rikki kasso

This is a really, really good thing.

Some of you may remember that back in early August I wrote a distressed post about two Japanese blogs that I’ve found particularly meaningful over the years, and how they had stopped updating after the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year. Both Pink Tentacle and Tokyo Undressed each had made at least one intense update after the disasters, but then went dark.

In sex blogging, it’s quite common to see sex blogs come and go, no pun intended. In fact, among the very few of us still around after over a decade of sex blogging, we still have a hard time not taking it personally when sex bloggers pack up stuff we’ve linked to and loved, and leave us standing there with our metaphorical dicks (and our hearts) in our hands, looking at dead links left behind by people that didn’t get famous, got caught in their secret lives, were targeted by stalkers or bitter exes, used our linkjuice to try and ‘go straight’ and ‘become legitimate’ or broke up or ‘found God’ or whatever.

But obviously none of this was the case with Tokyo Undressed, and that made it even harder for me to accept its silence in so many ways. For me eros, art and creative love is life. It’s kind of spiritual. When these things go dark I feel like part of my heart is dying.

I’m so glad I checked the RSS tonight to see that the energy, brilliance, beauty and strangeness of Tokyo Undressed has returned. TODAY! I admire and adore Rikki Kasso, and to me Kasso’s return to the blog signals a bright and hopeful holiday and New Year for this San Francisco girl’s love and view of Tokyo. It’s been a painful and terrible year for so many of us. No more loss, tears or turmoil, please. Now go look at Tokyo Undressed and maybe feel like something finally turned out okay.

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I’ve been a fan and follower of Japanese sex blogs from pretty much the beginning of Japanese sex blogs. Keeping up with them has been a fantastic journey of culture, beauty, poetry and of course, cultural otherness and all that brings with it.

The other night I was up late and unable to sleep (okay, that’s most nights) and went through a lot of my deeper RSS feeds to see what some of my longtime Japanese sex blogger faves were up to. I was alarmed and saddened to see that a significant amount of them have essentially dropped off the radar since the earthquake and tsunami in March. (And not just sex blogs, but also cultural touchstones like Pink Tentacle who stopped updating in April.)

One that has touched me deeply over the years is Tokyo Undressed, photographer Rikki Kasso’s Blogspot blog. Tokyo Undressed is the blog of an immensely talented photographer whom I have followed closely for a long time, combining life in Tokyo with lushly decadent trysts in hotels and various spaces with beautiful, fairly kinky women. I’ve featured Kasso’s work many times here. Looking over the not-recent entries on the front page, I feel a combination of eros and longing, and emotional difficulty.

The last ‘normal’ entry for Kasso is March 9, the day before the quake, eerily titled Time Before Time.

After this the entries are earthquake posts, focused on hope, dating March 12 and 13 and featuring images of the aftermath.

This life is as real as you want it to be, and it`s worth as much as you are.
Enjoy your time in this body, on this planet, that`s all you have!

[SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2011]

Then, one more – a month later on May 14, titled Fairy Tales and Scary Tales. That is the last entry.

My internal panic goes in several directions with this information.

I hope things return to normal.

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Image by Rikki Kasso.

Regular readers know I keep an eye on Tokyo Undressed, one of the most lyrical and hypnotic time/place erotic photo blogs on the planet. Perhaps it’s the de-emphasis on “adult” content that makes it so compelling. The newest post Tears for Years will show you what I mean; it’s mostly a Tokyo photo blog, but the erotic photos interwoven throughout Kasso’s view of Tokyo make the whole experience arousing and unforgettable. I love his titling, such as “did we make love, or did love make us?” Also spend some time on Rikki Kasso’s website, packed with Asian eros.

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Image by Rikki Kasso.

I was extremely moved today by the discovery of two of the most beautiful photo blog posts I’ve ever seen. I’ve long been a fan of Tokyo Undressed, but Kasso doesn’t update often so I don’t visit frequently. Today, I found Painfully Reticent v.2 and Painfully Reticent. (That’s the order I viewed them; I liked it that way, it really resonated with how I’m feeling these days…)

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Oh noes! Another tiger attack! Photo via Tokyo Undressed.

* I told you to get your kids the PLAYstation, not the LAYstation. “MP3 Player Father Bought at Wal-Mart for Daughter, 10, Was Preloaded With Porn” (thanks, dr!)

* My good friends at Kink.com are now officially in the SF Armory! Congrats! Watch the kewl video. Also: is the Armory haunted?

* A sad end to 2007: Viviane’s post to dearly departed sex blogs. See also: Cory Silverberg’s Sexual Losses 2007.

* Did you catch this one? The Pogues’ timeless “Fairytale of New York” song (I *love* it) is always shown in MSM with the words ‘faggot’ and ‘whores’ edited out. But not in this version. (via Sex?)

* We Make Money Not Art (Sex) has a fabulous writeup about Yamila Fontán’s Nocturna, an installation at Barcelona’s 2007 art festival, BAC!.

* I am not divided on this issue at all: it’s just wrong, and proves that our society is broken. New Jersey Bars Some Sex Offenders From Internet, “(…) Acting Gov. Richard Codey signed bill S1979 into law Thursday and announced that it will provide the state with nearly unparalleled authority to monitor or restrict Internet access by convicted sex offenders. (…)” Like, phones with browsers, too? Sex offenders like these kids? Argh.

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