The purchase of sensible work shoes is never pleasant, but the pain can at least be partially eased when the seller is a fella who wouldn’t know sensible if it sidled up to him and said hello.
Eccentric Tokyo salesman
Photographs from a small group of islands
Matt Talbot says
Well, you can’t say he didn’t see you coming.
Lee says
Haha, that’s very, very true!
Once An Expat says
Smart man; he’s won 2/3rds of the battle in making a sale-getting the customer’s attention.
Lee says
He has that. His is certainly a shop that you won’t forget.
Al says
Fun shot! He’s quite a character!
Lee says
He is. Seen him loads of times, and he has loads of different guises. Definitely not a man who likes to look the same every day.
john says
and was he wearing sensible shoes? .. or platforms
Lee says
You know what, I don’t recall at all, which leads me to suspect they were sadly sensible in the extreme.
Hans ter Horst says
Love the fact how he looks rather grumpy underneath the fancy ‘hat’ and oversized glasses. I see doubt in his face, I’m sure that he is thinking of taking the weirdness to the next level; I’d keep an eye on him 🙂
Lee says
That wouldn’t surprise me!
Funny you should notice his grumpiness. Seen him be very brusque with people trying to take his photo. I definitely got lucky.
Gerald says
Marketing genius. Talk less to get attention. Does he sell ‘guise’ gear as well?
Lee says
Unfortunately not. Just shoes. Seems he keeps all the good stuff for himself.
Anne says
Was this taken by Nakamise-dori? I may have seen this man during hatsumode but he had on the black version of those huge specs. Kids were crowding around him and were taking photos. I wanted to talk to him but the pushing and shoving was too much and I had to get out of there.
Lee says
Yeah, that’s the fella.
That’s funny. Must have been a real treat for the kids. Perhaps not so much for him!