This guy was a blast. Shibuya, Senta gai, December 31st 2008 before going to Womb. Full kogaru skirt”n’socks style 10 years after the boom.

Away from my bure boke days, this is complete bure bure in Kabukicho :-)

Numbers.

This was taken circa 2000 in Shibuya. 2 ganguros showing the world how black they could be.

Dawn. Going back home from work in Kabukicho. The host never sleeps.

Can you believe this picture? Yes? No? Well, this shot is a rare view of Kabukicho’s night entertainment and sextrade center (well, one of its numerous streets). It was shot at 5:00AM and the streets are almost empty! This never happens in the “floating world”, except… in December! As the weather gets a bit colder, there is much less partying in the streets at dawn. Now you know.

Sometimes, before I leave for a NO-SLEEP NO-REST night in Kabukicho and Golden Gai, I stop by Lucky Camera. They have such a wide selection of lenses and cameras. They’re great. Pay them a visit if you’re a vintage camera enthusiast, they have everything, and at a good price.

It’s amazing how much dirt you get in Shinjuku’s backstreets. Tokyo is like a movie set. Front: clean, Back: dirty. The first door does looks like the one in the movie “Pulse” (aka Kairo, by Kurosawa Kiyoshi)

I mean, come on, is this a crime scene or something? Almost like a christian cross upside down, made of human blood :-)

that night, what night? golden gai as usual. interpol?

There’s no time or place for a nap. Daytime napping on the Yamanote-sen.

A nice evening at some Golden Gai bar with Ashtom and great photographer Agake Masahito. The bar had several great b/w photos and spotted Moriyama Daido in a few of them, amongst other artists. That’s because the owner of the bar is a photographer and used to be Daido’s student !

Since the beginning of No.51269 you’ve noticed the Moa 4 Cafe in pictures or talks. Well, now you know it, it’s my daily stop, my before-going-to-work headquarters in Shinjuku, before I go on a shooting spree downtown Kabukicho/Golden Gai/etc. I usually get a cheap ice coffee there. Now the problem is this: the cafe has been sold to a chain (I won’t mention here), which is lame, as it used to be an independent little trailer cafe and it’s now been replaced by a sedentary (and corporate!) structure. Shinjuku’s changing, I’m afraid.

The train’s humming makes you fall asleep.

Shinjuku cream.

Golden gai. Its bars, its washing machines…
Too big to keep them inside.
There isn’t enough room for the clients already…
But there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

I am a host and since I’m a low-level one, my job is to scout for new clients in the streets of Kabukicho.

My friend from Kobeni. She likes to wear the MGDR misfits skull button, and she likes to cat fight at Dept.H parties too. She likes to cook okonomiyaki for me and give me weird drinks like “Enema” and other lethal drinks. Yes, Kobeni is like a mini-hospital bar in Golden gai, where drinks and food are served in medical flasks and plates. Now you know.

When you’re in Shinjuku, late at night, and you’ve had one too many drinks, sometimes things happens.

In Shinjuku, there’s always tons of poster ads on top of eachother.

One of those nights at Moa dori, before going to Kabukicho for a good night shoot.

The eyes of the night. Iidabashi 2001. A bunch of cats always hanging out, fresh.