Halfway across the world and homeless: The Box Men of Shinjuki Station.

Whilst researching for The Pavement Perspective, I have spent many afternoons in a centre which helps homeless individuals in Clapham. My conversations with the people who use the centre began with me  introducing myself and asking them surface level questions. However, now we know each other well we will talk about anything and everything - discussions over games of cards, putting the world to rights; the best kinds of afternoons.

A few weeks ago, a gentleman was musing over his handful of cards when he suddenly looked up and asked the rest of the group, 

"Do you think living on the streets is different in different countries?"

This was a question I wasn't prepared for. I'm not sure I really understand what it is like to be homeless in this country, let alone in a different country.

However, I did find a series of photographs online by photographer Michael Wolf which give an interesting insight into homelessness in Japan, and I'll share them with you below.

This body of work falls underneath an album called 'Life in Cities', and the series of photographs is called The Box Men of Shinjuki Station. This train station in Tokyo, Japan, holds the Guinness World Record for the world's busiest transport hub, and with over 200 exits it would probably be the perfect place to get so lost you miss ten trains in a row. Nonetheless, judging by the photographs below it seems many call it home.

I am struggling to upload the photos to the blog, but if you want to see the rest of the series, follow this link.