Michinoku Homeward: Walking towards the Northeast (2021) is a very personal documentary about Michinoku, Okuyama’s home region in north-eastern Japan. Michinoku is the ancient name for the area, first appearing in a 7th century chronicle, and means “the end of the road”. 2011 was an unforgettable year of disasters there, including a catastrophic earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, causing more than 22,000 deaths. Okuyama was devastated by her powerlessness as a native of the region living abroad. Ten years later, in 2021, she walked 400km following the Edo period “Kaidо ̄ ” route - officially created at the beginning of the 17th century - from the zero mile point in Tokyo to her home town of Yamagata. Michinoku Homeward is a photo documentary of this trip, combining journalistic topicality and the poetic feelings that occurred to her along the way, capturing her way home with an awareness that it might disappear.

1. Imperial Capital circles the palace and city's global history (06/23). 2. Commoners’ Capital explores the low, working city northeast (06/23). 3. Neo-Tokyo goes west to find entertainment, and what cities might be (07/23). + A bonus train episode.

Where are we when we walk? Are we here, in this place that our feet move through, or are we there, lost in thoughts and memories of other times and places? This playful and dream-like soundwalk aims to throw these questions into confusion. It can be taken while in Prespa or anywhere else, including indoors.

This paper compares Salameh's psychogeographic work with that of contemporary artists walking urban landscapes, including Patrick Keiller, Alec Soth, Daido Moriyama, and Budhaditya Chattopadhyay. It analyzes their use of photography and soundscapes, along with fictional travelers, to evoke experiences of city life through alternating feelings of alienation and engagement.