Kabukicho by day..

Kabukicho has a (well deserved) reputation for being an epicentre of vice, but by day, you can almost see a different side of the infamous Shinjuku suburb.



From the numerous hotels..







To the establishments of a more dubious nature..













To what seems like your average street scenes from a regular neighborhood, a walk around Kabukicho during the day leaves you with the realization that this place is anything but ordinary..

Rebuild the Nation: OJ de Villager

A couple of weeks ago, during my little misadventure while shooting Kabukicho, I met a tout named OJ de Villager. OJ is no ordinary tout however, he was quite personable during our chat, and was more interested in telling me about his rap album and t-shirt sales business Happy Home Clothing Co. than in soliciting me into one of the seedy establishments he works for. Anyway, a few people had asked me about him, and my friend Damonovich did this great treatment of the pic I took so I thought he was worthy of a revisit..

Kabukicho 2..

I'll put up some more pics of my trip to Shinjuku later, but for now, here's what you might see as you enter the demon's lair that is Kabukicho..

Kabukicho..

.. is not the kind of place you wanna mess with. A walk around this infamous part of Shinjuku, full of fuzoku-ten, hostess bars, and AV outlets will introduce you to all types of touts, questionable bar establishments, back door restaurants, and just about anything anyone could imagine to commit to video. It's commonly understood to be controlled and regulated by the Yakuza, and is one of the main places that mirrors the worlds common perception of Tokyo's neon landscape.

I've been here a lot over the years, but this night was the first time I was scared into sensibility..

Legal pyschedelics

Legal drugs used to be found in abundance along Bunkamura dori in Shibuya or in Kabukicho (Shinjuku). You were also able to buy peyote and magic mushrooms from head shops, that is until around the time of the World cup in 2002 when they were outlawed, supposedly because of the potential dangers of a british soccer hooligans being let loose on the streets with heads full of craziness. However, you can still occasionally run into some wannabe dealers working the streets with a card table and a case full of god knows what kind of untested chemical replicates. Care to be a lab rat anyone?

These guys weren't really keen on me snapping them, and were very quick to close the case containing their wares..