Tokyo Totem, A Guide to Tokyo is a recently released guidebook-slash-pop-essay text focusing on the various angles and interpretations of Japan’s capital city. The graphically diverse tome is divided into five sections: Find Yourself, Walk the Land, Follow the Rhythm, Choose Your City and Make Yourself at Home. Featuring dynamic arrangements of text, collages and images, some parts even take the form of manga, such as that about the Sanya slum district by Jonathan M. Hall and Zhang Yi, while others are more like essays, including Greg Dvorak's touching inspection of Tokyo sento (public bath) culture.

The guide is a project by Dutch “urbanism and futurology” creative studio Monnik. To find out more, see Japan Trends below!