Craig Atkinson - Journaling Through Life
From Down Under to Japan's Heart: Craig Atkinson, a Self-Made Writer, Zinester, Librarian, and OG Skateboarder.
Video Intro
How would you describe yourself in a few words?
I am someone who enjoys writing. I do that in my zine form and also in my journaling. I've been pursuing writing for many years now, and it's just kind of a part of me. It's the way I think, the way I express. It's the way I've gone through life and how I spend my time and clear my head.
Where were you born? And how long were you living in your hometown?
I was born in a small town of about 80,000 people in Victoria, Australia, called Ballarat, in 1980. I was there until about age 22. A lot of my friends had already moved to the big city a few years before that. And I stuck it out cause I was in the middle of a trainee kind of job. Then, I just couldn't do it anymore. I transferred the traineeship and moved.
What was it about?
It was in painting and decorating. So it was kind of painting houses and things like that. So, I moved to Melbourne and I did a few different jobs. I was very unhappy at the time. Three years later, at 25, I had a conversation with someone and they suggested maybe I should go on a holiday. So I ended up buying a ticket to London and got a two year working holiday visa, which Australians were able to get then. And that was it. A friend decided to come and within six months, I'd moved to London at 25. Then I was in London for a year and a half. That went quite well, but it was a bit up and down. I went back to Australia, and within about three months, I was in Japan on another working holiday visa.
Why didn't you finish your 2 years working holiday visa and decided to return home?
Craig Atkinson: Because I was working in a rough bar. They had to change managers, it was a difficult time. I was living upstairs, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Then, after a year and a half, I flew home to see my family. It was my first time away. My friend had already gone back. He went back about nine months in. So I was a bit lonely and I thought I might go back too. And then I went back and like I said, within three months, I was on a plane to Japan. That was in January, 2007.
What triggered your trip to Japan?
Well, on the way to London, I stopped in Thailand for a vacation and then I stopped in America on the way back. I had started to travel and wanted to continue exploring the world. In London, that's when I started writing. Even though English is my first language, I wasn't very good at grammar or spelling. Then, I met someone in London who taught English in Japan, and they said it was a great experience. I knew another person, a friend of mine in a punk band who’d done the same thing, so I thought Japan could be a place where I could learn more about my own language and get paid, and maybe this could help my writing. So that was the main reason for coming here.
What are your thoughts on the city as a whole, like, after arriving, especially about Tokyo?
When I first got here, of course, I was blown away. However, having lived in London, I was accustomed to a big city. I was comfortable not being a local, you know, that was something I was used to. The surprising part was how the city works and the high rises. In London, you don't see big buildings with seven floors, so that was interesting. I liked the fact that I could live in the city and experience it as a non-native, watch how it works, and enjoy it. Those were some of my initial reactions.
Also, it was a significant challenge. I knew absolutely zero of the language when I came here, maybe just three words. So, it was a massive challenge. It was tough at the start, I didn't have a job set up. I ended up working in a Canadian bar in Shibuya. That was the year I stopped drinking, 2007. So, my first job as a non-drinker was in a bar. It was fine. I’d had enough and wasn't tempted. I was always up for the challenge, it was exciting, and kind of interesting. I still haven't touched a drink since 2007.
What are you passionate about?
Well, I'm passionate about writing. I also like zines, and I'm into them. I got into zines around 2016 or 2017. I wanted to take my writing more seriously. I had a blog going, which was kind of fun. I had some readers, but I wanted to do more. I'm not really very good with computers, so I wanted something I could kind of do more than what the site offered. You know, with a simple WordPress, I could post a picture or have the text, and the site could help me lay it out to look cool, but I just wanted to do more. That was when I thought, I should make a zine.
I was first introduced to zines in 1998 when I was playing in a punk band and one of the members showed me a zine. They were kind of all around the scene back then. So, in 2016, I decided to take my blog offline and just make a zine. That's where it kind of started.
Can you describe the zine creation process? I understand it's a big question, but maybe we can start with how you decide what to put in a zine. What's the thought process about it?
Well, my zines are text-based, so it all starts with the words. I usually try to stick with a theme or I'll write a piece and then try to write something else with a similar theme. Most of my zines have about three to four, or five stories in them, all circling around the one theme. My process is basically just to write whatever I want. Sometimes I pick a theme. The last couple of times, I've been able to do that. Sometimes that's difficult, but I will just write for a couple of weeks. The first draft is often handwritten, and then I type it up. The final draft might be handwritten again, or I'll just leave it typed up.
My process is really just about working a story, writing something down. You open a Word document, you start writing, and then you put your thoughts on it and start refining it. Often, I might want to tell a story or something like that. A lot of my zines are lived stories. So, I will often just think of something that happened or something will remind me of a story that I have, and I'll write about it. But sometimes they don't come so easily. Sometimes I'm writing for three or four days with nothing, just typing for an hour or something. And then, three days later, something starts to come out, and then I think, okay, I can do this. So, it's really just about digging and sometimes, it's not always that easy.
And then you have the text and some graphic content on some of them? Once you got the text, how do you work with it?
I'm trying to have a couple of stories, three or four stories, and then I'll start to make a master copy. I usually do about four folded A4 pages. And I will print the text out to an A5 size. Then, I'll start to lay it out a bit and see how many of the pages it takes up. See, if I need to write another piece, or maybe there's a story that finishes halfway down, okay, that creates a space for a photo or a drawing or something like that.
But that depends if a theme started to come up or not. One of the themes, you know, was about starting with brainstorming about a topic, then I wrote some stories from that brainstorm. I decided to put the actual brainstorm that I made in the zine.
So, they're all slightly different. I make a master and I kind of see what space I have and, you know, typing takes up less space. Therefore I might have to handwrite something. Or it’ll be the opposite, so I'll be like, "Ah, this is too long to go in here." It all happens in the master copy. I really enjoy making the master copy of the zine.
How long do you usually spend on creating the master copy?
I try to do it as quick as possible. Usually just a couple of days. Because I usually have the pieces written, or you know, 90% of the pieces. And then like I say, I lay it out and I go, "Okay, I need one more story." So I will try do the next day, or that day I will try to write a story. Then I will start looking through my photos. "Okay. What photos do I have? What's something that kind of matches this theme? And then what could I do for a cover?" Or maybe should I get someone to do some art for something else?
So usually just a couple of days, I try to get the thing done. Like usually, it's taken a couple of weeks to do the writing. So I kind of try to push myself to just get it out. Then it's like, "Okay, I want to move on to the next one. Now let's get this master done."
What has been your biggest challenge in pursuing writing and how do you overcome it? What do you still think is your biggest challenge?
Well, my biggest challenge in the beginning was getting better at writing. And I only improved from writing daily. Starting a daily habit of writing really helped me improve. And reading, I just started reading a lot as much as I could. And that kind of helped me improve. That was one of my biggest challenges. Like I said before, the reason I came to Japan was because my spelling and grammar was pretty much atrocious. It's a little better now, but it's not perfect. But I wasn't a great student. For future challenges or things I'm kind of currently working on is just expanding my writing. A lot of my work is about me, my personal life, my personal past, things like that. But when I write about that, I try to make it general, or try to have some kind of like, you know, don't do what I did kind of thing. This is the kind of mistakes I learned.
Like your “Tips on life” zine?
Yeah, kind of. I try to keep it as light as possible. Because I don't want it to come off preachy or anything like that. I keep it as absolutely light as possible. But in the future I want to try to keep expanding my topics of my writing. And of course just getting better at it. Getting better at the craft, storytelling.
Can you share an inspiring or memorable moment from your journey?
I think the most inspiring thing was when I first decided to take my blog offline and make it into a zine. I made a really mini, mini zine. It was a 16-page zine. And it was only about the size of a cigarette packet. And I got a lot of support from that, which was really, really inspiring. It was really nice to see. I shipped, sold, swapped, and gave away about 200 of that zine, which is just crazy. And then like issue one, issue two was very similar as well. It was the same size. And yeah, I kind of also did it in the pack kind of thing, like two together. Hundreds of zines are shipping around the world, people buying. So that was really nice. It was really nice to get support. I think people want to support people that do interesting stuff. So I think if you have a desire to do something a little bit different, a little bit interesting, a lot of people will get behind it. A lot of people want to do that stuff. Now we're getting out of the pandemic. A lot of people want to meet up. I think I'm kind of, I get energy from meeting people. I like to also spend time by myself, but also, I feel great meeting up with friends and having coffee, having a chat, having lunch. I think it's really fun.
How has residing and spending the past ten years in Tokyo influenced your professional pursuits, personal life, and creative expression?
Well, I think it's really helped me kind of do things I want to do. Because it's a big city, I'm kind of a little bit out of the loop being a non-Japanese. That kind of gives me a little bit of a privilege to be able to just do the things that I want to do, reading and writing, work, and not to be so involved in the day-to-day or the politics of the city. I'm kind of a little bit out of that. So it gives you the freedom to build your own little bubble and kind of create the world that you want in that bubble. Yeah. And also just the inspiration. There millions of people. You see so many different things. You catch the train, and so many strange little things that can turn into a story or an idea that you can put into a story. I've really enjoyed living here.
And the last few questions to wrap up this interview: What are your favorite cafes, hidden gems, or like unique things to do in the city, like just two or three?
My favorite café is Woodbury over in Yoga. They roast their own coffee there. Absolutely delicious brew every single time. Yeah, that would be one of my favorite, but also just going into the big chains, and just watching what people do.
If you had to choose one person and one book, which are the most significant influences in your work or life?
Well, the person is Aaron Cometbus, who is a zinester. I showed you some of the zines. He has been a big influence in my life.
One book is too difficult. I've read too many books and there's a lot of books I actually love. However, one that I read early on in my kind of reading life was called Pedaling to Hawaii. It's about a guy who was an accountant, a British guy, and he got a friend and they built a boat, a canoe that had pedals. And they basically pedaled from somewhere in Spain, around to Miami, and then they rode bicycles across America, then pedalled the canoe thing again to Hawaii. It was just such an interesting book because it was kind of adventurous. It was kind of a travel adventure, but also just, you know, in the middle of the book, it's like page 100. ‘All I see is blue everywhere. It's just so boring. We're eating terrible food.’ I just loved it. I loved kind of the adventure in it. It’s stuck with me for like 20 years.
Is there anything else that you want to share with the readers?
Well, I'd just like to say that, zines have been my main passion for the last couple of years. I think all I'd like to say is just, you know, follow those kind of passions. The people that I've met, the 400 zine reviews I have on Instagram, you know, it's just come from following a passion, and people have sent me their zines from all around the world.
I've got zines on there from Spain, Brazil, from Canada, from middle America. Follow your passion, try to create a bit of a space in your life to do what you love. I love writing. I don't get paid for my writing that much. Sometimes I do, but the joy I get from having that space in my life is really the best thing I've ever done in my life.
It's important to fill your day as much as possible with the very things you enjoy.
If you’re interested in his work, you can find the links below to her social media channels, studio and store pages.
About State of Tokyo
Thank you for your dedication to reading this far, and I'm grateful for your interest in this project.
My name is Alex Abian, a Photographer and (aspiring) writer based in Tokyo. State of Tokyo is born out of my deep passion for showcasing the fascinating people and places I've encountered along my journey.