Stepping away from the neon hustle of Tokyo’s main streets reveals a completely different world. Walking through the quiet neighbourhoods just outside Shinjuku, the city slows down to a human scale. Here, small houses nestle alongside tiny cars crammed into narrow streets, and baseball fields cling to the sides of buildings. Schoolchildren dash for the bus while an elderly couple strolls to the local shop. It’s a strange paradox: you feel entirely isolated, yet deeply aware that you are surrounded by millions of lives unfolding at once.

On this trip, I wanted to capture that everyday rhythm - the city’s authentic, unvarnished essence. I looked for the small moments that define life here: salarymen in sharp suits riding bicycles towards a twelve-hour workday, colourful trucks squeezing into impossibly tight corners, bedsheets dangling from balconies above. Every time I return to Tokyo, the grand illusions fade, and the real city shows itself.