Final

One may easily say that Tokyo is a noir city, but what does that mean really? Is it the sights, the sounds, the buildings, the people, is it the stories in the news, or the crimes on the street. Really it is everything that makes up the city, from the old men on the streets, striving to get by to the children playing on the streets. It’s the young couple that never had real chance, and it’s that lonely man on the subway. It’s the hardships that befall all who live in the city, and the moments of passion caught between the city lights, and in the dark alleys. When you turn a corner on that busy Shibuya street and feel totally alone. Perhaps this feeling is highlighted for those who come to this city as a traveler or as an expat, because these people often come alone, and cannot read or speak Japanese. They are treated as an outsider, even once they pick up the mannerisms and the language, they are always an outsider. Ironically, essentially everyone in Tokyo is an outsider to something. Consider the Cosplayers, they are in public dressed as an anime character or in a furry costume, but hate to have pictures taken. In fact there is a formality of a business card exchange that is to take place before pictures are taken.


It seems odd, but because many of the weekend cosplayers have important jobs in large companies, they do not want their faces shown. The consequence that they may face is to be fired from their job. Your very interests and hobbies, the simple things that one does to keep him or herself sane, can cause them to lose there lively hood. In Japan of all places where it is acceptable for an old man to read manga on a train, a young man working at a company cannot have a picture taken at a club, lest it be discovered by a superior.