Tokyo Game Show 2018 : Day 2- The Photographers

Amateurs ruining a good opportunity !!

"Japanese women are all narcissists at heart, in fact most of them like to stand totally nude in front of their bathroom mirrors and examine themselves for ridiculously long periods of time. She'll probably put her hands under both of her juggs to feel their heft” 

Manabu Ota (38) should know, he spends most of his free time as a voyeur.

“ All Japanese men are voyeurs at heart and only our cowardice keeps us from acting on our impulses".

The annual Tokyo Gameshow is a chance for Japan's voyeurs to band together and share their passions with one another openly. Sure, there are many events in Japan where a JAV or JPop idol will do an in store appearance and allow photos but this is the Superbowl of Voyeurism. There are hundreds of ladies available to be photographed in any pose you can imagine.

Days 1 and 2 of the Annual Game Show are  always restricted to industry professionals. Many industry people sell their extra passes on Yahoo Auctions and many shops in Akihabara are selling fake press passes and invites for upwards of 5,000 yen each.

Manabu and his $ 4,000 Canon EOS 5D Mark 2 "Event" Camera.

Manabu has been busy with his hobby all summer, his backpack stuffed with a vast array of photo equipment and zoom lenses, he patrols the riverbanks, hot springs and beaches-


“ The riverbanks in Japan are a great opportunity to catch women peeing, I mean they are all young and drinking beer so they go off to piss out of sight- they think . The beach is way better, they set up temporary toilets,showers and changing rooms so that I can get some good shots. Usually, you don't even have to drill a peephole cause another voyeur has already done it before you”. 

 


A large group of amateurs attack their prey in a pack.... A foolish, basic mistake.

As far as the game show goes, “ I mean, I've really been looking forward to this all year but it's kind of a peeper's amateur hour, we can be safe from observation due to the sheer numbers of us together. Peeping is a skill that requires years of practice to get right- the key is observation- you have to find the right spot to take care of business and then some jackass with a hard on comes over and his open peeping scares away the prey.”

Manabu, also an avid video game enthusiast, has 3 cameras with him today, A portable, a big SLR and his 12 Megapixel Android smartphone camera- which is better than 90% of the regular cameras these beginners have. He also boasts of his PC setup at home.

“I've got about 10 500GB hard drives devoted to hi rez photos I've taken since 2008. I have all the girls in folders devoted to them and rated. I probably have your girlfriend in there somewhere!”

I asked Manabu what he does with so many of these pictures. He blushed and giggled out


“ I'll leave that to your imagination."

"These guys have no fucking idea what they are doing... pathetic" Sam notes.

“The booth girls are great but they get paid and I don't get turned on by that so much- they also don't wanna talk to me. I like the cosplay area between the buildings best. You can get friendly and actually have a mini private shoot with the girls there- they usually give the voyeurs complete freedom to indulge in our pleasure. I sometimes even get their emails so I can send them the pictures too!"

Plump model, Keiko Mizuguchi (29),  a construction company secretary is quite the hit with Manabu because " She's got a heart shaped ass that I'd really go to town on".

 Outside the  main exhibition area is were  the intimate action is. "Most of the girls ain't so hot there though.  Regular / below average girls who crave the attention ....  The chicks inside work for big agencies and look at us like we are all scum- which most of the guys kind of are, I guess".

 This is were the 'real' photographers like to go.

" You can get an atmosphere going out here, the socially dysfunctional girls sort of treat us like human beings and you don't need to use a flash."


Manabu has already filled up a 128MB SD card and there are still 2 hours to go before the event ends for the day.

“ These bitches get their thrills and sadistic pleasure in watching fully grown men debase themselves fighting over photo time and angles."

Manabu says he met Keiko last year too and has about 75 pictures of her from last years show. "She's quite popular here today, I feel like I discovered her though."





But what about the games?
 

“Who cares?!?! I can play them over at any Yodobashi or Bic Camera in a few weeks anyway. I'm here to take shots of the girls!” 

 
The show seems to be pretty evenly divided of those for the games and those for the girls. Look around and it's easy to see who's who.

This shot will help him get off later tonight, when he's home alone.

I met Osamu "Sam" Naito. He's 34, short and portly- 2 of the 3 things Japanese women hate most ( baldness is the other).  Sam's weapon of choice today is his $3,000 Sony Alpha DSLR-A900 ( he also has a  $300 Sony Cybershot T-900 as backup), Sam also happens to be a prolific train groper,

 

"A popular misconception is that we get sexual pleasure from this. I personally don't, my excitement comes from overcoming the obstacles to achieve my goal. It's the same feeling you get when you finish a long role playing game or maybe for some guys like a good workout.  Most of us pros get pleasure from stealing her privacy- I get excited that I'm breaking a social law and violating her privacy. Sometimes when I grow tired of a girl I've been stalking I leave an embarrassing photo print of her in her mailbox, that must really freak them out!”

Sam seen here scoring a models email address and Twitter info. His backpack full of photography gear is starting to hurt his back though.


The 5'1'' Sam was actually quite charming and he often chats and exchanges mail with his targets.

“I'm a pretty confident guy and I usually talk to them at the events.  I'll always ask for their mail and they give me one 50% of the time. I tell them I'll send them some of their pics and they're so in love with themselves that it lets down their defenses. If I just asked without the picture part they would just run or ignore me” ,  He adds, " Getting their name and email is great to attach to my folder on them, I can get so much info about them with that stuff, later I can try to get shots of them at home through a window if I like- I have  very strong research skills" 

It's like shooting fish in barrel for the many sexually frustrated men who attend. The Tokyo Auto Show is also a huge draw for these gentlemen- but this year, GM, Ford, Chrysler and Hyundai will be absent. Hyundai is a huge favorite among the race queen/ idol  enthusiast. They are well known for going all out to impress the Japanese and send over their top models as kind of  jab at the Japanese who they always have to one up.


The Tokyo Motor car show also has no cosplay corner- where the easy girls with super low self esteem are begging for attention of men like Sam and Manabu.

"This guy looks like he knows what he's doing" An envious Manabu observed.

The holy grail of the Tokyo Gameshow voyeur is a peephole into the professionals changing room. Sam told me that he's been investigating this all weekend and thinks there's no chance this time. “In 2011 and 2013 there was a good sized hole in the Konami girls break/ dressing room- I got about 300 shots through there. Sega had one too but a clumsy guy got caught and then they really beefed up security.”

" .....and him"

“I put the best shots from those years on my homepage. If you speak Japanese well you can find it online but you would have to be registered on the bulletin boards I frequent to get access. It's more fun that way”