THE Legendary Swimming Pool Is Now Closed for JAV Shoots

2020 is a rough year. With the economy on a nose-dive, even the most resilient businesses are going underwater. The most sacred institutions in the JAV are not spared. 

That includes the legendary swimming pool that has appeared in tons of AV titles. Also called "the example pool", "that pool” (あのプール or ano puuru) or “the usual pool” (例のプール or rei no puuru), this typical-looking body of water can be seen in hundreds of titles and has become the subject of affection by tons of AV fans.

Shift-JIS Art for "That Pool" by 2channel user

End of an era?

A Twitter user named @junhiyoh who claims to have insider knowledge about the industry reported that the infamous swimming is now "virtually prohibited" to JAV shoots "due to the relationship between the pool and the facility maintenance fee." Apparently, facility maintenance expenses due to the need to disinfect the pool from "bodily fluids" have become too high to make AV shooting a practical source of income.  

 Although the tweet has been picked up by Japanese sites such as 2chav.com, it is impossible to know the entirely of the story just from this tweet alone. 

While this may mark the end of an era for JAV fans, it seems that the pool is still open for gravure and non-pornographic shoots, as indicated by P-studio's website. In fact, it was used in the promotional shoots for IPX-407 of the Beauty Venus series starring Minami Hatsukawa, Miru Sakamichi, and Karen Kaede. 

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While the swimming pool has become close to the heart of long-time AV fans, it's safe to say that it's time to look for greener pastures. After all, new studios swimming pools are stepping up to fill the void, such as this one in ABP-889 with Remu Suzumori. 

A bit of background

The example pool is one of the facilities in No. 136 Hanazano Room, a luxury apartment converted into a rentable studio. Situated in the Shinjuku district in Tokyo were many AV studios are based, the pool is a convenient choice for shooting swimming-themed videos. That also explains why almost every JAV studio prefer to shoot there rather than anywhere else. 

Other than proximity, this apartment has all the amenities needed for a small to medium-sized video shooting team. It has a spacious reception hall, a bar, a conference room, and some bedrooms. It even has a rec room where guests can play blackjack, poker, or perhaps smoke some Cuban cigar, I don't know. These AV guys are living the life. 

It's then no wonder that thousands of titles have been shot here. Here are just some of them.

Tsukasa Aoi in DV-1541

Maria Ozawa in MIZ-003

Mio Kimijima in TAAK-023

Miku Aoki in WANZ-009

Nanami Kawakami in DV-1559