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The Real Tokyo Blues
The black coffee reflects the vague shape of a little boy who thinks he's a man. It's rather off-putting, to be honest. Like the transition stage between looking too young to be considered old, but looking too old to be considered young. He scrutinises this a bit more; his nose is swollen and kinda twisted.…
Travel: On Separation and Connection
A river mirrors the sky and a strip of life sits in between the middle of the blues I was reminded that my internal world was never really private because my external life has always reflected it back to me and I’ve been in the middle the whole time. Before I step out of the plane, mimicking its mechanics, and kick into my own auto-pilot function.…
I Lost My Passport and Gained Perspective in Malta
The policeman sitting behind the desk in the St Julien police station looks too young to have graduated high school. His senior co-workers, clustered in a semi-circle behind him to oversee his report-writing, seem to think the same: good-humouredly teasing him about his pretty eyes and winking to me as they explain that he’s single.…
What The Mountains Shouted Back
“You are not drunk!” It’s two in the morning and I’m shouting at a mountain – I’m definitely drunk. A weekend trip that replaced Tokyo’s highrise buildings with grand mountains was a much-needed breath of fresh air. I was in Japan to encourage my identity as a writer and add some fresh work to my…
An Encounter With a Cult in Tokyo
My housemates buy overpriced drinks and sit down at the window seats inside the Starbucks across from us, camera phones at the ready. I nervously wait with two Swedish guys I met last week outside the west gate of Ikebukuro station. It’s already dark and the humidity is off the charts. Japan is sweltering in…
El Abuelo’s Ashes
Buenaventura Bravo’s main job during the Spanish Civil War was getting his goats out of the village and into the mountains. This was no top-secret mission, entrusted upon young ’Ventura by the besieged Republican government in Madrid, just something that had to be done; this was the day-to-day life that continued to unfold regardless of…
Dating in the COVID Era
There is a kind of sexual urgency in the air since human touch became a scarcity. The prospect of a complete lockdown will see single people cooped up with nothing but Netflix and toys purchased from the kind of store you wouldn’t window shop with your grandparents. I can feel it. A glance at the…
Not The Springtime We Expected
It’s 2pm on a Sunday in March and I’m sitting by the windowsill having my morning coffee. Ordinarily, my morning wouldn’t have started at 2pm, but time is different now and there is little ‘ordinary’ left about our world today. The sunlight streaming through the window that gently kisses my face tells me spring has…

Astray is a storytelling project about the world and the Earth.

We’re based out of Lenapehoking / New York City: the homeland of the Lenape. Specifically, we’re in Manhattan: a name that comes from Mannahatta, meaning “island of many hills”. As grateful guests in this city, we recognize the strength and resilience of the Lenape, and extend our reverence to all Indigenous peoples everywhere.