One and a half years in the far east resulted in a new found love of photography and around 30,000 photos. This book compiles 117 of the most enduring images of Japan and Thailand captured by me from September 2006 to March 2008, with captions.

"The floating world" (or "ukiyo"), refers to a feudal period of Japanese history in which the country was isolated from the outside by the shoguns and a metropolitan culture based on Buddhist ideals of impermanence flourished in Tokyo, resulting in much of what is today thought of as traditional art and custom.

In many ways a culminating retrospective of my time there, the title reflects the incessant sense of alienation inherent in being a foreigner in a new place.