The stories were by such authors as John Updike, Roald Dahl, Anton Chekhov, Agatha Christie, and Raymond Carver.

And although he has translated many western novels into Japanese - including the works of his favourite novelist, Raymond Carver - translating back the other way is too hard, he says.

The photographs in Uncommon Places and American Surfaces evoked a sad, ever-spreading hinterland that novelist Raymond Carver also mapped out in his minimalist prose.