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Tokyo is legendary because it is Tokyo… the underground in Tokyo is legendary because it is the underground in Tokyo. The Department-H fetish party has been running every month for the past 15 years.  It changes venues every now and then, but it is the longest running freakazoid fetish sex anything-goes party in Tokyo.

Other people are in charge of the sex stuff, but Ryoichi often contributes to the freak element of the party.  He’s connected, promotes, helps finds performers, delegates… he’s a pretty involved person.  On that level alone it is clear why he is considered to be Japan’s pre-eminent underground photo-journalist.  I’ve known what I’ve known for ten years, it was an entirely different scenario to hang out and work with the man on a daily basis in Tokyo for about two weeks.

Ryoichi and I had booked the dates of my Tokyo exhibit around the CMWC and then the Department-H Saturday night party was a bonus.  He arranged to have me as a guest of honor, which was really flattering. I always just feel like me, but it’s crazy what public perception can be based on images from 10 years ago… the crowd was wild.

The added bonus is that it basically gave me a platform to say “I came all the way from Montreal Canada to take your photo”.  In a day and age where everybody has a camera (take a good look at the paparazzi crowd above for the sex wrestling) it was a significant advantage for me as the non-Japanese speaking dude with a camera to have that part translated on stage.  I had people lining up to get their photos taken afterwards, it made my job a lot easier.

The entire experience was surreal and it was beyond amazing on a personal, artistic and professional level to be finally living this dream of working and shooting in a crazy place like Tokyo.