For a decade from 2007 to 2017, Hiroyuki Ito lived in Astoria located in the northwestern corner of Queens, New York City. It was such a change from a rough and no-nonsense Brooklyn where he previously lived. Astoria felt more like a suburb than an inner-city ghetto. Because most of the buildings there weren't high-rise like those in Manhattan, Astoria had distinctive soft light that colored everything it touched in a slow, beautiful manner.