During the month, I also caught up with my film backlog—everything in my red folder, marked “To Scan / Needs Attention,” is now developed and scanned as working files. Work on the 10th(!) volume of Out of Memory has begun.

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Gear, Gear, Gear‑Freeze!

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hello walkers, flâneurs, and fellow hay fever-affected, teary-eyed fur-balls—I feel you. Springtime walks are beautiful yet punishing, aren’t they?

Like a reliable alarm clock on March  1, my body reminded me of its extreme sensitivity to pollen—and that perhaps I’ve been in Japan for too long. Since then I’ve been battling hay fever and ingesting every combination of pills and eye drops just to function.

Gear, Gear, Gear

Recently, a few friends stumbled onto my Mercari page and joked that I’ve owned every piece of film gear ever produced. From the outside this revolving door of equipment might look like indecision or obsession, but there was method in the madness.

There’s a phrase you hear constantly in photography circles: “Gear doesn’t matter.” I agree with the spirit behind it—better cameras don’t automatically make better photographs—but gear, like any tool, still matters; just not in the way most people think.

In my universe, tools address human needs by amplifying human capability. Every tool has two interfaces. The first meets the problem; the second meets the operator.

A chisel has a sharpened edge to solve the problem and a handle that fits the craftsperson. A camera has a lens and sensor to make an image, and everything else—grip, shutter button, viewfinder, menus, strap lugs—exists to fit the photographer. Spend ten minutes in the YouTube/forum photosphere and you’ll see how much energy goes into discussing the image‑making side, and how little into the operator side.

I’m glad those channels and forums exist; they make it easy to understand what a camera can do. What they can’t tell you is how that camera will feel in your hands.

After a very long pause from film I decided to return. In my earlier life I owned only two film bodies: a beautiful Nikon FM loaned by a dear friend, and a clumsy Soviet tank—Zenit SD. The latter came with the newfound Hollywood darling, the Helios 44‑2/4. I’m sure 18-year-old Toto’s photos looked very “cinematic.”

Early in 2024 I set out to find my film camera and tackled the problem head‑on: I bought every model I’d ever dreamed about, one after another, and used each in the field. Living in Japan helps; the second‑hand market is healthy and you can resell gear for the same price or a small loss.

Hence the revolving door.

But I’m not telling you this just to suggest “try everything.” The crucial step is what I call the gear‑freeze.

The Gear‑Freeze

Once I made my decision, the next step became clear: the Gear‑Freeze. Choosing was just half of it; the real work began in committing fully to this choice.

For me, this meant stepping completely away from distractions. I unsubscribed from gear channels, stopped visiting forums, and deliberately ignored news about new releases—after all, what’s the point of endless reviews when I’ve already found my tool?

The exploration phase was essential, not a detour. It was a deliberate, guilt‑free search for the tool that feels right and matches the workflow.

Gear‑Freeze isn’t about settling or resigning yourself to limits; it’s about clarity—a definitive choice. After questioning assumptions and testing biases, you commit to a single setup (overal, or per project). It’s a self‑imposed contract that says, “This is it. I’ve found it. Now, make.”

This is actually my second Gear‑Freeze. Back in 2017, I committed fully to what was then my dream camera—a Leica M‑D paired with a 50 mm Summilux. Over six productive years and tens of thousands of frames, it became one of the most meaningful chapters of my photographic journey.

Early in 2024, the chance arose to rent a bigger studio and build a darkroom there—something I’d wanted to do for a very long time. I decided to switch back to film—a new chapter that naturally demanded a new Gear‑Freeze.

All this to say—we’re all susceptible to tinkering and chasing gear, especially now when technology feels more like a bland touchscreen with a forgettable interface rather than a tactile, delightful piece of equipment like an old Sony stereo with tactile buttons and satisfying, clicky sounds.

Unless gear distracts you from your work, I’d gently suggest finding a tool you genuinely enjoy using—spend time on this, guilt-free—and then stick to it. In my experience, that’s the way to eliminate distraction in the modern, consumerist world.

Photos above are from my trip to North East Georgia this past September, 2024—Stepantsminda.

This was the first and possibly last time I wrote about the importance of gear and my opinion on it.

Until next time,
—Toto

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2025.03

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Completed setup and renovation of my darkroom at Kyojima Studio with proper organization, light-sealing, and equipment installation.
Preparing for Project Roam launch—announcement of what it is and when, coming soon.
Resumed development of Soma.app and Synapse.app—my note-taking software ecosystem that will integrate into Unbound Notebook System.
Advanced Project Manus by installing a ceiling-mounted projector and camera system at the studio.
Worked on the first Project Roam product during a trip to Ito.
Developed dozens of films for upcoming Out of Memory Vol. 10.
Michibiki Vol.2 exhibition at Jinny Street Gallery.
Designed and released new Jinny ⨉ Erica Ward Hoodies on the Jinny Street Gallery Store.
Got myself a maxed-out MacBook Pro M4 Max with all the memory to play with AI and Ollama.
Started designing and brainstorming on Project Janus—a hybrid digital-film 6x9 camera.
Revived the Jinny Street Gallery newsletter (subscribe here).
Attended the Tokyo Art Fair 2025.
Visited Katsumi Nishizawa’s show and a book launch.
Celebrated the closing of NININI, a beloved local bar and friends of mine and Jinny Street Gallery.
Added a few more books to the library—Todd Hido’s House Hunting and Outskirts and William Eggleston’s 2 1/4.

Looking at the list above, I’d call this month productive, though everything was blurred by the onset of my hay fever, which struck almost precisely at midnight on March 1.

Reviewing this list also reminded me how glad I am to have started keeping a daily journal back in early 2019. It’s become one of the best investments in my mental health. As someone with the memory of a goldfish, who constantly needs reminders, it’s reassuring that each month I can have an AI generate a summary of everything I’ve done. This monthly retrospective leaves me feeling calm and satisfied.

(The list above differs significantly from the summaries produced by AI, as I need to manually clean up project names, add relevant links, and remove personal items. However, I do rely extensively on AI for analyzing my journal entries and drafting initial monthly summaries like this one. I’ll be writing about how I combine these tools.)

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New Beginnings

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hello fellow walkers and flâneurs,

It’s been a while since we last connected. I’m Toto and you are reading The Flâneur — a long-neglected newsletter of mine that has been on a stable annual schedule for a couple of years now.

If you are new, welcome—and thank you for remembering me (fingers crossed).

If not, you might notice the newsletter looks a bit different than usual. That’s because of the big changes I’ll share in this dispatch.

The Past Year: Travels and a New Darkroom

2024 and the beginning of 2025 have been hectic. I traveled on 24 long-haul flights across the globe, bouncing between Europe, Japan, and all points in between—including a now 100+ day-long protest in my hometown.

It was also a pivotal time in my approach to photography and the process. I’ve completed my shift to analog processes, started to formalize the ways of working, and am about to finish building out a proper darkroom in my new studio. It’s been a long journey, and I have documented most of it on my new website — ttvl.co.

A Public Notebook

I’ve soft-launched ttvl.co a few weeks ago. You, dear reader, are among the first I’m telling about it. ttvl.co is where I share all my current projects, big or small, mostly about technical photography, productivity in general, and being a generalist. Think of it as a public notebook of my findings, ideas, and curiosities. The website already hosts a few main topics:

The log is a distilled version of my daily journal (minus personal things). I’m quite proud of it as it incorporates one of my passions as a software engineer and writer. I’ll be writing about it more in upcoming dispatches.

The darkroom section is primarily about technical articles around analog processes and photography at large.

I’ve also been pursuing research in human-computer interaction (HCI), and I’m starting to share and formalize some of those findings—mostly around tangible user interfaces and spatial computing. The first chapter is about my notebook system, Unbound Notebook System, which merges the benefits of pen-and-paper with the search and retrieval powers of digital tools. It’s a work in progress, but I hope others might find it useful or want to contribute.

I’m quite proud of ttvl.co even at this work-in-progress stage, and I’m very excited about what it will become in the upcoming months and years. I hope many of you will find at least one thing you might be interested in.

Re-focusing on Photography

2025 is set to be quite pivotal in my photography. Alongside ttvl.co, I have also made a completely new, all-custom website for my photography too. I have completed programming it but need to tidy up some copy and images of books before officially launching it. It will be replacing totocaster.com entirely.

Alongside the launch of the photo website, I’ll be announcing a big new initiative which I have been working on for the past six to eight months and am really looking forward to sharing it with everyone. It has been an immense effort and I can’t wait to make it public—my favorite part is that it involves physical books—a true way to experience someone’s photography.

Moving Beyond Substack

One more thing: this newsletter has also migrated to the new site. I like that it gives me control over my own infrastructure. It costs me a bit, but I trust the platform more than a giant tech corporation. Your emails are still stored securely by Campaign Monitor, a hugely reputable email service that does not use your emails for anything.

I’m looking forward to 2025; it promises to be an exciting year full of new projects that I will be announcing here in the next couple of months. Stay tuned for more updates and ideas.

Feel free to explore ttvl.co and let me know what you think. I hope you’ll find something there that sparks your curiosity or helps your own work in some way.

Till next time,
—T

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2025.02

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Prepared Michibiki Vol. 2 exhibition at Jinny Street Gallery.
Shipped all Punctum exhibition catalogs—some copies are still available for sale.
Made major modifications to the darkroom to enable C-printing.
Created a “VNS adapter"—merging Valoi easy120 and Negative Supply light source for better color negative scanning.
Published Pentax Digital Spotmeter Sticker.
Published Foldable Film Reminders.
Completed shooting the final roll for the Out of Memory Vol. 10 project.
Committed to a year-long bookbinding course starting in April.
Featured (with Lorenzo) on the cover of a local Jingumae magazine—andJ.
Created substantial updates to the Unbound Notebook System’s Analog Photography Templates.
Took a ski trip to Zao Onsen in Yamagata, experiencing the famous “snow monsters” (ice-covered trees).
Spent time developing my film scanning workflow, improving negative-to-positive conversion techniques.

The shortest month of the year turned out to be quite productive—or maybe it’s just being back in Tokyo and getting into its rhythm again that moved me fast. For certain, I do feel quite a bit more comfortable in my studio—creating and working there comes easily.

I’m catching up on my infinite backlog of tasks and getting closer to launching a membership program. I haven’t set an exact launch date yet, but it feels more imminent than ever.

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Valoi easy120 with Negative Supply 99 CRI Light Source

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Preamble: Valoi’s easy35 system has been a godsend for 35mm black-and-white photographers. It’s compact enough to travel with, has simple controls, an integrated battery, and is incredibly easy to operate since it requires no alignment with a camera.

When Valoi announced easy120, I immediately jumped on it without even checking the specifications, because of my great experience with the 35mm version.

The easy120 is certainly not just a larger version of the 35mm, however. Firstly, it doesn’t come with a built-in battery. Secondly, it’s enormous and not travel-friendly. However, the best parts of the system are still the tubes and generally its all-in-oneness.

But the showstopper for me is that my medium format shooting is mostly color, and the easy120 comes with a suboptimal light source.

The Problem: For color negative films, the Valoi easy120 light source causes a non-trivial amount of color casts in shadows and mid-tones that are difficult to adjust in post-production.

The Solution: Modify the Valoi easy120 to use a high-quality light source, reducing the need for extensive color processing after correction.

99 CRI light sources are uncommon, but the best-known one is available from Negative Supply: 4x5 Light Source Basic MK2 - 99 CRI, so I went with one.

Both Valoi and Negative Supply products have simple constructions with many 3D printed parts, making them easy to disassemble and investigate.

I designed an adapter that mounts directly onto the Negative Supply light source, uses a few parts from the Valoi carrier system, and enables the Valoi tube system to fit on top. Essentially, I combined the best of both products: a superior light source, a good carrier, and the alignment system.

I call it the VNS Adapter. You can grab STL files and print one for yourself too.

Download STL files for printing

The VNS adapter can be printed in two parts. There are two versions of the base plate: V1, which is taller and easier to print but loses light due to a greater distance from the light source, and V2, which is shallower and brings the negative closer to the light source. You can use the V1 film holder on either of these.

You need to disassemble the easy120 and reuse some of its parts, namely the carrier holder and the bearing balls that center the film holder in the carrier. Everything screws together using screws from both products. The only additional material needed is brass threaded inserts, but these are optional if you print the base plate with a smaller hole to screw directly into the plastic. Nothing is glued, so you can disassemble and reassemble both Negative Supply and Valoi again.

Using a good light source did eliminate the annoying color casts in the shadows and made the work of Negative Lab Pro much easier (or so I believe).

The Negative Supply light source is not as bright as the Valoi light, so I have to use slower shutter speeds.

F.A.Q.

Does CRI really matter that much?

I’m aware of discussions on the internet that CRI 95 is plenty enough, and I wish that was my experience too – but it is not. In fact, the whole reason I had to come up with the VNS adapter was the frustration with the original Valoi setup, specifically its light source (an enclosed $35 CineStill CS-Lite). I was having quite a frustrating experience fixing different color casts in shadows, mids, and highlights.

Does this VNS adapter with CRI 99 make a difference for black and white negatives?

I do not think so. I use the factory easy35, which is also CRI 95+ rated, on all my black and white negatives and all look great. I wouldn’t modify the original easy120 if I were shooting only black and white negatives.

Is VNS compatible with duster and advancer units?

No, not yet. I’ll be working on an updated design so both can work in the future.

Is this the best way to scan film?

Who knows? For me, for the purpose of scanning entire rolls of film fast, it is. Would I use a photo in a book or exhibition scanned through this system? Perhaps, although I’d prefer to make a C-print that fits my flatbed and scan that, but that’s not feasible when ingesting dozens of rolls into the archive.

Any new features in plans, upgrades, or versions?

I’m curious to make a true CRI 100 scanning setup. I have some ideas which I might come back to, but for now, my focus is making photographs. So stay tuned, but I’m not sure when.

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Zone Placement Sticker for Pentax Digital Spotmeter

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Problem: The Pentax Digital Spot Meter is an amazing tool that is extremely easy to use, but it lacks a clear visualization system for placing tones onto Ansel Adams’ Zone System or simply on an EV scale.

The Solution: I created a simple sticker that fits just below the EV readings, making it incredibly easy to align the meter to the tone on the scale.

I printed the template on sticky A4 paper and used an X-Acto knife to cut out the preferred version for the spot meter. There are two versions available: light and dark. Choose the one you prefer.

Template for Zone Placement Sticker (light and dark versions, cut lines included)

The word designed above is doing a lot of heavy lifting since I only did the graphical design. The idea was borrowed from the aforementioned Ansel Adams himself. He also used the same spotmeter and created a crude zone scale that he placed under the meter’s own EV scale.

Thanks to the popularity of his three books, this trick is well-known among photographers outside the online community (though I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Nick Carver use one in his meter too).

The only addition I made was to format it in the style of my own templates and add a delta-EV scale, which helps me meter in color negative film since I don’t use Zone System there.

Ansel Adams’ own Pentax Digital Spotmeter as seen in his The Negative book. See citations below for the exact edition and page.

Citations

Adams, Ansel. The Negative. Twelfth paperback printing, Little, Brown and Company, 2002, p. 63.

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2025.01

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Developed new sections for toto.photo—exhibitions, press coverage, and a works archive.
Had three photographs from my Tskaltubo series published in the Atlas of Ruins book.
Migrated The Flaneur newsletter platform to ttvl.co; no more Substack and walled gardens.
Updated ttvl.co: the darkroom section now has several new items, and the Unbound System section has been expanded with new templates.
Learned a new technique for negative-to-positive conversion in Photoshop using negative mask subtraction—still fine-tuning the results.
Built and started experimenting with a pinhole camera.
Started working on a membership website platform using Go + Gin.
Took a long walk in the Pigneto district in Rome.
Visited the Vatican Museums; Raphael’s School of Athens and the Sistine Chapel are impressive.

2025 started off very busy. I’ve made good progress towards my plan to launch a membership program alongside three(!) websites. I feel like I’m on track to achieve that. The 12-week year system is working well for me, although I do not adhere to its original methodology from the book. I didn’t find the book quite good, frankly—but the idea is well worth trying.

The visit to Tbilisi was pleasant as usual, but the moment I was there, the protests were much calmer than I expected. I didn’t manage to shoot much.

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Corita Kent: 10 Rules for Students and Teachers

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

These rules are often misattributed to John Cage, but were written by Corita Kent. Cage contributed 10th rule.

Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.
General duties of a student — pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.
General duties of a teacher — pull everything out of your students.
Consider everything an experiment.
Be self-disciplined — this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.
Follow the leader. Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.
The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.
Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.
Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.
“We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” (John Cage)

Always be around.

Come or go to everything.

Always go to classes.

Read everything you can get your hands on.

Look at movies carefully, often.

Save everything — it might come in handy later.

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Horseman 80mm² Lensboards

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I briefly owned a Horseman 45FA and had trouble finding good lens boeards for the lenses I own. So I designed 80mm² lens boards. Few shutters and lenses are supported.

Download Lensboards SLTs for printing

I no longer use Horseman view cameras and most probably will not be updating this page, feel free to remix those designs for your needs.

Printing Notes

I print and test using Bambu X1-C with generic black CF-PLA.
First layer height: 0.3mm
Layer height: 0.1mm
Brim: 5mm
Supports:
- Yes for bed for extended version,
- No for flat, normal lensboards.
Top/Bottom shell layers: 7
Infill: 100% (50% for the extended version is okay too)

Tested on the Following Lenses

Copal 0 Flat:

Nikon Nikkor W 150mm f/5.6

Copal 1 with 10mm extension:

Calumet Caltar II-N 210mm f/5.6, which is the same as
Rodenstock APO-Sironar N 210mm f/5.6

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Lucky/Fujimoto CP32 Manual in English

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I have a Lucky CP32 color paper processor. The CP32—unlike its international sibling, the Fujimoto CP-31—was only produced in Japan (to the best of my knowledge).

Below are the original and translated versions of the manual, which I created with the help of my small Japanese knowledge and few AI tools.

Lucky CP32 English Manual - partially AI-translated
Lucky CP32 Original Japanese Manual - contains scanned pages, sourced from the web and compiled into a PDF.

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Mamiya RZ67 PRO II Fine Focus Gear

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Version PRO II of the RZ67 features a delicate fine-focus knob that operates through a gear reducer. It is quite fragile and prone to breaking easily, resulting in a grinding sensation while adjusting the camera’s focus. This serves as a replacement for the gear. Printed at the highest quality settings supported by your printer, I used PLA and the “0.08mm Extra Fine” preset on Bambu X1C.

Download STL for printing

Below is a good guide on how to replace the gear:

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Soma.app

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Soma is an iOS and macOS app that scans, transcribes, and digitizes analog notes.

Soma is not yet released and remains a work in progress.

I originally designed Soma to work with my Unbound System, but it quickly became evident that the app is system-agnostic. It works seamlessly with any note-taking system and, in fact, with any handwritten pen-and-paper notes.

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Walking

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Walking is a cure. I discovered this in my late teens. Whenever I felt sad, I’d go out and start walking without a destination or sense of time. I walked until it felt right. This became my secret weapon for my mental health. Within a couple of years, this prescription became a habit. I walked even when I felt good. It helped with my depression and enabled me to explore many of my favorite places.

Meditation

I have tried several forms of meditation, but long walks are my favorite. The rhythm of footsteps, the steady pace, and the immersion in surroundings create a mental space where thoughts can settle and untangle.

I don’t wear headphones while walking. Simple act of holding a camera sharpens my eye. The photos may not turn out perfect on every walk, but my mind appreciates the experience of having three, five and sometimes even seven hours of complete peace and tranquility.

Walking as Operating System

I stole this phrase from one of Craig Mod’s many delightful newsletters. I enjoy the expression and the concept it represents—viewing a walk as a framework for creative creation, an avenue for inspiration to generate tangible results.

I suggest you read 116th dispatch of his Ridgeline newsletter.

“Street Photography”

From a young age, I casually took photos, yet I never linked it to walking, despite how obvious it seems now. In 2017, I made the choice to bring a camera on every outing and began documenting my walks.

In some odd way, this has become a documentation of the state of my mind rather than the streets. I took photos of everything my brain would fixate on. My hands obediently followed the stream of thoughts in my head. I pushed the shutter release without any prejudice or analysis.

As a photographer, this was new for me. New and liberating.

The Out of Memory series originates from my tendency to carry a camera at all times and take spontaneous photos—capturing my journey through time and life. At the same time, I began maintaining a daily written journal. Eventually, Out of Memory evolved into an illustrated reflection of that journal and my walking.

Many of the images featured in my membership program zine series, I Dream With One Eye Open, are from this continuous project, which I hope to continue until my last breath.

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Foldable Film Reminders

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Problem: When shooting long-term projects with multiple film types across various cameras and film backs, it’s easy to lose track of which camera or back is loaded with which film and at what N-value or ISO rating.

The Solution: Create a film reminder card with predefined film types and development notes (including N-value and rated ISO). The design should allow it to be quickly folded into the correct orientation to display the relevant information without requiring writing tools during the loading process.

I shoot multiple formats across various cameras, often using 5-pack film packages that don’t come with, or have quite ugly, peel-off labels designed to go to film reminders typically found in many camera backs. Moreover, most of those standard labels lack space to note important details like push or pull development adjustments.

To address this, I designed a template that includes both predefined film types I frequently use and blank sections for custom notes.

When loading film into a camera, I simply fold the paper into the appropriate orientation and insert it into the film reminder slot. This way, I always know exactly what film is in the camera, its ISO rating, and any N-value adjustments.

For the Hasselblad V system, I printed all film stocks I shoot without ISO and N values, and the E12CC backs I use already have those two set on the back.

I’ve also found it extremely helpful to have “EMPTY” printed on one side. This lets me quickly identify which of my film backs are unloaded.

I also designed a blank A4 template with only an empty label for you to make your own. All you need is a printer, pencil, and cutting tools. Cut straight lines along the cut lines on the edges of the paper and open a slit on the dotted line.

A4 Template for Blank Inserts with EMPTY Label

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Tracking Highway Sequence from Solaris

Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) was set in a future that should have felt distant to the audience when the film was released. To depict this future, Tarkovsky needed a modern, unfamiliar cityscape—something Soviet citizens had never seen. Instead of building a set, he turned to Tokyo’s newly constructed expressway system for an infamous highway sequence.

I know Tokyo well enough to recognize those places, so I set out to trace their locations on Google Maps.

The Sequence

Locations

Unfortunately, the most places you cannot go by foot, by it is possible to drive through the same places while listening to Bach.

Akasaka Sequence

View from Minamimotomachi park: (map)

Exit on the other side of the tunnel: (map)

Approaching Benkei Fishing Club; Yahoo Japan HQ is on the left across the pond:

Slope leading to tunnel directly above the Akasaka Mitsuke station, Exit D (map)

Cut to Azabujuban Sequence

Location of off-ramp going into the tunnel: (map)

Shortly after the turn:

Even bit more forwards, Iikura exit ramp: (map)

End of sequence:

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2024.12

Sat, 21 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Completed the Punctum Exhibition Catalog – now available for purchase.
New film development workflow using the Jobo Tank System. I might consider using it as a rapid travel film development workflow too.
Made a new Film Process Template page on Unbound, creating detailed guides for chemical preparation and development procedures.
Published the Film Canisters Stickers project.
Acquired and tested a second Contax G2 camera body – Araki – with a 21mm Biogon lens and GD-2 data back.
Published EDC Modular Keychain for carrying photography accessories (film canisters, filters, and other tools) alongside with keys and EDC essentials (band-aid, AirTag, etc).
Led few Artist Walks for Punctum at Jinny Street Gallery.
Upgraded the studio workspace with new adjustable lighting system – now my shop desk is as lit as a stadium.
Traveled to Tbilisi for protests and New Year’s Eve.

December was hectic, but it felt less overwhelming than November, mainly because I’m no longer preoccupied with the visa and paperwork I had to submit to the government. Everything is completed, and now I’m just waiting.

I’ve also found more time to spend in a studio, which has become my happy place for small projects and creative work.

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EDC Modular Keychain

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Problem: Carrying photographic accessories—like filters, batteries, and film canisters—along with everyday items such as keys, an AirTag, band-aids, lipstick, and painkillers—without hassle.

The Solution: A lightweight, modular system that attaches to my pants near my left pocket.

The whole setup is simple, accessible, and impossible to leave behind. It clips to my belt or waistband, with a zipper facing right for quick access. On bright winter Tokyo days, I add a slim Weekend(er) pouch for filters. The entire system is titanium and Dyneema to keep the weight minimal, ensuring it doesn’t tug on my trousers. A magnetic snap-lock lets me use my keys without removing the setup and ensures my YubiKey doesn’t bear the load when plugged into my computer.

Parts list

Bonchi Hikers Mini Box Pouch for film, bands-aids, AirTag, etc.
KeyUnity KM03 Keychain
TISUR Titanium Key Ring 360° Swivel Connector
WEEKEND(ER) Dyneema Coin Case 78553 for E46 filters

Work Log

2024.12.21: Added weekender coin pouch for filters filters.
2024.12.20: Initial version.

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Rapid Travel Film Development Kit

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Problem: Shooting film in fast-paced, time-sensitive environments outside of Japan.

The Solution: Create an airport-friendly kit that allows shooting, developing, scanning, and publishing photos on the same day.

Sometimes, I need to move fast. During the Tbilisi protests in December 2024, I was shooting all day and into the evening, then developing film overnight to ensure photos were ready by morning. Whether it was documenting something critical or exposing police violence, time was of the essence. Sure, I could’ve shot digital, but that’s not how I work these days.

Waiting to process film back home wasn’t an option, especially with Tbilisi Airport’s reputation for refusing hand checks and forcing film through scanners.

To solve this, I put together a fully powder-based travel kit for film processing. Compact, lightweight, and TSA-compliant, it fits neatly into checked luggage without hassle.

This kit, paired with my other tools, allows me to shoot, develop, scan, and publish my work all on the same day—no compromises, no shortcuts. Below is the list of chemicals and gear I use to make it happen.

Chemistry

All the chemistry listed below is in powdered form and can be checked in on most airlines. This setup produces 4 liters of developer and fixer, which is enough for a substantial number of rolls.

XTOL has a particularly generous replenishment workflow, allowing you to extend its usability and develop a significant number of rolls without sacrificing quality.

Kodak XTOL Developer (1 pack)
Adox Adostop Eco Powder Stop Bath (5 packs)
Adox Adofix P Fixer (1 pack)
Fuji QW Hypo-Clearing Agent (optional)

Processing

Jobo 1520 (2-reel tank) + Jobo 1530 (3-reel extension) Developing Tank
Jobo Roller 1509: Uses only 600ml of chemistry for 5 reels
Matin Film Cutter: Optional, but scissors work fine if you’re skilled
Weights for Film Drying

Bulk Film

AP Filmloader Bobinquick Bulk Loader
AP Plastic Film Cartridge (x20) + Stickers

Scanning

VALOI easy35 35mm film scanner with duster
Lumix S5 digital camera
Lumix 100mm Macro lens
Adobe Lightroom Classic for organizing and importing negatives
Negative Lab Pro plugin for color conversion

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Bulk Film Canister Stickers

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Problem: When bulk-rolling film, it’s challenging to quickly and accurately note metadata—such as which canister the film was loaded into, when it was exposed, and when it was shot—without risking loss or confusion of this information.

The Solution: Design a film canister sticker with dedicated spaces for writing essential notes for easy identification of the film type, loading date, and exposure details.

One of the things I love about shooting with my Contax G2, especially with the GD2 databack, is how it logs every single frame on a roll of film using its magical light printer. Keeping track of all that data, however, requires an external organizational system.

One part of this system is managing the canisters I load: knowing what film is inside, whether it’s been exposed to X-rays at the airport, whether the roll itself is exposed (I leave the leader out for easy extraction), some additional notes, and a unique roll ID that I assign to every roll.

Kodak film canisters are great because they come with a yellow space on the canister where I can jot down the date and roll ID. But when you load bulk film into reusable canisters—like the plastic ones with a snap-top lid—that’s no longer possible. Sure, I could use a white-out marker, but rubbing it off with alcohol is too much of a chore when it’s time to reload.

To solve this, I designed film stickers that are easy to print at home on A4 sticky sheets using any printer. These stickers have all the space I need to note relevant details. In Japan, I use A-ONE 31271 (10 sheets) or 31250 (100 sheets), but any matte sticky A4 paper will work as long as it doesn’t leave residue on the canister.

I recommend using matte paper to avoid light piping that can occur from the film preview window of the camera reflecting through a glossy layer. Matte paper is also easier to write on and remove cleanly when reloading.

While I designed these stickers to suit my own workflow, I realized others might find them useful too. So, I created a more generic version of the stickers, making them versatile for anyone who wants to better organize their bulk film workflow.

The fields on the canister are as follows:

Film: The name of the film—simple as that.
Exposed: Color or tick the circle if the film is exposed. This is especially useful for people who leave their leaders out after rewinding.
X-Ray: If airport security didn’t have a good day, your film might have been through an X-ray machine. Tick a circle for each exposure.
If found, please return to: I usually write my Instagram handle here, but you can write your name, phone number, or any other contact information.
Date Loaded: Whether you want to note the date the canister was loaded or the film was placed in the camera is up to your interpretation.
Date Finished: Self-explanatory.
Exp. Index; Push/Pull: The ISO or N value for how you intend the film to be developed.
Notes: Anything you’d like to jot down.
Canister ID: Keep the canister ID consistent for each physical cartridge. If you track which film is in which canister and detect light leaks, you’ll know exactly which one to blame.

These stickers are specifically designed to fit AP 35mm film reloadable cartridges (product code APP351120), but I suspect they’ll work on any cartridge, even metal ones that are reused.

Download Canister Labels: 14 stickers on A4. Cut along cutlines.

Work and Change Log

2025.04.16: Changed paper recommendation to less sticky and easier to remove A-ONE 31271 and 31250.

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Film Identification Format

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

To keep track of frames when shooting on film, I needed a reliable tracking system for each roll of film (or sheet). For this purpose, I invented a roll identification system that I use for every single roll of film loaded into any of my cameras.

 R = roll film
 S = sheet/cut film
 # = ordinal number on that day
           │
           │
           ▼
2024.12.22.R6.21
─────┬────    ▲
     │        │
     │        │
    Date      Frame #
              (optional)

This system builds on my existing method for identifying and organizing information in my life. For example, whenever I see 2024.12.22, it references two things: the date itself and any note—digital or loose leaf—that I created on that date. If more specificity is needed, I append additional identifiers after subsequent .s. For example, R7 signifies the 7th roll loaded into a camera on that day.

 2024.12.22.OOM10.R24
            ──┬──
              │
              │
           Project

Some projects are planned and do not qualify as “wild footage”, so they are assigned a project (or session, in my system’s terminology). In the example above, OOM10.R24 indicates the 24th roll in my Out of Memory Vol. 10 project.

These IDs are consistently present throughout my digital archiving system, on film sleeves, contact sheets, and every other touchpoint where film interacts with my workflows.

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2024.11

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Visited several art venues including Artizon Museum and Hiroshi Senju Museum in Karuizawa
Explored photography gear changes
Set up of Punctum exhibition for Jinny Street Gallery
Insightful discussion about entering the art world with Jeremy
Found inspiration in Gregory Halpern’s Magnum course
Got artwork collected in past year framed
Built an Ayrton Senna Lego set

November is always tough on my brain, but pleasant on my senses. Tokyo is blessed to have one of the nicest Novembers of all the places I have been. The sun shines at least two-thirds of the days, and the cold is not as bone-piercing as it could be. November is also the month I have to renew my Japanese visa—every, damn, year. I hope this time I’ll get a three-year break from it.

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2024.10

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Worked on book projects including printing Out of Memory Vol. 9
Tskaltubo photos accepted for publication in Atlas of Ruins book
Managed Jinny Street Gallery activities, including an Artist Walk
Trip to Bucharest, Romania
Started Transcendental Meditation
Visited Tokyo Photographic Art Museum to see Alec Soth’s A Room of Rooms
New photography books: list them.
Volunteered as polling station staff for elections in Georgia

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2024.09

Sun, 29 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Spent time in Georgia and Tbilisi
Took a trip to Kazbegi, staying at Rooms Hotel with views of Mount Kazbegi – never gets old.
Did a photo shoot for byLudo at Tsekhi
Successfully repaired an RZ67 camera using 3D-printed parts
Translated a Lucky/Fujimoto CP32 manual from Japanese to English
Implemented a new 6 AM work routine

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2024.08

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Continued work on Out of Memory series
Set up and organized the Studio

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2024.07

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Italian road-trip: Rome, Siena, Lucca, Cinque Terre, and Porto Venere.
Walked the Aurelian Walls in Rome
Explored Cyprus: Larnaca’s coastal areas, Nicosia’s divided capital, Famagusta’s ghost town, Troodos mountain villages
Rammstein show in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

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2024.06

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Attended the Yokohama Art Triennale
Finished setting up a darkroom at the studio
Published new Lemon Sour and shop pages for Jinny Street Gallery
Made a music station at home—a dream that still seems so far away.
Visited several exhibitions in Italy: Anselm Kiefer, Fallen Angels at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence and Georgian Pavilion at Venice Biennale, featuring works by Nika Koplatadze
Film in Rome: Guido Sabatini for 4x5 film and Ars-Imago for 120 film and development services
Made limoncello from scratch
Made a pilgrimage to the alleged birthplace of the Negroni at Caffè Giacosa (formerly Caffè Casoni) in Florence

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2024.05

Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Launched the Jinny Lemon Sour project at the beginning of the month
I have new dedicated studio in Tokyo! A lot of work completed: renovation including wall repainting and deep cleaning, established a dedicated darkroom area, installed work bench and some storage systems
Led an Artist Walk for the final day of Maan Limburg’s Without Us at Jinny Street Gallery
Bonobo live DJ performance at O-East Shibuya
Travel: Naples and Pompeii, Italy
Attended and documented live music performances, including an Arabic punk band—Tabla Kwaiesa—and other local musicians in Tokyo

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2024.04

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Averaged 13.5km walking through Tokyo with RZ67 (it’s heavy!)
Milan Design Week (Salone del Mobile) and Venice Art Biennale, with notable visits to Pirelli HangarBicocca featuring Anselm Kiefer’s work and discovering Nari Ward’s installations
Participated in a traditional washi paper-making workshop in Asakusa, exploring potential applications for alternative printing processes like platinum palladium
Alec Soth’s exhibition for Bottega
Fuego show
Met with Yosuke Taki, son of Koji Taki (co-founder of Provoke magazine), had an interesting chat

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2024.03

Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Set up Sean Lotman’s exhibition at Jinny Street Gallery; Grateful to have him in the gallery.
Developed film workflow templates for the Notebook System
Launched Jinny Street Gallery T-shirts
Started testing various film development processes
Attended a Kintsugi class; the instructor’s fashion style was 11/10.
Snowboarding in Nozawa Onsen during heavy snowfall conditions; Nozawa distillery was a highlight. Shiso gin is top notch.
Travel in Japan: Kawagoe, Okutama and Sawai.

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2024.02

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Released Out of Memory Vol. 8 and received the printed copies
Started learning Fusion 360 for future projects
Started transitioning towards darkroom-focused workflow
Began experimenting with an odd 16-lens camera from Fujifilm
Explored Venice during Carnival season, Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
Visited the Opera House of Rome’s stenography workshop to observe the creation of 10x22 meter stage backdrop canvases.
Documented Civita di Bagnoregio, walking 100% of the city’s streets–there are so few!

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2024.01

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Write few dispatches for The Flâneur newsletter.
Curated and installed Tokyo Flâneur Vol. 2 exhibition at Jinny Street Gallery; conducted the first Artists Walk event.
Created documentary content for Jinny Street Gallery, filming and editing artist videos.
Developed new variations of the Unbound System– experimenting with recycled tarp for covers and testing different formats including A5 size.
Set-up newsletter for Jinny Street Gallery – subscribe here.
Started exploring 3D design with Fusion 360
Visited several art venues including a book exhibition

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Non-photographers Need Not Apply

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In my world, photo books hold a special kind of reverence. They are cherished not just as vessels of visual narratives but as objects in their own right. A finely crafted photo book often surpasses the allure of a museum or gallery visit, though, admittedly, the prospect of a meandering walk through a quirky district with exhibition cases carries its charm (wink-wink, hint-hint).

On occasions when I find myself in a bookstore, it’s an interesting observation that I’m often not alone in the photography aisles. Cameras, like silent companions, dangle from the shoulders of many who wander there. Photo books, it appears, are a niche savored largely by those who speak the language of aperture and shutter speed.

In contrast, the world of written books is a vast expanse—people from all walks of life read books. It is unimaginable to fantasize about the world in which literature is enjoyed solely, or even mostly, by writers.

I hadn’t thought much about this divide until I came across Mark Power’s interview for Magnum courses, where he talked about his first book. Power recalled a chat with his publisher, Dewi Lewis, about how a half-decent book would sell 700 copies to other photographers. “We all buy each other’s books, basically.” The Shipping Forecast sold ten thousand copies in the first few years, which is an astonishing number for an unknown photographer at the time. He continues, “[…] So we obviously got out of that photography ghetto and reached a whole other audience. It reached an audience that was Radio Four listeners, people who love the Shipping Forecast. I was constantly meeting people who told me, and I still do, actually, people who tell me, “Oh, I bought that for my Dad for Christmas.”

Recently, I’ve observed a surge in new social media platforms centered around photography. The common rallying cry seems to be over Instagram’s betrayal of its original photographic essence. “It’s overrun with diverse content and people not primarily focused on photography,” they argue (they do not use the word diverse, of course). These platforms propose an alternative, a new haven where photography is promised to be the main attraction once more.

I’ve stopped signing up for these networks. My reluctance isn’t rooted in their typical short-lived nature but rather in how they remind me of the photography sections in bookstores — yet another silo where non-photographers need not apply.

How does one create a book, or any photography-related media, in a way that it breaks free from the insular boundaries of this niche circle?

Honestly, I don’t have the answer. It might be that no one really does, and perhaps it all boils down to luck. Or maybe there’s a system to it. Who knows?

It’s not that I’m aiming to sell ten thousand copies, but setting a goal to captivate the interest of at least one non-photographer does present itself as an intriguing challenge for the book.

Regardless, I’m eager to delve into and learn from this exploration through the Out of Memory book series project, and I look forward to sharing this journey with you.

Thanks for reading,

—T

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The Silo Problem in Photography

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

He continues:

[…] So we obviously got out of that photography ghetto and reached a whole other audience. It reached an audience that was Radio Four listeners, people who love the Shipping Forecast. I was constantly meeting people who told me, and I still do, actually, people who tell me, “Oh, I bought that for my Dad for Christmas.”

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Year of Making and Journey of a Naïve Book Maker

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Hello, fellow walkers. Happy New Year! …is a phrase I started in my previous dispatch. I announced the opening of the Jinny Street Gallery and its inaugural exhibition. It’s been a hectic year, so much so that I’ve nearly lost touch with my writing and perhaps even my photography skills. Nonetheless, the gallery is about to host its tenth show, coinciding beautifully with its first anniversary.

To celebrate this milestone, Lorenzo and I thought it fitting to revisit our debut exhibition, but with a fresh lineup of artists. I’m happy to introduce Johan Brooks, Veronika Ikonnikova, Tasuku Innami, and Mateusz Urbanowicz, who will be exhibiting with us at Tokyo Flâneur Vol. 2. For those familiar with the Tokyo art circuit, these names might resonate with a certain familiarity. Interestingly, apart from Johan and ourselves, the group predominantly comprises non-photographers. The surprising response to Jinny’s previous exhibitions, like Ropetine, Precious Waste, and Michibiki, highlighted the gallery’s inclination towards mixed media. With this surge in interest, I decided to step back from showcasing my creations within these streetlamps starting next month. Initially, my work was meant to help ‘fill in’ the nascent gallery’s spaces, a role now rendered obsolete.

Tokyo Flâneur Vol. 2 starts on January 19 and concludes on February 18, 2024. You can see my work — Moments I Stood Still — at streetlamps 3, 9, 16, 20, 28, 36, and 37.

If you are curious to follow the gallery, please subscribe to its newly launched newsletter.

“Making”

During each Dead Week, I dedicate my time to planning the upcoming year. There’s a peculiar satisfaction in this exercise. It neatly patches the void in my mind where productive procrastination usually lurks, ensuring I have no excuse for further delay in the remaining eleven and a half months. A key part of this annual ritual is selecting my Yearly Theme. This is not about charting goals or succumbing to the cliché of resolutions, but rather, it’s about setting the direction — picking a degree point on my compass of interests and things I want to do.

While I won’t delve into the specifics here, this year’s theme is Making (with a generous side note of “While Traveling,” enclosed in parentheses). This encompasses making photographs, making books, making(?) walks – you get the idea.

In this newsletter, I invite you to join me on one of these Making adventures — an Out of Memory book series.

Out of Memory is a photographic diary-style project that has been evolving alongside my written diary, Almanac, which I’ve diligently maintained every single day since January 2019. Almanac is by far the longest-running continuous thing I have ever done. About six months into writing it, as someone who identified more as a photographer than a writer, I was struck by the trivially obvious idea of taking daily photographs to complement my journal entries. While I didn’t manage to capture photos every day, over time, I amassed a significant collection that subtly echoed my emotions and state of mind over long stretches of time. By the end of 2019, this collection had grown into a 180-page magazine-style book.

Now, five years later, I’m still at it. Each time my memory card fills up—a reason for the project’s name—I begin working on the next volume. After completing eight volumes with a total of eight copies, I’ve decided to take this project to the next level.

And this is where the journey starts.

In the upcoming issue, I will delve into the objectives behind the book series. I’ll discuss my motivations for creating it and how I plan to tackle a new format and sequencing, the actual process of making physical books, and a venture completely new (and terrifying) to me — selling these books.

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2023.12

Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Completed and installed the group exhibition Michibiki at Jinny Street Gallery; one of my pieces, “Ocean Eyes,” was also there.
Delivered a PechaKucha Night presentation with Lorenzo about Jinny Street Gallery.
Installed a permanent Wirescapes frame installation at Clandestino 41 in Tokyo.
Started development of Soma.app focusing on AI transcription.
Advanced the Out of Memory series, processing 1,377 new photographs for Volume 8.
Visited Olafur Eliasson’s exhibition at Azabudai and Plaza of Kanagawa Institute of Technology.
Developed 2024 theme — “Year of Travel.”

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2023.11

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Planned and organized the Michibiki exhibition; this must be the shortest notice Lorenzo and I have ever worked with.
Visited the Enoura Observatory; this was the second time in the past few years—still extremely pleasant.
Attended the Tokyo Art Book Fair; a bit overwhelmed by the amount of books and people there.
Started exploring electronic music production, got a Digitakt, and am planning future modular synthesis expansions.
Visited the new The Tokyo Toilet project by Marc Newson.
Secured a visa extension; one more year in Japan.
Visited QWS several times a week; I like the working atmosphere there.

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2023.10

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Hosted Sante Visioni at Jinny Street Gallery.
Advanced development of the Unbound System (née PHNS), creating new prototypes including index card holders and map insert designs.
Explored 3D printing for organization, producing custom storage for tools and supplies.
Visited exhibition by Andrea Samory at Contrast Tokyo.
Viewed Tom Sachs’ boom boxes and furniture at Isetan.

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2023.09

Sat, 30 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Climbed Mount Fuji! The sunrise from the peak was majestic.
Spent the month traveling.
Successfully guided a group through Georgia.
Explored Rome for several days, visiting the MAXXI museum.

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2023.09

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Visiting Enoshima, Onomichi, Naoshima, and Kyoto.
Made Out of Memory Vol. 7 and expanded photography practice with new film experiments and equipment
Prototyped AI transcription workflow/app for TP-7

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2023.07

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Began work on the I Know You (P0352) photography project
Developed concept for a Light Meter Watch (P0354) inspired by the Seiko Metronome
Completed development of Toto Command Center (P0360), evolved from the previous CLI project into a menu-bar application
Started the Pen Project (P0359) for creating a custom multi-color pen design
Conducted photo shoot for Sante Visioni’s work at Jinny Street Gallery
Traveled and photographed extensively during Singapore trip
Visited James Turrell installation at The National Art Center in Tokyo and studied Rothko paintings using Mark Power’s focusing technique
Completed Mark Power’s Magnum photography course
Experimented with paper-based todo system in Field Notes

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2023.06

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Set up Jinny Street Gallery’s fifth exhibition with Lorenzo
Participated in an NHK World interview and documentary about the gallery, which aired on June 28th and featured both gallery operations and a photo walk
Attended Fuego: NEEDLESS performance, which was an expanded version of their previous Hanoi show
Maintained regular work sessions at SHIBUYA QWS, finding the city center location and views conducive to productivity
Fixed damaged flags at Jinny Street Gallery during a rainy evening
Tried pottery – finding it meditative and purchasing plates and a cup
Read Four Thousand Weeks

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2023.05

Sun, 28 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Completed maintenance and cleaning work on Jinny Street Gallery display boxes with Lorenzo
Conducted a Nabeghlavi photo shoot
Attended Kyotographie 2023 in Kyoto, discovering photographer Mabel Poblet’s work
Finished building a custom macropad for Project Manus
Visited Tom Sachs’ Chawan exhibition
Completed Susan Orlean’s Creative Non-fiction writing course from New Yorker Magazine
Participated in Georgian festival celebrations in Tokyo, reconnecting with the Georgian community
Finished watching Ted Lasso series

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2023.04

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Launched Jinny Street Gallery’s third exhibition
Completed a 9-day Brompton Rando cycling tour across Japan from Tokyo to Onomichi
Started learning traditional Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock carving technique
Attended Rainbow Disco Club outdoor electronic music festival

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2023.03

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Launched Jinny Street Gallery’s second exhibition Ropetine Street by Kohei Shibusawa
Received media coverage for Jinny Street Gallery including features in Asahi Shinbun and Tokyo Weekender print edition
Completed video interview with Tokyo Weekender about Jinny Street Gallery operations (Thank you, Lisa!)
Attended Tokyo Art Fair and viewed Tom Sachs’ work, acquired new art piece by Sante Visioni
Explored electronics and embedded programming projects, began planning custom macropad build
Established collaboration discussions with UltraSuperNew Gallery through Eleanor
Visited Shimoda Aquarium
Hanami cherry blossom viewing in Yoyogi Park
Watched Everything Everywhere All at Once

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2023.02

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Got my first 3D printer!
Completed the I Want to Do Bad Things to You (Box-Set)
Created a custom tape dispenser using 3D printing and repurposed saw blade
Worked on Jinny Street Gallery operations including preparing display boards and taking down exhibition elements
Featured Jinny Street Gallery in Tokyo Weekender’s Instagram coverage
Helped print and organize photos from Leon Gallo’s exhibition for permanent display
Visited Ivan Kwong’s exhibition at Gallery Ether
Attended Red Hot Chili Peppers show in Tokyo
Took a snowboarding trip to Niseko, Hokkaido with friends

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2023.01

Sat, 28 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Officially opened Jinny Street Gallery with the inaugural exhibition setup and launch
Gained significant media attention for Jinny Street Gallery with features in Asahi Shinbun (national newspaper) and Canon Photo Circle
Completed my participation in Tokyo Flâneur exhibition
Attended letterpress workshop
Visited Enoura Observatory by Hiroshi Sugimoto
Acquired a decommissioned Tokyo Metro train sign for my collection
Visited Mori Art Museum exhibition with friends

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Jinny Street Gallery

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Hello walkers. Happy new year! This is the same ‘ole newsletter, but with a twist. More on this later, but I want to start the year with a bang, as they say.

I’ll be part of the inaugural group photo exhibition at Jinny Street Gallery starting this Sunday, January 15, 2023. The gallery that Lorenzo and I (with the help of Sawabe Kin) created by converting street lamps of one of my favorite neighborhoods — Jingumae. The gallery is made by walkers, for the walkers, the flâneurs. So it felt apt to dedicate its first exhibition to the fellows alike.

Tokyo Flâneur: Through the Eyes of a Stroller is a group photo exhibition of seven street photographers. Alongside Lorenzo and I, we were lucky to have five amazing photographers onboard for this show, which many of you might recognize from the Tokyo street photography scene — Yusuke Nagata (Nuts Tokyo), Daniele Martire, Joel Pulliam, Lukasz Palka, and Leon Gallo.

Each one of us will display six pieces. Mine will be in lamps 5, 9, 17, 22, 32, and 39.

The exhibition will last till and including February 17, 2023. It will be open 24/7 for your walking and viewing pleasure.

This will be my last exhibition for a while. I plan this year to focus on photography, bookbinding, and a few new exciting projects, which I’ll share in this newsletter every fortnight or so.

“Fortnight.” Does this mean I’m finally committing to a schedule for this intermittent dispatch? Well, sort of. I do not intent to have a rigid schedule, but having fourteen-day deadline feels about right blend of consistency and fluidity. The words I really want to explore this year in terms of work and the process. More on this in a fortnight or earlier.

Thanks for reading, —T

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2022.12

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Completed the initial setup and promotion of Jinny Street Gallery
Created an hand-carved artist hanko for myself
Took a week-long trip to Hanoi, Vietnam for the Fuego/Tokyo takeover event series
Visited the Print Museum in Tokyo to study their permanent and temporary exhibitions about maps and printing
Received “Honorable Mention” recognition for the [Catch-32] photography project in TIFA (Tokyo International Foto Awards)

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2022 Retrospective

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Hello dear walkers; this is yet another infrequent message from me — Toto — the person who wishes to write more but can’t for every reason imaginable (more on this later.)

As I was writing my 2022 retrospective — which I do every December 15–28 — I wanted to share some of the highlights of this abounding year and, perhaps, give a sneak peek into 2023.

Mostly in chronological order:

2022 marked the kick-off of THE LINE experiment run by my friends here in Tokyo. Every fortnight they invited a DJ and visual artists to present at one of the Tokyo bars. It is a curious setup—the art piece is put behind the red rope—the line—facing away from the DJ and the main dance floor. Visitors are incentivized to proactively go over the line, sit on a comfy sofa, and enjoy the art in solitude as the rest of the evening is spent enjoying music. It was supposed to end in 2022, but because of the several COVID-19 restrictions in the summer, it will last till April 2023.

I was not there every time, but I ended up shooting the atmosphere whenever I could.

On June 26th, I was lucky to present my piece to the viewers.

Walk With Me. Up next, I tackled the idea of converting curiously designed street lamps in the Jingumae 2-Chome into a street gallery to show my photos from the Out of Memory Series. I was lucky to know a guy who knows a guy with the keys to those streetlamp display cases.

Walk With Me laster whopping three months. I organized several walks around the quirky and cozy neighborhood. Many know it as the home of the infamous Bonobo club and bar.

Echoes of an Old Party. Shortly after the street exhibition, my dear friend and fellow photographer Leon Gallo had his pop-up show in a “secret place” in Tokyo showcasing his photos from the abandoned Marugen snack bars. Echoes of an Old Party lasted a couple of days, and only a dozen visitors were allowed to see it live at the said place. (The exhibition is now permanent in an undisclosed location, so if you’re lucky to find it, please enjoy it without giving out the site.)

At Leon’s request and my pleasure, I practiced my printing and book-making skills at someone else’s service rather than myself. So all the prints and accompanying books were designed and printed by yours truly.

You can buy exhibition zine by reaching out to @leongallo.photography directly on Instagram.

Wirescapes. Later in the year, my dear friend and generally a relentlessly creative soul approached me with the idea, “why don’t we do something together.” Thus, Wirescapes was born.

Ludovica is the founder and sole artist behind byLudo, an Ecotech-bijoux endeavor focusing on upcycling computer and tech waste into tasteful accessories. Computer cables, keyboard keycaps, and USB plugs are creatively used in her pieces. I urge you to explore her website and Instagram.

The core idea of Wirescapes was to communicate our shared love of big cities — Tokyo specifically. The massive urban environments could be overwhelming, yet they serve as a platform enabling humans to connect and create exciting things.

Using Ludovicas knowledge of making things out of computer waste and my photography of Tokyo streets, we made an entire space where people could experience connections and opportunities of a highly intertwined city.

Ludovica presented her work alongside Wirescapes at PeckaKucha Christmas Night Special (Dec 16) in Tokyo. You can see the slides and talk here.

Jinny Street Gallery. Circling back to the Walk With Me and Jingumae 2-Chome, I started a project with my dear friend Lorenzo. Fellow walker, Showa Tokyo admirer, and only other photographer who has exhibited in those streetlamps before.

After I removed my work from the districts, I verbalized my idea of converting the neighborhood into a “street gallery for walkers” to Lorenzo. To which he immediately responded, “I had the same idea!”

A few months later, after nearly killing ourselves while hanging gallery flags on the street lamps, I’m proud to announce that Jinny Street Gallery will have its inaugural exhibition on Jan 15, 2023 — Tokyo Flâneur: Through the Eyes of a Stroller.

I’m incredibly proud of what Lorenzo and I achieved. There are 42 streetlamps around Jingumae 2-Chome (or “Jinni” as locals call it). One could easily spend 2 hours walking around the cozy neighborhood going through all the display boxes intertwined with designer shops, ramen and soba places, and quirky night bars.

Follow @jinny.gallery for more updates. We have the first half of the 20223 already programmed. Please write to us if you’re interested in displaying your work.

Big walks. Finally, I have made long walks a routine. Every second Saturday (or so), I get up at 6am and start walking for 15–20 kilometers. No music. Only feet, brain, and the camera. The slow pace makes those walks six to eight hours, including café breaks. Those walks are oddly pleasant — as if the brain switches to a meditation mode after 7 or 9 kilometers. I love those walks and plan to do them through 2023. They are an incredible tool for exploring the city and experimenting with photography.

In fact, I’d recommend anyone to do those once a month or so. Camera not required. Just walk. Your brain will thank you.

I’m grateful for 2022. It’s been an absolute rollercoaster. But it was a pleasure to ride it. I have quite a few plans for 2023 too. I’ll try to write about those throughout the year so I don’t have to stare at the “Near email length limit” warning Substack is showing me now.

Have a great year ahead, fellow walkers and dreamers.

Onward, forward. —Toto

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2022.11

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Successfully hosted the Wirescapes exhibition at UNTITLED SPACE Kyojima for 10 days, managing setup, daily operations, and takedown with significant attendance including opening night crowds
Officially launched Jinny Street Gallery by installing 27 custom flags on streetlamps along Jingumae 2-chome, transforming the entire street into an outdoor gallery space
Secured a one-year Business Investor visa for Japan after weeks of uncertainty
Visited Kadokawa Culture Museum in Tokorozawa Sakura Town, studying the monolithic architecture and innovative shelving systems
Began planning the operational structure for Simulacra & Simulation KK, including setting up business banking and contract transfers

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2022.10

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Finished Out of Memory Vol. 6
Traveled to Kanazawa, Takayama, and Shirakawa-go
Saw Yves Klein at 21st Century Museum, and Masaru Iwai, Yuki Tawada, and Keiko Kimoto at TOP Museum
Launched Wirescapes exhibition
Completed three major Tokyo walks: Oji to Yasukuni Shrine, Daikyocho to Oimachi, and Ochanomizu to Mizumoto Park
Acquired an Olivetti Valentine typewriter
Attended Entanglement-F exhibition to network within the Tokyo art scene
Began planning studio space search in Tokyo, considering areas like Yanaka

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2022.09

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Advanced the Jinny Street Gallery project significantly
Printed photographs for exhibitions for Leon Gallo
Attended Aichi Triennale 2022 in Nagoya, visiting Ichinomiya and Tokoname, discovering artists like On Kawara and Byron Kim whose life-logging practices resonated deeply
Completed a 4-day creative retreat in Ito, Shizuoka working on book layouts and studio planning despite Typhoon 15
Began planning future studio/shop space inspired by converted factories seen at Aichi Triennale
Maintained Saturday morning photography walks around Tokyo, emphasizing consistency and rigor
Discovered Canon pocket printer paper fits perfectly in Moleskine pocket notebooks for photo sequences

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2022.08

Sun, 28 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Started work on Out of Memory Vol. 6
Began experimenting with Leica M11 as primary camera instead of GR3 for street photography
Launched newsletter “The Flâneur” on Substack
Attended Global Ark 2022 music festival in Nagano
Visited Alec Soth exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama – impressed by the four-room display of large prints
Helped organize an exhibition with Leon Gallo
Started using Moleskine notebook system for ideas, WIP projects, and lists

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The Flâneur

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Hello Dreamers! It’s been a while. It’s been almost (more?) a year since you last saw words from me on your screen delivered through the magical invention of 1965 — email.

If you do not remember (rightfully so) why you are getting this email — I’m Toto — a lost man wandering the streets of Tokyo and Tbilisi with a camera and making books. And this is a newsletter formerly known as Dreaming with One Eye Open.

A lot has happened in the past year. I didn’t share much with you because I couldn’t adhere to the massive format I committed to this newsletter more than 365 days ago. I’m here to fill you in and tell you about changes and “reboot” of this mailing list.

My love of book-making has not gone anywhere. I produced three more Out of Memory one-offs, made a proper website for myself, participated in a group photo exhibition called “Perspectives” in Gallery Ether, and organized a solo street exhibition—Walk With Me—in street lamps(!) of Jingumae 2-chōme just outside of crowded streets of Harajuku. I was also lucky to present a photo collage at the fortnightly art event THE LINE in exquisitely lit up bar Véronique, just one floor below Daido Moriayma’s publisher.

I couldn’t be happier with things happening in 2022. However, with all this work (in addition to my day job), my photography time had a price to pay — the currency of the payment is time. I have a new challenge—figuring out how to be active in the art and photography scene and have time to keep producing.

Hence, the new format and “rebranding” of this newsletter.

I mentioned Out of Memory and my daily journal in the second dispatch. The latter will have 1373 entries today afternoon. It seems like I’m good at sticking to a journaling format. So that’s what I’ll be doing here too —

Welcome to The Flâneur, a work journal of a walker with a camera; A work log, a place to explore ideas, share observations, and write the process of artifact-making.

To give you a tiny bit of taste of what’s coming up:

I’m working on two limited edition zines and a big book,
I bought a new camera (that I didn’t return) for the first time in five years,
I’m preparing an experimental show with a talented friend of mine, and
I put vaseline on a lens filter.

Thanks for following along!

Flâneur (/flæˈnjʊər/; French: [flɑˈnœʁ]) is a French noun referring to a person, literally meaning “stroller”, “lounger”, “saunterer”, or “loafer”, but with some nuanced additional meanings.

— T

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2022.07

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Picked up and started shooting with my black Leica M11
Took a week-long trip to Naoshima and Teshima art islands, visiting numerous museums and art installations including Chichu Art Museum, Lee Ufan Museum, Benesse House Museum, and various Art House Projects
Concluded my Walk With Me street exhibition
Started developing the Jinny Street Gallery concept with Lorenzo
Participated in Gagamaru’s sumo retirement ceremony
Viewed Jeremy Strength’s artwork exhibition at LINE
Discovered surfing and started considering the idea of a beach art house near Kamakura or Hayama

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2022.06

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Exhibited my work at THE LINE
Started producing handmade zines for Jeremy’s upcoming exhibition, printing five copies
Made a custom leather strap for my Ricoh GR3
Visited teamLab Borderless exhibition (again)
Took an impromptu trip to Enoshima Island, discovering the aquarium there
Began the process of renting office space
Put my name on the waiting list for a black Leica M11
Worked on developing a pitch deck for an October exhibition with collaborators
Featured in Ginza Magazine alongside Lorenzo

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2022.05

Sat, 28 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Launched Walk With Me outdoor photography exhibition in Jingumae
Started working with Jeremy Strength in Shinjukugyoen
Received a Ricoh GRIIIx camera as a gift (Thank you Sophie!)
Visited notable Tokyo locations including Rengatei (birthplace of Omurice and Tonkatsu) for cultural documentation
Traveled to Hakone experiencing the full spectrum of Japanese transportation infrastructure (train, tramway, ship, bus, cable-car, and ropeway)
Planned a postcard box set production

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2022.04

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Launched Walk With Me street photography exhibition in Jingumae, installing 42 photographs in street lamp light boxes throughout the neighborhood.
Had my photograph published in ArtCollectors’ magazine.
Took a 5-day trip to Ishigaki and Iriomote-Ishigaki National Park in Okinawa for photography and exploration

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2022.03

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Had my final LASIK eye checkup and achieved perfect vision, able to read the last line on the chart
Spent a weekend at Yumedono Ryokan near Mount Fuji
Attended Fuego House #2 dance event
Created custom jacket with Sante Visioni, perfect for spring season

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2022.02

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Started shooting I Want to Do Bad Things to You
Continued photo selection work for The Walls You Build Between Us
Acquired a Lumix S5
Underwent LASIK eye surgery on February 25, successfully eliminating the need for glasses and contact lenses
Attended THE LINE art event at Akio Nagasawa Gallery Aoyama
Led a three-day ski trip to Hakuba Goryu

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2022.01

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Completed Out of Memory Vol. 5
Successfully exhibited at Perspectives at Gallery Ether 2021 – sold four pieces
Began planning a photography exhibition at Shibuya lampposts with Lorenzo
Established new approach for Out of Memory series – collecting 1500 photos before creating new volumes
Celebrated three years of uninterrupted journaling on January 20th
Received COVID booster

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2021.12

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Completed exhibition Perspectives at Gallery Ether in Tokyo, displaying my photographic work from December 4-24
Continued work on Out of Memory Vol. 5
Launched totocaster.com
Sold my first artwork - Untitled, 2020 (spectacles photograph) to a collector who transported it to Italy

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2021.11

Sun, 28 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Visited and hiked Okutama highlands
Made significant progress on photography website totocaster.com
Prepared for the upcoming exhibition at Gallery Ether
Took a multi-day trip to Kyoto and Osaka, including visits to Universal Studios Japan, Nanzenji Temple, Amanohashidate, and various onsens
Worked on guitar playing skills

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2021.10

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Organized and wrapped up Ludo’s exhibition at the beginning of the month
Experienced M6.1 magnitude earthquake in Tokyo – first time seeing buildings shake from street level
Reached 1000th consecutive day of journaling on October 15th
Watched new James Bond film – it was good
Saw Dune in theaters
Started playing guitar again
Took a long photography walk around Tokyo (Hibiya park/Arakawa area)
Began planning a note-taking app project
Dealt with visa and immigration paperwork

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2021.09

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Returned to Tokyo from Tbilisi after a multi-day journey through Doha, including mandatory 7-day quarantine at a Narita hotel
Completed 14-day home quarantine requirement upon arrival in Tokyo
Conducted initial research and ideation for a note-taking app concept focused on stream-of-consciousness writing with timestamp-based organization
Spent time in Hayama beach
Scheduled interview process with Rimac for potential opportunities

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2021.08

Sat, 28 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Explored and photographed abandoned sanatoriums in Tskaltubo, capturing the reclamation of Soviet-era buildings by nature
Started motorcycle riding lessons in Tbilisi
Documented urban landscapes throughout Tbilisi, focusing on the old city architecture
Visited multiple Georgian regions including Signagi, Nunisi, and the Okatse Canyon
Prepared for return to Tokyo, coordinating quarantine requirements and logistics

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2021.07

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Started developing a slide film holder keychain project using actual E100 slide film – cutting 36-exposure rolls into individual plastic key-rings as limited edition art pieces
Acquired a Konica Hexar RF camera and began testing it for upcoming photography work
Received my M-D back from service
Framed and displayed a series of doorbell photographs in the studio
Traveled from Tokyo to Tbilisi via a 32-hour journey through Doha
Began transitioning more heavily to film photography, though still working through scanning workflow challenges

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Images, Words, and a Doorbell

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Hello Dreamers! This is the second dispatch of Dreaming with One Eye Open, by yours truly — Toto (@totocaster) — and, let me tell you all about my doorbell.

Doorbells used to be simple things. Push the button; spring behind the plastic compresses; two wires touch — ding-dong!

My Tokyo apartment has a doorbell lifted from sci-fi manga of the 90s. White plastic. Clacky buttons. Tacky blue LED. Surprisingly large screen for something that has ice-cube-sized pixels. Gadgets like this at home are ubiquitous in Japan, so I mostly ignored it. “Oh, I can see who’s ringing on the ground floor, neat” — I thought and forgot about it.

A few weeks ago, that garish blue LED refused to stop blinking. Nobody was ringing the bell. Being midnight, half-asleep, I accidentally fat-fingered on the wrong button and discovered that my doorbell records and stores low-framerate videos of everyone who has ever pushed the button. The corner of the display had familiar to any digital photographer text: ‘1/53.’

During all those times, my doorbell has captured dozens of “portraits” of people. Mailmen, friends, stubborn television salesmen — all doing the same thing — ringing my bell.

Being the relentless pixel hoarder that I am, my natural response was — “I want those!”

Locating an SD card or any ports on the device was a moot point. As if Apple designed the damn thing. Not knowing how long the doorbell would store the data, I got impatient and snapped images off the screen with my phone. They came out a bit skewed, but that matched the visual aesthetic of the atrocious screen.

Publishing photos of people who didn’t even know that they’re being recorded felt wrong (heck, I didn’t realize that before a few weeks ago!) — even if harmless. After cleansing my brain with 62% cask strength whisky, I had a lightbulb moment to collect all into — oh surprise! — a book.

The plain sequence of doorbell portraits didn’t really work, so I decided to include full-bleed photos of the doors captured during my long walks in Japan. As a tiny hint of sub-text, each door matches personality from the same spread.

The first page reads:

For everyone who rang the bell. Except for that NHK guy.

I made a dozen of copies, one for each person in the book.

Out of Memory: Photographic Journal

It all started as a productivity journal to maintain focus on a personal solo project that required months of design and engineering work. Every day I’d put down hundred or so words reflecting what I had done, what went well and wrong — all in writing. I never launched said project because I burned out. As with every failure, there were sound side effects and things to learn. During those months, I built a robust habit of writing and keeping a journal. It’s 900+ days since the first entry, and I haven’t skipped a day since.

Interestingly, it took me less than a hundred days to realize that consistency had a far higher value than quality of work. Somehow ‘good writing’ would pop up randomly from the dozens and dozens of entries. This pushed me to rethink my approach towards my street camera, Ricoh GR3, which I carry almost every day in my pocket, hand, or backpack.

Coming from film days and from a country where everything was expensive in the 90s — pressing a shutter release button always associated with the cha-ching cash register sound. Each photo was literally precious. This mindset has remained in my head and into the digital world too. I’d describe my shooting style before that moment as stingy. Then, I discovered a series of magazines by Daido Moriyama — Record. The stream-of-consciousness style of sequencing vast amounts of seemingly random street snaps has become very appealing. Appealing and liberating.

“Not all images in series have to be Elliott Erwitt masterpieces,” rumbled in my head as I was going through 700 pages of New Shinjuku.

The idea of letting that ‘perfect street photo’ by simply documenting the world around me with a camera was the single most significant change in my mindset not only photographically, but in life too.

Thus the idea of making my photographic journal of my own. Out of Memory has become my longest continuously running project after the written journal itself. But, unlike the former, I love sharing photos with anyone who comes to my place.

Somehow I managed to keep the format consistent too. I didn’t come up with the following rules from the get-go, but with the benefit of hindsight, I can say that the following dictated how the volumes work and look:

There is no overall theme. There is no theme per each volume either. I shoot and include whatever or whoever I find exciting or captivating.
There is no visual style to the images. Although, the first three issues are hi-contrast back and white photos. I guess I fell into the are·bure·boke 「アレ・ブレ・ボケ」 visual style.
Every time my camera runs out of memory, I dump images into the computer and start a new volume. I don’t review or delete anything in-camera.
I sequence images by feel rather than cerebrally. This might sound like an excuse to justify random order, but it takes about a month to pick and sequence select photos.
The viewer should be able to spend as much time with the zine as they wish. Opening it in the middle and turning pages in any direction is a totally valid way to enjoy the volume.
Each volume of Out of Memory is a physical object.

There are two goals I haven’t achieved yet:

Try to sell issues if there is an interest.
Find [much] cheaper ways to produce them—possibly even locally in Tokyo (or Tbilisi?). Currently, I make one-offs on-demand using Blurb; they aren’t cheap to make.

Two notable books arrived in the mail this month.

The Book of Vales, Jonas Bendiksen

Every time I see Jonas’s work, I get a sudden urge to stop taking “pretty pictures” and actually focus on “meaningful work.” I can’t quite articulate what I mean by those two phrases, but they convey my feelings rather well.

The Book of Vales is a fascinating book where Jonas tries to explore the recent emergence of the fake news industry that has been happening in Vales, Macedonia. Images of the city in a poor economic state paired with portraits or quotes of subjects are fascinating food for thought.

‘17, George Nebieridze

I’m fortunate to call George a friend. Our paths diverged a few years ago to Berlin and Tokyo, respectively. But, I’ve been following his work ever since. ‘17 is his third book. A collection of photos he made during 2017 while living and melting pot of Berlin’s vibrant techno- and queer scenes. It’s a visually striking and brutally honest set of photographs.

I got several heartwarming messages after the first issue. Thank you to everyone who reached out and to everyone who reads this experiment of mine. This means the world to me.

Next dispatch, I’ll be writing from my hometown — Tbilisi. If you’re there, please nag me for a cup of coffee or a walk.

For now — onwards, forwards.

—Toto

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2021.06

Mon, 28 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Published second issue of Dreaming with One Eye Open (ranemd to The Flâneur) newsletter on Substack
Created Someone at the Door! Ding Dong! photo book using low-resolution captures from my apartment’s doorbell security system
Made significant progress in rock climbing, advancing to 3Q routes and approaching 2Q level
Received first COVID-19 vaccination (Pfizer)
Rearranged workspace to make guitar more accessible for spontaneous playing and looping
Scanned old film photographs, particularly impressed with results from Konica Hexar RF camera

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Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

Sun, 30 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Hello Dreamers. Welcome to the inaugural dispatch of Dreaming with One Eye Open — a long-titled, very much-delayed newsletter you subscribed to sometime between a few months ago and today. This is the place where I — Toto Tvalavadze — will blast you with feelings. Feeling of exploring photography, storytelling, and the world of visual arts from the perspective of a life-long software engineer — an outsider.

My previous four versions of this opening included a short summary of what this newsletter will be. But, truth be told, as I write this, it’s clear I am not sure about the direction it’ll take; So, let’s get started and see what happens.

If you are reading this in your inbox — thank you for blindly subscribing — thank you, thank you. Means the world to me.

Catch-32

My 32nd loop around the sun didn’t go merely as planned. A lot of things changed. Somehow, the global pandemic didn’t make it even into the top three of those events. The top spot in this bizarre chart was dealing with the consequences of something I didn’t think would happen to me — being alone. (Perhaps, that is why it happened in the first place; but that’s a story for another time.)

Early into the year 2020, I got caught up in a vicious circle of mutually conflicting life events, conclusion-less discussions, and attempts to fix the long-lasting relationship. While spinning, the rest of the world is covered by a soft, see-through curtain. Only faint blobs of color pass through. Nothing with crips borders would ever come up. Nothing that one could hold firmly to get pull out of this spin-cycle.

I decided to make such an object for myself. Something with crips borders. Something that makes a sound of wind deflecting its many surfaces. Something that has a smell. An artifact that hands can hold onto and pull oneself out. A book.

The obvious challenge of making a book about the relationship (or its end) is the risk of being overly romantic and corny. This became a nice puzzle to solve and learn how to play with the photobook format. I was curious to explore how far one can push subtext through images alone without giving away a seemingly banal theme. How to communicate feelings, rather than the content, with photos.

In the end, I decided not to focus on the fading relationship at all. I also didn’t want to make it about us because there was no us when making those photographs. There was only me exploring my mind, feelings, and by virtue — backstreets of Kanto and Tbilisi. The book ended up being far more selfish than initially intended —

Did I succeed? Did it end up banal? Perhaps(?). Does it actually trigger an emotional response in the viewer? Hopefully(?). Question marks galore!

The plan is to sit on this, one-off book, for a year or two and hope that I will not cringe when I open it again. Meanwhile—onwards, forwards.

Todo: 51.9%

Speaking of time passing by…

As you might have already guessed, I’m 33 now. To celebrate, I got myself a clock. It’s no ordinary clock. But one that has my name on it. It’s pre-programmed with my birthday and place of birth. The display can show only one number — percent of life completed based on WHO life expectancy data.

It says 48.1%. It is — to put it mildly — a terrifying object, and I love it for keeping the fire under me.

Sakura season “officially” lasts two-to-three weeks, but in my experience, full bloom and “rain of petals” lasts about three days, tops. That’s about 0.8% of the year. Skip a walk at lunchtime for two days, and you have to wait whole another year.

Shortlife clock, to me, is a constant reminder no to waste time distilled in a calm and simple object. “Do more,” it whispers every time a bright red display crosses my peripheral vision.

Process / Check-In

After a decade of collecting dust—I picked up my electric guitar again. To my surprise, my fingers can still produce what can be vaguely described as “melodic noise.” On the other hand, after a decade of not playing, my taste is so far beyond my skill. This sounds like a fun challenge and a mild annoyance at the same time. I’ll just keep and playing and see what comes out of it.
I sold all my bicycles to get Brompton folding bicycle. It fits perfectly in a ¥400 ($4) IKEA bag that enables me to carry my bike onto Japanese trains. I made a few test trips to Kamakura and Mitake. It proved itself to be an excellent location scouting tool and fantastic transport during the pandemic. (No, I did not miss that I justified an incredibly expensive bicycle with a cheap IKEA bag.)
I want to get myself a general-purpose digital camera for in-between and behind-the-scenes shoots (perhaps, video, too?). But I find it hard to spend money on an object I have absolutely no connection to. A few days ago, I played with Canon R5 and Sony A1 at Yodobashi (a giant consumer electronics mall in Japan). Both are jaw-dropping engineering achievements. And yet — I find them shockingly uninspiring objects. Something intangible has been lost after the transition to digital and I can’t stop thinking about it. I’d love to have a short chat with Giorgetto Giugiaro over the cup of coffee about that.

Up Next

It is a week short of 900 days since I started to write every day. It all started as a productivity journal and an attempt to maintain focus over a long project. This effort gradually morphed into the daily stream of consciousness.

About the same time ago, I started to take random pictures in the streets of Tokyo and Tbilisi with my Ricoh. Without any goal in my head, I kept shooting until the camera said ‘Out of Memory,’ and I had to do something with those snaps. Eventually, this became my photographic journal — Out of Memory (I know). Almost no words. Just a series of somewhat chronological pictures of me moving through the simulacra around me.

The next issue will be about journaling and producing content non-stop. Even if it’s just for yourself.

That’s all I have for you this time. Please feel free to write me back here or on Instagram.

— Toto

To focus, you often close your eyes while speaking. Looking through the lens, I dream with one eye open.

— Rebecca Norris Webb, from Slant Rhymes.

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2021.05

Fri, 28 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Completed a 10-day trip across Kyushu, visiting Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Hiroshima, and Miyajima
Acquired a Leica Summicron-M 28mm lens and tested it extensively during the trip
Finished editing and ordered Out of Memory Vol. 4 — described it as colorful but balanced
Successfully modified a watch bracelet and adjusted camera strap — enjoyed working with hands again
Explored Tokyo extensively by bicycle, developing a new lifestyle routine of cycling through the city

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2021.04

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Completed and received printed copies of Catch-32 photo book
Launched Dreaming with One Eye Open (now Flâneur) newsletter project
Continued work on Out of Memory Vol. 4
Explored new photography directions beyond street photography
Took photography trips to Nagatoro and Hitachi Seaside Park
Started Golden Week travel tour of Kyushu with friends, visiting Fukuoka and Nagasaki
Had productive conversation with photographer Hitomi Yoshida, discovering her background as a student of Daido Moriyama and Masato Seto
Received Shortlife by Dries Depoorter - found it terrifying and amazing

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2021.03

Sun, 28 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Completed editing photos from Kamakura cycling on Brompton
Made significant progress on Catch 32 with most editing and sequencing completed, ready for book format
Set up balcony workspace with new chairs and table, hosted first BBQ christening
Subscribed to literary publications including Sewanee Review for fiction/non-fiction
Applied for BromptoRando 2021 ride - 1000km ride over 8-10 days on Brompton
Explored Oku-tama by bicycle for photography and documented the industrial mountain village
Attended Hanami meetup – that one was important
Experimented with new work schedule to allow for afternoon photo walks

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2021.02

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Moved to a new apartment in Daikyocho, Shinjuku and successfully organized the space
Acquired a Brompton S6L Black Edition folding bike, replacing previous cycling setup, and used it extensively for urban exploration
Completed Catch 32 book layout using physical prints spread on walls
Started Dreaming with One Eye Open mailing list concept
Explored cycling routes to Kamakura, Enoshima, Fujisawa, and Ofuna on the Brompton
Completed a major 18-kilometer walking photography session covering 30,000 steps and capturing 200+ photos
Established new morning meditation routine and improved apartment setup for better mood and productivity

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Dreaming with One Eye Open

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to Dreaming with One Eye Open (renamed to The Flâneur), my newsletter focused on photography, books, and walking (I think?). I’m Toto Tvalavadze. I roam around Tokyo and Tbilisi with a camera around my neck that holds my dorky brain.

I’ve been in engineering for years. I love my work and what I do to pay the bills. But, since my early teens, I experienced an unreasonably strong pull toward arts—music and photography in particular. After being scared of it for years, I decided to get a dream camera I could finally afford, give it all my attention and see what happens. This newsletter is about me figuring out the world of indie photography, book-making, and capturing feelings into pixels on the screen and ink on paper.

I’m still thinking about the format and schedule, but I promise this will be a periodical newsletter. Once every two- or four weeks sounds about right so far.

Follow me on this journey while I look through the lens and dream with one eye open.

The first dispatch is scheduled to go in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, tell your friends!

If you happen to subscribe to my previous, short-lived, newsletter from 2018—you need to subscribe again. In my defense, I didn’t want to put people on yet another list without their proactive action. I hope to see you soon. Thank you!

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2021.01

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Secured a new apartment in Daikyocho, Shinjuku after extensive apartment hunting
Started working on Synapse project development
Completed automation improvements for toto-cli tool
Visited Tokyo Photographic Art Museum and saw Seto Masato’s exhibition
Met photographer Seto Masato in person at Place-M gallery (he owns it)
Attended Araki exhibition at Art AM gallery
Visited Totem Pole Gallery for the first time and received tour from artist Sakamoto Minami
Implemented gallery browsing calendar system to improve exploration of Tokyo art scene

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2020.12

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Received and tested new M1 MacBook Pro 13" with 2TB storage as part of gear minimization strategy
Achieved significant climbing progress, successfully completing first two 4Q grade routes and consistently climbing 5Q routes
Completed and received printed copies of Out of Memory Vol. 3 book
Made substantial progress on Synapse project development
Continued work on Tride project with focus on modernizing modules and creating testing environment
Purchased and immediately returned Konica Hexar RF camera, continuing search for 28mm Leica Summicron lens
Explored multiple Tokyo galleries and coffee shops including UNPLAN Kagurazaka and Rec Coffee in Suidobashi

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2020.11

Sat, 28 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Spent a week at Kawaguchiko with friends—slow days, good food, sunset photography at the lake.
Picked up a Leica Q2, tested it for three weeks, then sold it.
Decided the Ricoh GR III remains my most-used camera for the foreseeable future.
Working on toto.photo redesign—progress on structure, still figuring out the Images section.
Making progress on OOM Vol. 3.
Day trip to Mitake for slow photo walks—10km in 5 hours, time to think.
Flashed my first 5Q bouldering route.
Started reading Why People Photograph by Robert Adams.
Contacted immigration lawyers about visa situation.

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2020.10

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Climbing progress—reached 6Q level confidently.
Day One sync fixed—streak preserved.
Walking around Kitasenju and central Adachi.
Evening with Nikusha and Piqria—lots of purple.
Started immigration lawyer search for visa extension.
Reserved a house in Kawaguchiko for November.
Reinstalled OmniFocus for project management.
Weight hit 81.2kg—time for a change.
Decided to buy Leica Q2 for “places I called home” project.
Working on side logistics project with a colleague.
Started running again after months of inactivity.

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2020.09

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A 10-year relationship ended—a significant chapter closed.
Trip to Nikko Swedish Village cottage.
Built Tototron 3000—a text adventure game in a messenger chat.
Started climbing at a gym—hands destroyed, but loved it.
Photographed Arakawa river east of Higashi-ojima—Gursky-esque river pictures.
Shot Sunamachi Ginza—better photos when reaching the river.
iOS 14 released with very short notice—Twitter lit up with curse words.
Working on almanac.ge—solving Netlify rendering issues.
Remote iOS job continued.

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2020.08

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

First film developed from 6×17 camera—didn’t mess it up!
Found Shinbashi Ichi Camera—great shop for large format gear.
Got Alec Soth books and watched his Learn Magnum course—his passion for photobooks is intoxicating.
Working on almanac.ge—Georgian language website.
Started Python + Data Science course on Udemy.
Finished InDesign course for bookmaking.
Had Adjarian khachapuri in Tokyo.
Walked around Tsukishima and scouted locations for 6×17 shooting.
Scouted Harajuku station before its demolition.
Remote iOS job continued—learning a lot under pressure.

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2020.07

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Bought a 6×17 large format camera (Shen Hao TLC617-A)—very exciting new chapter in photography.
Got a 90mm lens for the panoramic camera.
Bought an iPad Pro—glorified typewriter with a glorious screen.
Nearly completed Out of Memory Vol. 2.
Trip to Ito/Atami for 4 days—learned a lot about solo travel and packing light.
Started posting walking photos on Instagram.
Printing A3 photos at home—missed focus immediately visible on large prints.
Working on managing anxiety—getting better.

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2020.06

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Remote iOS job continued.
WWDC week—macOS 11 looked interesting.
Cycling around Tokyo as the city slowly came back to life.
Got the Prince of Persia developer journal book—fascinated by documentation of game development.
RFLP diet restart.
Rainy season kicked in.
iPhone X exchanged due to swollen battery.
Started paper journaling practice—more valuable than digital entries I never revisit.
Walking and snapping with GRIII in rainy Tokyo.

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2020.05

Sun, 31 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Lots of cycling in empty pandemic Tokyo—riding in the middle of streets with no cars.
Day trip to Kawagoe.
Got a Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Ti and started running with Garmin Coach workouts.
Good progress on Tride—fixed bugs, implemented Time in Zone displays.
Ordered Walks issues 3 and 4 from Blurb.
Remote iOS job continued.
Project Synapse ideas flowing—connected notes concept won’t leave my head.
First performance review ever—went well.
Emergency state lifted in Tokyo.
Tokyo car spotting walks—the car culture here is crazy rich.

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2020.04

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Visited Enoshima island—tiny, walkable, and interesting.
Long walk from Akebonobashi to Tokyo Station.
Started using Roam Research for productivity planning.
Finished the From Japan MVP website.
Hiked Mt. Takao (599m) for my birthday—a nice short hike outside Tokyo.
Got company laptop (16" MacBook Pro).
Cycling around Shibuya and Shinjuku during pandemic—empty streets, riding in the middle of the road.
Started sketching a notes app idea (Synapse)—can’t get the connected notes concept out of my head.
Started thinking about “The Base” concept—minimalist living and traveling light.

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2020.03

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Recovered from illness and got back to walking in Tbilisi.
Ran with Lekva around Lisi Lake.
Trip to Bakuriani—visited Gio’s snowboarding school, watched the kids train.
COVID-19 pandemic started—Georgia responded quickly with closures.
Had to fly back to Tokyo early due to pandemic (March 20), with an 11-hour layover in Qatar.
Signed a permanent remote iOS contract.
Hanami at Oji park in Kita-ku—gorgeous small park, nicer than crowded Ueno.
Working on From Japan website.
Started thinking about a connected notes app (like Roam for Mac).

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2020.02

Sat, 29 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Finished implementing the calendar feature for Tride—pretty much feature complete.
Flew to Tbilisi for six weeks (Feb 13 - Mar 29).
Started a remote iOS job via ARC.
Got gym and coworking memberships at Terminal in Tbilisi.
Working sessions at Coffee Lab.
Evening with friends: Mariam, Sandro, Lili, Kiwi.
Visited Gio’s new house and later saw him and family at Biro.
Photo walks in Tbilisi—enjoying snapping graffiti all over the city.
Got sick at end of month with high fever (39.6°C).

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2020.01

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

New Year at a ryokan at the foot of Mt. Fuji—hiking to a shrine with a gorgeous view.
Met Craig Mod by chance.
Read Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb on Street Photography and the Poetic Image.
Shot video for ImediTV (Georgian TV) in Tokyo.
Learned the MERN stack (Mongo, Express, React, Node) and Gatsby.js—web development has become surprisingly accessible.
Resumed Harley-Davidson freelance work—Bluetooth connectivity features.
Working on “From Japan” business plans with Dato and Nita.
One year of uninterrupted daily journaling.
Started implementing SwiftUI for Tride guide screens.
Ordered proof prints of Walks issues and Tokyo on Wheels.
Walk from home to Nakano station—covered the ground in just over two hours.
Made a custom backplate sticker for Leica M2.

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2019.12

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Visited the new Starbucks Reserve Roasters in Tokyo—impressive industrial-meets-artsy space.
Passed the ARC interview and got accepted to their remote job network.
Started using Roam Research for note-taking.
Started learning SwiftUI and Combine.
Finished reading Caliban’s War (The Expanse book 2).
Discovered “Guitar Street” in Tokyo—can’t believe I didn’t know about it before.
Started layout work on Out of Memory #1—first self-published zine.
Got proof prints of OOM #1—touching a perfectly-bound, almost A4-size print of my own photos was a glorious experience.
Visited Tokyo Photography Museum for a Masataka Nakano exhibition.
New Year’s Eve at Dato and Nita’s place.

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2019.11

Sat, 30 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Walked from home to Nippori through Bunkyo—pleasant autumn walk.
Flew to Tbilisi for three weeks.
Got a gym membership at Octopus and started weight training—first deadlift ever.
Running sessions with Giorgi in Tbilisi.
Walked around Tbilisi a lot—covered half the city on foot.
Got a Tbilisi Public Library pass.
Photographed protests at the parliament building.
Dinner with Elene and tech folks—geek talk all evening.
Freelance design work for Nincho’s project.
Saw many friends: Giorgi, Bacho, Guga, Elene.
Recorded a podcast.
Flew back to Tokyo at end of month.

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2019.10

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Rugby World Cup 2019 continued—watched Fiji vs Georgia and Australia vs Georgia.
Super typhoon passed over Tokyo—stayed indoors.
Figured out ANT+ serial messaging and FE-C protocol—Tride can now communicate with my TACX Vortex trainer.
Built a FIT file format encoder/decoder for Tride (ugly format, but done).
MacBook in for repair again—display this time.
Got Bose NC700 headphones.
Hit weight goal: 65kg with 15.5% body fat.
Started using Pivotal Tracker for project management.
Met Akash from Gigster in Tokyo.

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2019.09

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

MacBook keyboard issues again—sent for service (third time).
Finished the first draft of a programming dictionary in Georgian.
Typhoon passed over Tokyo—stayed indoors.
Discovered the rooftop terrace on Isetan department store in Shinjuku.
Started using DEVONthink for document management.
Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan—traveled to Nagoya for Wales vs Georgia, watched Georgia beat Uruguay 33:7.
Three Michelin-star classical Japanese dinner in Hibiya.
Applied to TopTal.
Hit 71.0kg—personal record at the time.
Continued Tride work: in-app purchases, calendar screens.

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2019.08

Sat, 31 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Launched version 7.0 of my personal website—migrated to a static site on Netlify.
Started reading Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse series).
Saw the Daido Moriyama street exhibition around Shibuya station.
Started running again after five months in the new Shinjuku apartment.
Traveled to Kanazawa by overnight bus for Haruki & Jess’s wedding party.
Worked from Yahoo! LODGE coworking space.
Attended Azabu-juban matsuri.
Developed a “Wave” system for organizing work tasks on paper.
Continued deep work on Tride file management system.

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2019.07

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Launched the Tride beta page on Product Hunt.
Got contact lenses for the first time—could finally see far without nausea.
Started freelance work with Harley-Davidson team again.
Began translating the Swift programming book into Georgian—starting with chapter one and a programming terminology glossary.
Walk in Shinjuku Garden during the rainy season.
Made khachapuri.
Trip to Tsukuba for a change of scene.
Continued working on Tride—file caching, designs, and session implementation.

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2019.06

Sun, 30 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Helped the Georgian Embassy staff with their wine festival in Tokyo.
WWDC week—watched sessions, started implementing iOS 13 dark mode for the app.
Trip to Okinawa—explored Naha and took a ferry to Zamami island.
Visited Shiota Chiharu’s exhibition at Mori Museum—mind completely blown by the scale and installations.
Day trip to Nokogiriyama to see the big Buddha statues.
Visited the Gaudi Exhibition in Tokyo.
Named the triathlon app project “Tride”—means nothing, but makes good puns.
Prepared pre-launch for Tride beta on Medium and Product Hunt.
Busi visited Tokyo for a few weeks.

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2019.05

Fri, 31 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Published the Fujisan photo story—documenting a tour around Mt. Fuji.
Attended After Hours Tokyo ‘19—MONO and Toe were awesome.
Started cycling around Tokyo on a Fuji ARCV single-speed—surprisingly fun for city riding.
Got Garmin Vector 3 power meter pedals for indoor training.
Walked and talked with Maia Charkviani for a whole day.
Gathering of 10 Georgians in Tama, Tokyo.
Continued deep work on The Foundry—charts, maps, sensors, and custom UI.
Shot a video for Archil’s TV game show appearance.

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2019.04

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Hanami season—walked from Iidabashi to Shinjuku along the river bank full of cherry trees.
Finished the leather wallet project.
Moved to a new apartment in Tokyo—15 hours of driving stuff around the city.
Assembled IKEA furniture for the new place.
Wrote and published the fitness·json specification—a workout data format for The Foundry.
Got 1Gbps internet at the new apartment.
Started indoor cycling training with TrainerRoad and a ramp FTP test.
Visited Totem Pole Gallery by chance.
Sent my first physical letter—photos and a note to a friend.

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2019.03

Sun, 31 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Day trip to Nikko—temples, parks, hikes, and the Imperial Villa. 10/10 day.
Visited the Tokyo Art Book Fair and picked up some nicely done zines for inspiration.
Attended the Georgian Wine Exhibition and Gala in Tokyo.
Walked from Harajuku to Ginza—Tokyo suddenly feels a bit smaller.
Day trip to Yokohama.
Made my first YouTube video documenting a photo walk in Shinjuku, with an accompanying photo story.
Got a Ricoh GR III—decided it would be my last camera purchase for at least 5-7 years.
Started making a leather wallet.
Continued design work on The Foundry, getting most screens done.
Apartment hunting—rode the Sakura tram from Machiya to Waseda.

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2019.02

Thu, 28 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Continued building Forgeworks (later renamed The Foundry), working on display cells and graphic frameworks.
Finished Thorsten von Overgaard’s composition book—key takeaways: walk slowly, wander, take many shots of the same scene.
Ordered a photo printer and started experimenting with printing my own postcards.
Launched an Instagram postcard project—printing and mailing photos to commenters.
Visited the Matsuya Used Camera fair in Tokyo—overwhelming selection from ¥5,000 to ¥3 million.
Started using Notion for project organization.
Had the MacBook Pro keyboard repaired at Apple Store—the butterfly keyboard strikes again.
Visited Georgian friends Nita and Dato for khachapuri.

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2019.01

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Started the year working on Forgeworks, a triathlon training app project.
Launched the first issue of Coffee Notes, a newsletter about coffee and cafés.
Got a Canon EOS R—impressed by how well it pairs with Leica M-mount lenses via adapter.
Set up a dedicated 35mm film scanner and started scanning my own negatives at home.
Visited the Hokusai Updated exhibition at Mori Museum in Roppongi Hills.
Saw MONO live in Tokyo—already got tickets for a post-rock festival in May featuring MONO, Toe, and Explosions in the Sky.
Explored Jinbocho’s book and music shops.
Started cycling along Arakawa after fixing up my bike.

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Stop Saying Russian When You Mean Soviet

Mon, 26 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I have seen many of my foreign friends use words Soviet Union, Russia, Soviet, and Russian interchangeably. Moreover, I’ve seen huge publications like Vox mix those two terms, which eventually triggered me to write this. Consider this article as a kind explainer of what the Soviet Union means. It is about words and their meanings.

I understand that confusion comes from gaps in cross-culture knowledge rather than an attempt to diminish someone. However, it is still a false generalization that might easily offend people. If UK culture is somewhat closer to you, imagine how upsetting it would be for Scottish or Irish to repeatedly called English, only because they all are from the UK.

What was the Soviet Union?

The Soviet Union, or formally — Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) — was a union of countries. Russia, or formally — Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) — was just one of them. It gets additionally confusing because Russia is federation in itself too. Again, it’s in the name — Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. This is the case even today, complete name of modern Russia is Russian Federation. Word federation is pointing to Russia’s own republics (federal subjects) like Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia. Those are analogous of US states (to some degree, and with much less independence) and were and are part of the Russia, but not directly USSR.

Republics of the Soviet Union however, were: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Byelorussia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan. All of them were Soviet republics and members of USSR, but not part of Russia.

While all countries were equal, some were more equal than others, and only one of them had Moscow in it, so the fact that Russia had the most power of the fifteen is correct.

Now let’s put everything together:

Word ‘Soviet’ when used referring to USSR includes all fifteen nations. Russia is just one them.
Those fifteen were legitimate states and nationalities, not ethnicities. You don’t want to dig into ethnicities involved USSR; it is a bottomless rabbit hole.

Thus, words Soviet and Russian mean different things, same rules apply to words Soviet Union and Russia.

That’s pretty much it. But, me being Georgian, I’d like you to know a couple of things about USSR and Georgia too.

The formal name of Georgia during the USSR was Georgian SSR, or Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.
While some countries joined USSR somewhat willfully, most were forced to join. Georgia was one of the later ones.
Before joining USSR in 1921, Georgia was a progressive democratic republic. Country had several women in government and equal voting rights for all. Only handful of countries in 1918 did that, and it took a couple of decades and a consequences of WWII for most of Europe to get there.
Georgian language was one of very few in the union that held the status of primary language. The rest had their native and Russian as official languages, but Russian was forced on all member states as a primary (some countries even changed their native writing systems to Cyrillic.) Moscow tried to replace Georgian with Russian for years, but failed every single time.
Because of that, today, Russian language in Georgia is fading very fast. I think I’m from the sole transitional generation that is trilingual (Georgian, Russian, and English). The generation born after the collapse of the union barely understands Russian at all.
English in USSR was like Japanese is in the west now, exotic, cool, and useless outside of its country. Today, English is de-facto second language in Georgia. While not officially recognized, all signs, banners and even official state forms are bilingual—Georgian and English. I’d say a third of the post-soviet countries are like that, while others keep (due to multiple reasons) Russian as an essential language.
Georgian language doesn’t look like Russian and does not use Cyrillic. In fact, it doesn’t look like any other language on the planet.

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Home on Toto Tvalavadze

Vault Tasks

What it does

Source

2026.03

Withingy CLI

What it does

Agent-friendly by design

Authentication

Get Withingy

Whoopy CLI

What it does

Agent-friendly by design

Authentication

Get Whoopy

AI Coding Took Off Because the Tooling Was Already There

2026.02

Corner Cutting Jig for Bookbinding

Universal Content Bundle

The problem

Core principles

What a bundle looks like

Specs for humans and agents

Bundle examples

The separation

Open questions

Prior art

2026.01

2025.12

Paper and Permission

A low-noise smartphone [that works]

1. Phone cannot ask for my attention

2. No social feed apps allowed

Tools

Dumb phones do not work

2025.11

2025.10

Arrowhead CLI

How Arrowhead works

Why it exists

Get Arrowhead

My setup

2025.09

Stamp CLI

What it does

Obsidian-aware

Why it exists

Installation

Changelog

0.3.0 — 2026-02-21

2025.08

Thermometer Panel for Jobo Systems

About Thermometers

2025.07

A Chair in the Sky

2025.06

Ruins in Print

Where I Stand on AI—For Now

Programming

Productivity / Thinking

Voice

Translation

Writing

Image Making

Video

Video with Sound

Music

Final Remarks

2025.05

Rugged 40-Roll Film Storage

Work Log

Credits and License

2025.04

Gear, Gear, Gear‑Freeze!

Gear, Gear, Gear

The Gear‑Freeze

2025.03

New Beginnings

The Past Year: Travels and a New Darkroom

A Public Notebook