This is my brother Evan; everything about him is amazing and unique. He is the entire reason for this second photo series on Japan, and the entire reason that I showed up twice in Japan in one year for a vacation.

I promised him a trip to anywhere he wanted to go in the world when he graduated from high school and if he at least applied to go to college. He readily chose Japan as our destination, almost exclusively to see the nation that produced people such as Yasujiro Ozu who's grave we later went to go and visit.

My brother has a near encyclopedic memory for anything he gets interested in. I've never seen such a breadth of knowledge so vast in a person so young. He always makes me feel uncultured.

We stayed on for a little shy of a week in Tokyo with my friend Jesse. While there we took Evan up to see Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. Part of the temple experience is to receive your fortune.

The process is simple, you walk up to the fortune area, deposit 100 yen (about a dollar) and pick up a cylinder filled with sticks. You shake the cylindar and turn it over such that a single stick protrudes from the opening of the can. You remove it and match the number on the stick to a drawer in the fortune area. When you open the drawer there is a little piece of paper containing your fortune.

Both Evan and I took our fortunes. Evan's was just about as bad as a fortune could be. Moving was going to be difficult, he would have no love, studies were going to be hard, his health rocky. Mine was as good as it gets; everything was going to be terrific. Was it true? I'm not sure, but I do know Evan had a pretty tough year as a freshman in college...but who doesn't?

My favorite part of this process is that if you have a bad fortune, you tie it on a piece of wire along with the other bad fortunes. Monks will then say a blessing over the bad fortunes and burn them to ward off the bad luck. If on the other hand you have a good fortune, like myself, you have to do nothing more than carry it with you and impress your friends with your amazing luck.

I'll admit to doing the cheesy tourist/brotherly thing and I had him pose there after he tied it on. Look at how cute he is. Awe...it was totally worth it. You either love the depth of field and perspective compression of the long lens or you hate it. I'm a big fan of that effect for moments like these if for nothing but to create visual intamacy with the subject.

See that little watch on his right arm? We found that cheap lady's watch on the sidewalk of Nicollet Mall in Downtown Minneapolis after a really fun night of shooting. I loaded my SLR with fresh film and Evan packed his camcorder and we threw caution to the wind and interviewed and shot candids of street life all night long. It fantastic time and one I hope we get to repeat again.