This man was the first person that I had a decent conversation with during my Tokyo homeless project.

This morning I bought a cheap umbrella and arranged to pick up some extra clothes from Eri's place. She suggested that I check out a park in Waseda but I was out of luck. Although there were many makeshift homes made from cardboard and plastic sheets, the inhabitants were all taking shelter from the rain.

I headed back to Ueno where I found a group of homeless people hanging around the station entrance. Fortunately for me this man approached mewhen he saw that I was watching them.

Aged 67, he had moved to Tokyo from Morioka, Iwate in the north. He has two children and is an avid sports lover. We had a length chat about famous Japanese baseballers and athletes. He shook my hand with both hands and wished me good luck for my travels.

At night I made my way over to a park in Shinjuku. I had expected that it would be similar to Uneo Park but it turned out to be a special garden that was locked up at night. I found a spot behind some bushes to sleep for the night. The ground was covered in large stones so I tore the plastic off of the umbrella's frame and set that down as a ground sheet with my backpack acting as a pillow. It was somewhat bearable at first and with the extra layers I was better able to cope with the cold. However, it wasn't long before I woke up due to the cold and this time I found that there were many snails and worms crawling around the place.

None to thrilled at this discovery I decided to find a new spot. I found a large underground tunnel that connected the main train and bus station to other parts of Shinjuku. There were dozens of homeless people sleeping here as it was a few degrees warmer inside. I found a empty space and managed to get some sleep.



Minolta X700 Rokkor-X 45mm f/2.0 : Ilford Panf 50