“If I get a long break while I’m on the job, it’s like unpaid leave.” Book - Photo by Benjamin Parks

For all their ebullience, the bike messengers will admit that life isn’t all a breeze. The recent financial crisis has robbed many courier companies of their biggest clients (T-Serv’s Yamaoka describes the impact of the Lehman shock as “totally awful”), and there is less work coming in from those businesses that survived. Many messengers are paid on commission, meaning that they feel this problem acutely.

“If I get a long break while I’m on the job, it’s nice, but it’s like unpaid leave,” notes Book wryly.
There are physical as well as financial concerns, too. Courier work isn’t the safest of professions, and even the most cautious riders (a rarity in this line of trade, admittedly) are bound to run into a mishap sooner or later. Everyone I talk to admits to having been sent flying by a car door or blindsided by a driver at some point in their career. Nocchi has been the unluckiest.

“I’ve broken a bone every year for three years running,” he says. “Actually, it was more specific: every year, between October 1 and 10. The second year, I thought, ‘Oh, it’s happened again.’ But on the third year, I was like, ‘Now what…?’ It was always my collarbones: left side, right side, left side.”
Asked how to avoid accidents, he recommends watching out for taxis, pedestrians and “old ladies on mama-chari.”

“You’ve got to look out for bumpkins when you’re riding around town, too,” says Ayumu. “They don’t know where they’re driving. Like people with Adachi-ku license plates.”

“Yeah, and Hachioji plates,” chimes in Matsudo. “Those guys are the pits.”