"Erotic Japan" Home Shoot with David & Jordi

I had further opportunities to do erotic shoots in Japan which I've been dying to do. After all, Japan is the home for erotica in the Eastern hemisphere! This time, it was to be entirely "Japanese", so to speak, at the comfort of my family's apartment in Tokyo. Enter Spanish professional photographer David Rodriguez Toro who resides in Japan. We managed to connect through mutual friends on Facebook and been corresponding for a few months. Observing his work, I noticed he focuses a lot on creativity with a slight surreal twist which makes it all the more interesting. He was accompanied by another budding photographer, Jordi Olaria Jané, whom David has been taking under his wing. And what wonderful guys they were!

Initially I wanted to do a shoot in a forest nearby where David lives, in the outskirts of Tokyo. He has done a few in the past there and thought I would be daring enough as well myself to try it. In Japan, it is forbidden to be nude in public so it would've been the ultimate thrill for me. However, David expressed his preference to come over to our apartment in Tokyo and shoot, especially as we have a Japanese room equipped with tatami mat floor, windows with shoji doors, oshiire sliding closet and a tokonoma corner. I must admit I was a little gutted not being able to do a nude shoot outdoors but it turned out for even better!

I had a few yukata's I purchased from a local charity shop. At this point, I was unsure about using my family heirloom kimonos mum kept very carefully, especially for something as explicit as an erotic shoot. Perhaps one day I'd like to a proper traditional kimono shoot, complete with hair and make-up, when I find someone that could give me a hand...

I picked up David and Jordi at Meguro train station and took a short bus ride to our apartment. Interestingly enough both felt more confident speaking in Japanese than English, and even with my limited Spanish which I had learnt at night school years ago, they still preferred to communiate in Japanese. Both were initially quite shy but eventually we all became comfortable with one another. And very polite and professionally-mannered they were!

We started with a warm-up shoot. I would be hidden behind the net curtains sitting on the window ledge, almost nude but partly covered up with a white and blue yukata. After David had taken a few shots, it was Jordi's turn. He had this ingenious idea of me fiddling around with my clothes on the washing line, namely my bra and panties. It added to the contrast of Western-style lingerie with the traditional Japanese attire I was wearing. David then developed this idea of throwing the white bra on the floor and photographing it amidst the reflected lines from shadows of the curtains. It was the only image during our shoot that would be permissible on Facebook!

Once we all felt comfortable, we got down to business! Whilst semi-dressed in the same yukata, I got tied shibari-style with a rope in the form of a chest harness. David is not a professional rigger so it was of course quite loosely done and clearly for effect. We naturally chose the tatami room as our set, close to the window for the light and of course because we wanted to display also the shoji, which are the traditional inner doors with latticed wooden frames covered in white paper. I lay on the tatami floor looking serene yet sensual despite being bound in rope. Am I to enjoy it? Or am I to accept in despair? That's open to the viewer's interpretation.

Next set, I changed into a more formal-looking yukata. A colourfully reddish pretty one. Still using the same tatami room, we abandoned the shibari-style bondage and continued with erotic poses as we aimed to focus on the beauty of the outfit. At one point we also shot some POV (point of view) shoots where David would be my "partner" and putting his hand on me. I don't normally let photographers touch me at all, but we agreed that this was for merely for effect and considering David's status as a professional photographer in Japan and with Jordi in the room, I knew I could trust the guy completely. And I must say the images turned out beautifully!

Now to the the third set. We decided to take advantage of the apartment balcony overlooking the residential neighbourhood. I changed into another outfit, and this time it was the under-garment of a kimono, a lightweight flowery pink cotton gown. In the old days, we didn't wear knickers & bras under our outfits! We wore instead these under-garments for warmth in the winter and for protecting our clothes from perspiration in the summer. I gather that David read my mind as we decided to shoot me discreetly flashing with my back to the outside world. And boy was that fun! I was in fact determined to do at least one naughty outdoors nude shoot before leaving Japan. My disappointment at not being able to shoot nude in the forest immediately disappeared. This was even better! I've done plenty of nude forest shoots in the past anyways so it was a great change to do one with the scene of Tokyo behind me.

And the final set. Naked me standing inside a closet full of clothes! Being in Japan, it was a rather small closet, so small in fact that even I had to bend over and get into it. The floor of the closet was made of thin wood so I had to be extra careful treading inside it in case my big foot went through it made a big hole. Nevertheless, the image turned out rather well although all the clothes were in plastic garment covers.

By then we decided to call it a day. I thoroughly enjoyed working with David and Jordi. Though David was mainly shooting, I was more than happy to have Jordi shoot me as well as he wishes to gain experience working with models and expand his portfolio. Much of his work has been focused on events and places. All the best to him! David has a good eye for artistic photography so I was very excited to work with him as he has brilliant ideas and captures them beautifully. When I'm in Tokyo again next year, I would definitely work with them again! Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to the next one!!

For more pics from this beatiful shoot, please click onto my Flickr page!

More of David's work can be seen on his website.
Jordi's work can also be seen on his Flickr page