I have thought about doing that about Japan as well... I think a lot of people don't know how painful and relentlessly concrete and artificial 99% of Japan is. The "life in Japan" experience is a hell of a lot more about that than it is about anything most people think of in Japan. And to be honest, the same can be said for much of developed or developing Asia.

And traveling around the states can be just as depressing - especially on the interstates, it is like an exercise in painful monotony. It is becoming more and more difficult anywhere in the world to find places that speak to a sense of place, and not just look like slightly different topography covered in Beb, Bath, and Beyond box stores and fast food outlets.

Oddly, I just had a conversation with a traveler last night, and when he started on a rant about the monotony and lack of uniqueness across the United Stats, I reminded him that it's not terribly different outside of the US. The march towards "progress", development and more "comfortable" lives is a human condition, not an American one.

I've said it before, but travel is more about the person traveling than the place itself :)

"The Other Side of Travel", I like the sound of that. It's important to let people see all aspects of a place or country. What would happen if everyone only documented the beautiful and glamorous?

We usually show off the beautiful and the glamorous, and then we complain about the other sides, but it's always two separate conversations at different times, with different people.

I'm kinda working on a series of images of beautiful scenic views paired with the view directly behind it :)