Let us take you on visual tours of some of the most captivating places around the world! To kick off our new series “Through a Photographer’s Lens,” Mexico City-based [Ilan Derech](https://ilanderech.com/) takes us on an epic adventure across Japan, Myanmar and India, revealing a hidden side of Asia.

Visiting Japan fulfilled a different side to life that I haven’t lived in Mexico. It’s a place that teaches you to be quiet, respectful, and mindful towards others, and how to learn from your inner self.

There are cities that are made for daytime and there are cities that are made for nighttime. Tokyo’s lighting places the city firmly in the former category. The illumination everywhere is just mind blowing.

I spent most of my days in Shinjuku and Shibuya, the classic Tokyo neighbourhoods full of neon lights, bars, restaurants and working people.

Sometimes I would just hop on a train and get off at a random station and walk around. It’s important not have expectations when travelling, so you don’t normalize your experiences before you’ve even seen the place. By getting lost, you will discover details you would never normally notice.

Throughout the trip, I used my Leica SL Type 601 camera attached with Zeiss Distagon T\* 35mm 1.4 lens. I love how this camera renders colours and the 35mm focal length forced me to get closer to my subjects.

Myanmar appealed to me because I was looking for a place that was authentic and relatively untouched by tourism.

During my four weeks in the country, I became friends with a Buddhist monk, and he invited me to visit his monastery. I had the preconception that monks are very serious and formal people, but found the opposite.

Scooters and motorbikes are banned from Yangoon’s roads. Residents have found a workaround by modifying their bicycles to transport two or three passengers. The heat in the capital is overwhelming, still, you see people riding bikes.

River boats are still a common mode of public transport in Myanmar and major cities are connected by river. Until recently, there weren’t many roads – the few that existed were bad. I took this boat to reach Inwa, an ancient fortress city close to Mandalay.

This sign atop a downtown market in Mandalay caught my attention – I believe all cities and countries each have distinct colour palettes. Myanmar, I noticed, has a lot of very bright reds and yellows, which contrast with the blue skies.

Travel, documentary and street photography are about learning to read the flow of people and the rhythm of a city, so you are able to predict how something is going to happen. The layout of this jade market gave a strong contrast between light and shadow.

Travelling by rail, you can experience day-to-day Burmese life playing out. People know that it’s going to be a very long ride and you get to see how they behave.

Sleeper trains in India often have upper bunk beds. I would always try and grab these spots just to observe what was going on below – they offer a unique angle to see how passengers are interacting.

Like Mexico, India is simultaneously chaotic and stressful yet also spiritual and introspective. I’m a morning person, which is why I woke up at 3 a.m. to see the Taj Mahal before the hoard of tourists showed up.

When I arrived in Varanasi, the holiest of the seven sacred cities, it hadn’t rained in over a month. Tradition states that it always rains during Mahashivaratri, the Hindu festival to celebrate Shiva. Then suddenly out of nowhere, a huge storm appeared during the night.

The following day, I knew I wanted to go and take pictures, so I got out of bed before sunrise to walk to the bank of the river Ganges. The atmosphere was very foggy, mysterious and moody, and just reflected the spirituality of the place. It had so much mysticism.