It's the end of an era, sort of. One of the most prominent adult shops in Tokyo, Condomania, located right on Omotesando in Harajuku, will close at its current store on May 1st due to road expansion work. It opened in 1993 with the aim of stopping the spread of HIV in Japan. For 25 years it has continued that work of making sex safer, along with another branch in Sannomiya in Kobe. It's not necessarily bad news for Condomania. A new Tokyo branch will open on May 3rd, but this one is slightly down a backstreet around the corner from Ice Monster on Omotesando. So Condomania survives, ...

Photographer Hal is, as the name suggests, a photographer in Japan. While that may not sound unusual, one glance at his output and you'll see this is not the stuff you tend to encounter on Flickr. Photographer Hal creates amazing vacuum-packed photography in which naked couples embrace each other in a plastic bag. "Photographer Hal started packing couples together in futon vacuum bags to preserve their love forever. The process to achieve this eternal image is very organic and each couple can only be left inside the seal bag for 10 seconds." Using futon sealing bags, the ...