Kabukicho is a red light district, and I’m told there are Yakuza there, but it’s considered “safe” in that the Yakuza are there just to do business, and if you don’t piss them off, they won’t bother you.

Anyway, Emma wants to do this business with me where I take pictures of all the stuff for sale in Japan, send them to her, she sends the pictures to her clients, her clients send Emma money and a list of what they want, she sends this to me, I go buy it, and send it back to Emma, which she sends to the client, and I get a cut.

I’m trying to go to a variety of stores. This includes manga shops, figurines, clothing, DVDs, video games, candy and porn. So I see this one shop that looks like it sells porn, but it’s down some stairs, so I head down the stairs, and just find an nondescript closed door. I turn around and there’s a guy behind me, who’s saying something about inviting me in.

I ask him 「英語でくますか？」 “Do you speak English?” and he replies with no, just Japanese. So we stare at each other awkwardly for a moment before I say 「行けますか？」 “Can I go in?” He says yes, of course, and then knocks a code on the door.

In response, an LED on the door immediately goes red. The guy is just standing there in front of the door, and I’m sort of looking around the stairwell, like “what the hell is going on” and wondering if I’m going to get killed here or something, ‘cause it’s kind of sketchy. I’m thinking of joking 「ちょっと　こわいいね？」 “This is kind of scary, huh?” but I’m too scared to do it.

Eventually the door opens, and the guy outside nods to the guy inside, who then looks at me, and then they both signal for me to come in. I go in, the first guy leaves back up the stairs.

Inside is a small room, where a bunch of guys are smoking. Along the walls are pictures of naked girls. It’s just a rectangular room. I’m stunned. I turn to the guy who let me in. 「DVDありますか？」 “Are there DVDs here?” he doesn’t understand at first, so I repeat, and he says yes, there are. We stare at each other for a while, before I add 「どこ？」 “Where (are they)?”

He points to the pictures of the naked girls, and the numbers next to each picture, then makes a writing motion, then points to a poster. I figure out that these pictures represent the DVDs I can buy, and I just write down the number of the DVD I want. If I buy one DVD it’s about $40, and it gets cheaper as you buy more. I think at the other extreme, it said something like 138 DVDs for $200.

I tell him I get it, and so I walk around looking at the pictures, all while thinking I hope I make it out of here alive. My mind is racing. I’m thinking about why would they put this shop in a hidden stairwell where a doorman has to approve the people coming in. I mean it’s not like in North American; in Japan, all the porn is prominently displayed out in the streets.

The whole time, all I’m thinking about is whether I can get out of here alive. I want to leave, but I’m worried that they’ll force me to buy something, or maybe even force me to spend all the cash I have on me. I’m trying to find amongst all of these DVDs which one I would buy if I was forced to buy one.

I head back to the front desk, where the doorman is listing off numbers into the telephone, and when he hangs up, I say (in English, since I want to try to emphasize the “I’m just a poor foreigner who’s in over my head” perspective) “Can I go out now?” He doesn’t understand at first, so I repeat it, and he says yes, and lets me out. Thank God.