Car Danchi Sapporo Party!

The Car Danchi crew will be hosting a party and movie showing at “Booty” in Sapporo this month!

The Movie will go on sale 9/11 around Japan, so we are going to have the party on the 12th at Booty.  Doors open at 10pm and the movie will start at 11pm.  I will DJing in the lounge upstairs(first time on the decks in a loooong time) so please stop by and check it out.  Saturday nights at Booty are always wild and I am sure this one will be a legendary party.

If you want to watch some great Hokkaido snowboarding, drink and do a little dancing, this is the place to be on the 12th!

Click on the images below for a larger view.

Blueblood Catalog

The new Blueblood catalog is out!  Featuring photographs by me Neil, Kei Sato and Hajime!  This year Blueblood went with a fold out map style catalog.  I think it looks great.  You get a huge poster of Yamauchi inside for your wall and very easy to read and study all the different wear styles and gear.

Check the Blueblood website for more info.  Thanks to all the photographers, designer Etsu and the Blueblood staff lead by Ishigu and Caron!

Next season is the tenth anniversary of the brand so look to some big things coming next winter!

Car Danchi 4 T-shirt sample

Yesterday when I got home I stopped by Takamasa’s house and picked up the first samples of the Car Danchi 4 T-shirts! We made 20 to start with, these will be for the riders and all those involved in the making of the film.

Decided to go with a black T-shirt and use the package design for the front. We are going to add a written message on the back for the actual production version. T-shirts will be available in limited quantities at select shops around Japan. We are still taking orders at this point so not sure what stores will stock the shirts yet.

Here is what the T-shirt will look like with a message on the back. We decided to use a quote from Yamauchi in the movie, which is “Arigataya….” or “Thank you….”a s in “Thank you Lord for this blessed powder!”

A few more shots from Sendai trip

Kuniyuki hooked me up with a few photos from the Sendai trip so thought I would share them here.

After Kuniyuki’s performance, I decided to see what it feels like to get on stage and sing… no thanks!

After the reception party was finished, the staff cleaned up the store and I finally got to shoot the store photos.  Went for the high angle this time using the big ladder they had there.

Thanks to Ogu for another fun trip, always a blast hanging out with “The Passion.”

On the way to the airport, caught a couple of good shots out the back of the train.

Thanks to Kuniyuki for the pictures.

Final teaser

The final teaser for Car Danchi 4 is now up on YouTube check it out!

The final installment in a series of five teasers for the new snowboarding movie Car Danchi 4 “Rent”. In this edition rider “Yatto” explains how to eat cheap at the Japanese version of 7/11. Every yen counts as we spend the winter living in our cars searching for the ultimate powder!

Sendai TNF new store!

I am in Sendai for the opening of a new TNF store.  Great location right on Hirose dori about ten minutes walk from the Sendai JR station.  Huge store, high ceiling, wood floor, cool speakers!  The TNF store designers have done it again, super job.  Was fun to shoot pictures of the store yesterday.

If you live in Sendai or the Tohoku area check them out next time you are in the area!

Construction work

Well it has been a busy ten days. Had no chance to post this news until now. Since last Monday, I and three of the crew have been working our butts off to break down a second floor location that used to be a “Snack” bar. The building here in Jozankei has been unused for the last 15 years. Thanks to a few lucky connections, it looks like my partners and I will be opening a new Cafe/Bar/Gallery in this location, hopefully by the middle of October. Things came together very quickly over a few days, and on last Monday we gathered at the location and started working to tear out the old, so we can bring in the new.

The work has been very very hard. Walls, heaters, sofa, tile, ceiling, lighting, kitchen everything had to come out. It was disgusting, dusty, dirty, old, grime filled etc., etc., After a week we had almost everything torn out. Now we are at the clean up stage. The steel roof is rusty, the carpet and tile are very hard to scrape up, the list goes on and on. Thanks to Harada, Takamasa, and Mino for their hard work. My fingers are still hurting from pulling up that shitty carpet. If I could get my hands on the guy who put too much glue on there years ago when they laid that carpet… I would certainly have a word with the fella!

Respect to all deconstruction workers out there, it is not an easy job.

The first wall comes down.

Taking a break after pulling up a section of carpet.

Ceiling is history and electric system about to get cut off.

Walls stripped and kitchen gone!

Luckiest thing to happen, when we took out the old cigarette vending machine we heard coins jingling inside.  After a little drilling and use of a crowbar, we broke it open and found about 15 bucks worth of change!  It doesn’t buy a lot of drinks in Japan, but it felt good.

More coming soon on this project!

Message from Switzerland

Got a photo and message from Photog Key Sato who has been in Saas-Fee shooting with Oku and a friends. Looks like he has been having a great time over there. Can’t wait to get back to Swiss again someday soon. I miss the glacier riding and cheese and good bread! Check out Key’s blog for more.

Todays best spam

I am sure most people out there have some spam filter keep all the bullcrap out of your inbox. Well my filter doesn’t work that good so I have been getting lots of spam. Every now and then there is one that stands out amongst all the crap. So a**hole actually took the time to sit down and write some creative crap that will be taken as a real email by the spam filters. So here is my choice of the day.

Thanks to Bottino Rimar for helping me waste a few minutes of my day!

“Ren, and if we follow the words of the beaver we will be lucky. This
seed the beaver gave me, and told me to plant it every year. When we ask
help from the beaver, we will smoke this plant.” This plant was the
Indian tobacco, and it is from the beaver that the Blackfeet got it.
Many strange things were taught this man by the beaver, which were
handed down and are followed till to-day. THE BUFFALO ROCK A small
stone, which is usually a fossil shell of some kind, is known by the
Blackfeet as I-nis’-kim, the buffalo stone. This object is strong
medicine, and, as indicated in some of these stories, gives its
possessor great power with buffalo. The stone is found on the prairie,
and the person who succeeds in obtaining one is regarded as very
fortunate. Sometimes a man, who is riding along on the prairie, will
hear a peculiar faint chirp, such as a little bird might utter. The
sound he knows is made by a buffalo rock. He stops and searches on the
ground for the rock, and if he cannot find it, marks the place and very
likely returns next day, either alone or with others from the camp, to
look for it again. If it i”

CAr-Neru

Here is something for all the Car Danchi fans in Japan.  I was recently introduced to this magazine produced in Japan called,  Car-Neru (Car-sleeping).  An entire magazine about sleeping in your car, fantastic!  These people must be watching Car Danchi the movie. Either way I am going to have to send them a copy of the movie.