David Hilgier Photographs

A Friday evening in Shinjuku comprised of those out on the town for the night and of those making their way home.

We spent our last evening in Tokyo roaming Shinjuku and the areas immediately surrounding it. Relishing our last change of this trip to absorb the visual vernacular of one of my favorite cities in the world.

The fleeting moments before the arrival of the next train present the opportunity for the last business discussion of the day or some light hearted banter between three colleagues.

In frame for a brief moment, a metro conductor captured dutifully on watch as his train arrives at one of the countless stations below the metropolis.

In a jovial mood after a late night and early morning of work, this gentleman wanted his photo taken. An infrequent occurrence to which I gladly obliged. We exchanged brief pleasantries before going our own ways.

As I understand, the market as visualized in these recent photos has moved to a different location to make way for infrastructure for the upcoming 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. I am happy we got to experience this iteration of the Tsukiji Inner Market prior to its transition last October. Though I wish I could have witnessed it at the height of the daily morning operation, it was still fascinating to get lost in its maze of radiating passage ways lined with those selling, buying, and trading the daily catch.

Contrasting the motorized turret trucks utilized for moving goods around the Tsukiji Market are single axel pull carts. Similar to the turrets, these carts adorned with typographic markings and weathered by the constant moisture and transit within the market’s pathways.

The lifeblood of the market is its unofficial mascot, the turret truck. Both in the inner and outer markets, these transport vehicles carry end product and supplies to all corners of Tsukiji.

After a morning of crisscrossing the inner corridors of the Tsukiji Fish Market, a turret truck sits idle as the business proceedings of the day come to a close.

The outer market as it exists in my memories: visitors and those trying to work all jockeying for the limited space on its narrow side streets and alleyways. Extending our visit with each stop for photos or something to eat doing my best to maintain enough Yen to get us to Narita.