Here we go

The bags are packed and we are ready to go.  I am sure I have forgotten something, and brought along something I probably won’t use, but that is how I travel….  Not really looking forward to a full day of travel, but excited to see the mountains in AK.  Have decided to take along the handy laptop so should be able to keep the blog going while on the road.  If you are on a plane to Seattle from Narita tommorow look for me I am going to be the one with an eye mask and face mask on trying to sleep!   

Tsukasa says he will finish packing in the morning before we leave at 5:30am yeah right.

I am looking ready all zipped up.

Chosen as Innovator

Somehow during all this crazy packing and trying to plan a trip to Alaska in three days, I got a call from Sasaki Daisuke asking me to be a part of an upcoming advertisement for a magazine.  The theme of the ad is 9 Innovators from Hokkaido.  He must have had a few drinks and then decided that it would be good to include me in the list of 9! Lucky for me.

 Well somehow I was able to make it downtown today for a quick photo shoot at the studio and you will be able to check me out in the advertisement next month.  The photographer was Ba Ba who I have been hearing a lot of good things about.  

Very cool guy, shooting with a Digital Hasselblad

and very nice loft style studio in downtown Sapporo.  

I had fun playing the model, getting my makeup done and the hair stylist girl trying to figure out what to do with my very very short hair was kind of funny.  She just kind of poked at it for a few minutes to make it look like she was doing something.  Got to wear my black suit so that was fun.  Then Sasaki asked me to join him at an LV fashion show at the LV store.  

I have next been in the LV store so I join him and had a laugh watching all the Sapporo rich people drooling over shirts that cost a $1000 and bags that cost way more.  

Was a fun little show and they had some cool art on display from Richard Price.  

Then finally made it home to continue the packing. 

New schedule! Going to AK

In an amazing turn of events I am now packing my bags with filmer Tsukasa to leave for Alaska on Monday morning!  After a planned trip with the North Face team got canceled earlier this month I thought there would be no chance to get to AK this year….  I got lucky with a chance to go and photograph the up coming event in Alyeska resort.  The North Face Masters.  Will be in Alyeska from the 31st to the 6th of April, then get this, will fly to Portland to meet with Hiroshi and Detz for a tour of the Nike home office.  Will be there for three days to shoot with Hiroshi for upcoming web content for Honeyee.com  Looking forward  to that part of the trip as well, I don`t get many non-snowboard international photo jobs…..So we are packing our bags here at the house.  Here is my gear so far.

 Here is Tsukasa’s gear.

 Notice the all important titty pillow that he has packed for the trip!  

Safety is of course our biggest concern when traveling internationally.   

Yesterday we did some camera shopping for the trip. Picked up a new light weight tri-pod for the video shooting.

Then I bought a combo hiking pole and mono pod from Gitzo my favorite tri-pod brand. Will be taking that on the trip to AK. Carbon fiber, very light weight.

a few more little things like B&W film and a charger for my iPod touch etc.,

Have been hearing good things from Shinya about Alaska conditions so really looking forward to seeing mountains covered in white snow! Sapporo is very brown at the moment as all the snow has melted and the nothing is green yet.

Upgraded to Aperture 2

I dropped in and bought Aperture 2 the upgrade and went though all the steps to install and upgrade my libarys.  Worked out good and I am liking the look of the new version.  The speed does seem a lot faster right away.  The loading of the previews is quick.  Looking forward to using the new version.   Check it out here.

Car Danchi editing starts

The editing process has begun here at the One Films studios.

 Filmer Tsukasa has joined me to import and label all the video footage from this season so far.  Trying to get an early start this season.  Since the snow conditions are spring like and we are not doing much filming at this point, I thought it would be a good idea to get ahead on the editing side.  We are working with two seasons worth of footage for this new Car Danchi movie so there is a lot of material to work with.  It is going to be a tough edit.  The first stage of getting all the footage into the computer and organized is always a hard step.  Will keep you all posted on the progress. 

By the way it was 15 degrees in Sapporo yesterday, the news reported that it has been 117 years since Sapporo reached that temperature in March.  The is a long time ago.  Lets hope it does not happen again for another 117 years! 

Car Danchi crew and BP magazine

The Car Danchi crew is going to be featured in an upcoming edition of the magazine B.P., a companion magazine to Be.Pal magazine. They issue this special mag a couple of times a year here in Japan, each time with a different theme. This upcoming issue to be released in late April has the theme “My Room”. Somehow they found out about the Car Danchi crew living in our cars and decided to make us part of the magazine. Was nice to welcome Tomohiro and Goto from Tokyo today and introduce them to the crew.

Yatto, Takamasa, Mino, Deshi and Tsukasa all joined the shooting today. They took a lot of pictures and I was amazed to see the camera man actually show up with a Mamiya RZ67!

In this day and age a cameraman shooting film is a rare sight. Not only that but this is no fashion shoot, they were just taking pictures of our gear in the cars. I kind of felt bad that I had not even washed my car or cleaned up in preparation for the shoot….

Everything went real smooth and we were able to shoot all the cars lined up together at the top of Nakayama pass after all the interior shots.

So look for the magazine in about a month, and check out the Car Danchi crew lifestyle gear.
Chatting with Deshi in front of his house.

Yes, the weather was warm today.

Yatto in a tank top!

Checking out Yatto’s kitchen supplies.

Shinya goes to AK

Car Danchi crew member Shinya Nakagawa left for Alaska today!  He went solo today, but will be joined by photographer Kei Sato in about a week.  Shinya told me that he started a blog recently and hopes to make some updates from AK, check it out and follow along with his trip if you have a chance.  Good Luck and safe trip Shinya!

Warm weather nice sunset

Another very warm day here in Hokkaido. The snow continues to melt at a very fast pace. The temperature today felt like a mid-May temperature….. not so good for the snow pack. If it is this warm in March it makes you wonder what the temp is going to be in August. Maybe we are in for a very hot summer here in Hokkaido. The weather was beautiful again today so I decided to join Yatto and filmer Tsukasa at the top of Nakayama for another practice session. Yatto is riding his sled around like a mad man trying to learn how to ride. It is fun watching him crash! We rode to the top of Nakayama ski hill for the sunset view and did a little filming of us riding around. Then shot the sunset from the top. The view was incredible.

The night lights on at Niseko Hirafu and the sunset in the background was spectacular.

Yatto and Tsukasa chilling while appreciating the Hokkaido view.

Spring Festival in Tomamu!

The Blueblood Spring Festival in Tomamu is back for the second year in a row! Please come join me and the Blueblood team for two days of spring snowboarding and BBQ and responsible drinking at Tomamu’s Spring Park! We are going to build a massive snowboard mini ramp and mini shred fun park to go along with all the other big park items they have there. There will be a live concert by Higashida Tomohiro, and some big name DJs from Tokyo coming up as well. Bring your car or tent to sleep in and stay the night of April 19th. It is going to be a big Car Danchi gathering at the parking lot of the Spring Park.

Check out the flyer for more info and mark these dates down in your snowboard calendar. This is going to be the last weekend for the Tomamu park so hope to see you all there!

Yatto joins the Sled club!

Volcom rider Yatto has joined the exclusive snowmobile club in Sapporo! I think he is the first pro snowboard rider to buy a snowmobile in Hokkaido! Congratulations Yatto, look forward to riding with you a lot!

Yatto bought a one year old Phazer same model as mine, but his has some optional parts and custom work done on it. Very nice machine.

It even has an oil catch tank added on, which he is going to need because I saw him flip the sled many times yesterday, his first day of riding!