Tokyo Messengers

Documenting the culture of messengers here in Tokyo has come to an end as I prepare to leave. The project fared well and the result encapsuled what I had hoped it would.

The start of it all seems longer than I know it to be. Looking back to my first idea, following an encoffining business, I can say that I'm glad that my end result ended in the realm that it did. Not only did it touch on a much lighter note, but its feasibility prevailed over what could have been an exceedingly difficult task (filming an encoffining, that is).

For those of you who read (or even saw the cover) of the Metropolis magazine issue with the bike messengers on the front, you will appreciate how this all go started: After committing to a subject and getting a bike to go along with it, I just happened to run into the messenger on the cover by pure chance one morning. We also happened to have the same bike as I mentioned before. In the end, it led me to pursue the subject of culture vs. work in more depth, which I can attribute to my project being cut into two parts the way it was.

The T-Serv aspect was just a matter of getting involved with the company enough to have a higher-up give a thorough tour of the inner workings of the business. It was much more diplomatic than the leisurely side of the project, which was to be expected. There is something to say for that.

Meeting the group of messengers for some games of bike polo was an entirely different experience; not only since the environment it was in was such a relaxed one, but also because of the people I was able to play with. Getting a chance to talk to each player and hear how they got into the game is important to understanding what it means to them, especially considering the sport is a mere 3 months old in Tokyo. Hopefully this is discernable in the juxtaposition of the two halves to the whole that is painted here.

Keeping up to date with the ongoing evolution of the messenger culture here will be tough once I'm back in 'merica, but at the same time it forces me to view messenger cultures of areas that I know well in a different light. And even if that was all I could say I took away from this, it would still suffice to feed my content demeanor as I head home.

View it here: http://www.vimeo.com/8097407

TSCDP

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