Tokyo Soul

What’s the Story?

Tokyo is a huge metropolis with all kinds of locales, from sleek streets lined with avant-garde architecture to gritty red-light districts bathed in neon light. But where is Tokyo’s soul? One might say it resides where the regular people have been getting together and going about their lives and business for decades. That’s what we will discover together on this photo adventure.

What We’ll Shoot

We will shoot street photographs of people and places that are emblematic of daily life in Tokyo. We will focus on the east side of town, which is older, draped in the patina of time. We’ll spend much of our search for Tokyo’s soul in the heart of the Shitamachi, or ‘low city’, where the gentry of the olden days, the merchants and the artisans, lived and plied their trade. Today these are bustling neighborhoods away from the famous tourist spots.

Where We’ll Explore

We will begin our search for Tokyo’s soul in Shimbashi, a district known for its after-hours nightlife—a haven for salarymen and office ladies tucked between major office districts. During the day the revelers are absent, but in their place we will find cooks, couriers, and other street denizens going about their daily work. We will also head to Ueno and explore the chaotic and colorful Ameyoko market running along and underneath the girders of the overheard railway, shooting scenes of real life to the cacophony of passing trains.