-tokyo Hot-: N0258 Megumi Ishikawa -2007-09-18-.avi

To understand Megumi Ishikawa’s world, we have to look at Tokyo in the autumn of 2007. This was a unique transitional phase. The long economic stagnation of the 1990s had given way to a period of glitzy excess in certain pockets of the city, largely driven by the erai hito (wealthy elite) and the booming "host club" economy.

The fact that this exists as an .avi file is crucial to the entertainment value. In 2007, streaming sites like YouTube were just starting, but they had strict censorship rules. The .avi file traded on forums and P2P networks represented unfiltered, uncompressed (by streaming standards) media. The entertainment was not just the video itself, but the hunt for it—the digital archaeology required to find a specific girl, on a specific date, in a massive sea of cataloged Tokyo nightlife. -tokyo Hot- N0258 Megumi Ishikawa -2007-09-18-.avi