The six months I spent in Waseda University thanks to the Canon Foundation Fellowship was a wonderful experience. Being a PhD Student in Inalco, Paris, I was accepted as a research fellow in Waseda University under the supervision of Professor Hashimoto Kazumichi. My research is centered on Japanese photography of the 1970s, and being in Tokyo was a tremendous opportunity to have access to rare documentations in libraries and museums; also the department for Studies of Media, Body and Image I was affiliated to, was a very stimulating environment, that vastly helped with the development of my thesis. Obviously in 2020, the covid crisis demanded to adapt to a new environment and sanitary rules and definitely challenged our way of working as researchers. I was very happy however to see that it also prompted new initiatives: staying in a Japanese university gave me the opportunity to meet other researchers close to my field, and we were able to organize research groups which sparked exchanges and inspiring discussions. Waseda University was very helpful in the administrative process and very welcoming: my status as a fellow researcher at the university allows me an office, an access to the library and to seminars, and despite the health restrictions, my stay in Japan, with the help of the Canon Fellowship, was everything a scholar could hope for in order to carry out research.