This year there were two pole dancers at the Osu Kannon Street Performers Festival. One was Himeno-san, who attended last year, and the other was Meriko-san, who joined the festival for the first time this year. Both are from Tokyo. I saw two performances by Meriko-san. The first was in the middle of the day. I did not know what to expect, but was immediately drawn in by the music, which was a kind of Japanese instrumental rock. Meriko-san was quite a performer, combining pole dancing and fire play into a tale of love, loss and rebirth. It was a very acrobatic and theatrical performance, and probably not what most peoples' image of pole dancing would be. According to her website, Meriko-san trained in New York and developed quite a following before moving back to Tokyo. Besides pole dancing, she is also trained in fire dance, ballet, and belly dancing, and works out constantly to keep in shape for her physical performances. After seeing her afternoon act in the harsh midday sun, I decided to catch her evening performance as well so that the fire and spotlight would be the primary light sources (though I did also use a flash to provide some fill light). I underexposed by one to two stops so the fire would have detail and the light on her face and body would not be blown out. This threw the background into darkness, and gave the illusion that she was performing in space, which I thought was kind of cool. You can find out more about Meriko-san from her website:  http://merikodance.com/