The Internet Yami-Ichi* (Internet Black Market) is flea market-style event for buying and selling internet-ish goods and services in real life. The internet is not what it used to be. Especially with the rise of social media, and ubiquitous smart-phones permanently on-line, our off-line lives have become increasingly inter-dependent upon our on-line lives. The organization of this much of society on this common infrastructure necessitates the establishment of rules which have made it a lot more uptight. The Internet Yami-Ichi was born from our inalienable right to turn off, log out, and meet up, and enjoy what we want in an un-monitored new space, and confirm that everything that we enjoyed on-line was put there by one of us, and we can enjoy it together off-line too. Like the early Internet, the Yami-Ichi atmosphere is rich with irony and humor. The best of what we share and exchange at the Yami-Ichi is popular for being witty, playful, provocative. After the first event started in 2012, it has been spreading to 27 cities (as of  2020) in the world, such as Tokyo, Berlin, Brussels, Seoul and New York.

*Yami-Ichi means black market in Japanese, and the word Yami also implies "sick for" and "addicted to". We call it black market only because "when we see the internet as the front distribution, that makes the "reality" the back distribution", not because we want to break the law. Ours is a bright black market without illegal stuff.

《Back streets of the Internet》 Internet Yami-ichi short documentary (Directed by Shingo Ohno / Produced by W+K Tokyo LAB)