From FED to Harajuku – My Planet of Zines Experience

June 3, 2025

Hey, it’s Yusuke @_nuts.tokyo_ —the guy behind FED.

On May 31 and June 1, 2025, I was invited as a guest to join a zine event called Planet of Zines. It took place at The Blank Gallery in Harajuku, Tokyo. Since participants could use the gallery walls as part of their booth space, I decided to go big and displayed some massive prints—B0 and A0 size.

B0 is huge (1456mm x 1030mm or 57.3 x 40.5 inches), and other zine creators kept coming up to me like, “Whoa, that’s massive!” But honestly, printing big is the best.
It lets you show all the details that just don’t come through on Instagram.

This edition of Planet of Zines was the Photography Edition, so it was all photo zines.

Another guest photographer was Kisara Okada, whose work is super unique—she tells stories through her photos in such an original way.
We were actually featured together once in Tokyo Encounters: Next Wave Street Photography from Japan, published by Copenhagen-based TofuCollective. So it was an honor to be showing alongside her again.

Tokyo Encounters: Next Wave Street Photography from Japan

Here are the four zines I had for sale at my booth:

My zine 404 not found Issue 02 had already sold out online, and during this event, the rest of the stock sold out too—making it 150 copies, completely gone. Big thanks to everyone who picked one up!

I also brought along some YEMAOZU caps I had made earlier. Yemaozu is a Chinese slang word for “night owls”—people who stay up late.

Since I’m always out shooting at night, and so are the people in my photos, I felt like “Yemaozu” perfectly captured that vibe. Huge thanks to everyone who bought a cap!

I’m planning to make a YEMAOZU ZINE soon too—stay tuned :)

Here’s the statement I wrote for the show:

If Romeo and Juliet were on a dating app… would the algorithm even let them meet?
Or maybe Juliet was swiping, but Romeo never even downloaded the app.

I’ve always loved the internet. It’s why I’m even writing this blog.
But what I used to love was how it connected me to worlds I didn’t know—how it helped expand my own.

Lately though, with algorithms and ad-driven everything, it feels like that sense of discovery has kinda faded.

That’s part of why I started the 404 project. It’s a little rebellion against the algorithm-driven web, and through zines, I hope I can give readers a small window into other worlds again—through my photos.

Spread from the new zine “404 CONTACT SHEETS – NUTS.TOKYO”

Kazz @pimpkmojo, who I’ve been shooting with for a while now, was at the event too. And good news—we’ll be carrying his zine on FED soon, so keep an eye out!