Nuit de Tokyo reports:
As you know, Osada Steve (長田スティーブ) has been putting on a string of bashes to celebrate the 10th anniversary (10周年) of Studio SIX Tokyo.
I missed out on the $2k/person luxury yacht cruise – billed as “beyond the 3-mile zone, feel free as you please (or get pleased)”. This event had one AV actress per VIP on board, and from what I hear there was plenty of pleasing going down on the high seas.
What I did manage to attend was part of the Golden Week “Studio SIX Platinum Razzmatazz” on the Izu Peninsular. “Golden Week” is a weeklong holiday in Japan, usually scheduled in May, where everyone leaves town. Read: the country folks come to Tokyo, and Tokyoites visit the countryside. Since forecasters have no way of knowing who might be going where, highways are usually clogged in any and all directions – so most Japanese spend most of their precious vacation time moving from one traffic jam to another.
The Izu event was set up for Studio SIX Jorensan (常連さん – honorable regular clients). It involved a three-night stay at a luxury resort (aka a playground for wealthy Japanese, a VIP hot spring or “onsen” as they call it), featuring non-stop kinbaku (緊縛) photo and video shoots. I don’t know about the cost involved per Jorensan, as I just dropped by for a day after logging a thousand miles on my bike touring the countryside.
On the day of my arrival, there were the Jorensan plus Mr Wang from China (he who shot many of the photos in the Aiko book). From what I hear, this book has become so popular that it is now in its third print, with a German-language version in the works.
A local fixer guided us to two different abandoned compounds (廃墟 – haikyo). The first one was a deserted chemical plant. In order not to attract attention – and for lack of keys to the front gate – a detour on foot through thick underbrush was necessary. After dodging fences and barbed wire we made our entry and commenced shooting.
Did I say chemical plant? Some areas looked like an outtake from Biohazard, The Movie. There were pools with sulfuric acid (H2SO4) – and plenty of tanks and basins filled with caustic liquids of all sorts. The voluptuous model brought along for the trip was put through several rope ordeals, and I’m sure that in the back of her mind were these puddles, hoppers, and traps that could lead to grief should she become unwilling to cooperate.
After several hours of severe and strict bondage, we went back the same way we came – dodging barbed wire, fences, and ravines once more – to move on to yet another abandoned (read: dilapidated) location, this time an old saw mill that had seen better days.
The local fixer was quite paranoid that a convoy of cars with Tokyo license plates plus an ayashi gaijin (怪しい外人, suspicious foreigner) on a monster bike would cause concern among the local populace. He had wisely brought walky-talky kind of gadgets (one for each vehicle), all programmed to the same frequency, and he continually and cunningly spread the convoy thin by radio instructions as to reach the destination without raising alarm from farmers or private guards hired to secure the perimeter and watch out for unwanted intruders.
Upon arrival in close approximation to the saw mill, we were instructed to “spread out” (park our vehicles in different places) and cover our license plates with rugs and foliage.
Everybody made it safely back to the warmth of the hot spring later that night. There followed a few more hours of kinbaku and photo ops in the tatami rooms before the lights went out. An hour later you could find Osada Steve soaking in the roten buro (露天風呂 – outdoor bath) gazing at the stars, plotting his next move.
