Tokyo Hardcourt

Early this week I was riding my bike to school through the downpour of a typhoon and I noticed a bike messenger a ways in front of me going in the same direction. I usually follow messengers for as long as I can if I spot one because they are familiar with the traffic flow and move quickly through the city. Following this guy was especially hard, however. I kept up with him just barely long enough to catch him at a stop light.

The first thing I noticed was that we both had the same bike frame, so I mentioned it to see if he was willing to speak to people (and by people I mean foreigners). Then I realized why his bike looked familiar to me. He was the bike messenger on the cover of Tokyo-based Metropolis magazine a few weeks earlier. I somehow remember his name from the article and mentioned that I am doing a documentary on bike messengers for a class. He threw his phone number and his name down on a package slip and then he was off.

Today I went to meet up with the group of messengers he hangs out with (after much translation of the Japanese directions he sent me). They play bike polo on Saturdays in remote streets and parks. They also play in Meiji park in Sibuya apparently, but I don't know how; I thought it was pretty crowded there. Well I took a bunch of photos and did an interview during the polo games with my friend Mazen, so I'll post some photos now, and when I get the video up I'll post that as well.

Their group is called "Tokyo Hardcourt Bike Polo":

Oh and credit goes to Mazen for the photos of me. Can't say that I was able to take those haha.