Now on SlamXhype

The North Face Standard store is making waves globally to be sure!  Now also appearing on SlamXhype one of the leading mens fashion web sites.
Click the photo or link above to read the story by James Oliver.

New North Face product videos

Here are a couple of new product instruction videos I made for The North Face web site in Japan. We shot these simple videos in Tateyama last spring. There are four in total, helping to explain the correct way to use the winter specific backpacks that The North Face makes here in Japan. There are a lot of features included with these bags so it might be a good idea to watch so that you don’t miss something.

Click here to go to the official North Face web site, then click on the link called “Users Guide” from there you will see the Snowpacks image below.

Not only video, you can see step by step instructions by photos as well.

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!

Moved in

Spent all day yesterday moving into and arranging the new office space.  Thanks to some help from Tsukasa we were able to get all the furniture moved over in the morning and by about 3pm it was looking pretty good.  Tsukasa smashed his thumb in the elevator door and probably cracked the bone, by evening it was prety swollen.  So moving does have its dangers!  Here are a couple of pictures of the new space including a panorama I shot on my Olympus digi. Click the picture for a larger version.

My camera collection                                                                                       

A wall full of posters that I shot.