Candle light festival happening in my little village until this coming Sunday! big thanks to all the community volunteers working hard to keep the candles lit in some cold and snow conditions!
Tag Archives: Jozankei
Leaf Peeping
The fall colors were blazing here in Jozankei the last few days. I took an hour two mornings ago to drive around and shoot a few pictures at some of my favorite spots.
First snow is deep!
The first snowfall set a new record here in my little village of Jozankei. We got about 30 plus cm of snow by yesterday morning! My 74 year old neighbor said that has only happened two or three times in his life! I remember getting about 5 cm on November the 3rd five years ago. Maybe this is the mega season we have all been waiting for. here are some shots from yesterday morning about 7 am. I walked around the neighborhood for about 30 minutes in the morning trying to capture the magic of the first snow.
Although it is very pretty and everyone is excited about the first snow of the season, I have to make a note here. The tree population took are hard hit with this storm. Due to the fact that most of the trees at lower elevations still had leaves on the branches the combined weight was too much for some. At night in my office I could here the sound of branches snapping and the thud of trees falling over. Just in my neighborhood I would say at least a hundred trees were down by morning. The electric company was having a field day trying to cut branches and trees that had fallen on power lines all day today.
Red leaves on a maple tree with snow, unusual scene for this area.
The One Films mobile studio is ready for action! Let it snow!
Heli flight around Jozankei
Big thanks to my favorite heli pilot Mr. Sekiguchi for two fantastic flights around the Jozankei area yesterday and the day before. Tomorrow is the last day you can take the flight so if you are in the area I highly recommend that you drop by and drop the cash for the flight. It is well worth the ¥10,000 to see the area from the sky. The fall colors are not the greatest this year, but from the vantage point of the heli I was still really impressed!
Anytime you can hop in a multi million dollar machine and go for a spin I highly recommend it! The owner of this heli likes and owns a red Ferrari so he had this heli painted red as well.
Mt. Muine in the distance.
Hoheikyo dam
colors blazing in the morning light, this flight was about 10am.
low flying over a ridge.
We did a nice loop around the village got to see it from all angles.
Second flight with the player crew, Dai-Hard, King of Diggin Muro and @Daisukeoguchi
This flight was more acrobatic in nature. Here our pilot pours on the G’s banking into a steep dive before pulling up near the valley floor. We were all screaming like little kids!
Everybody very stoked!
Again big thanks to pilot Sekiguchi, respect the driving skills!
Remember the more you scream the more acrobatic he gets!
Top Quality lodging
If you need a top quality hotel when visiting Sapporo, here is my recomendation. http://www.club-jyozankei.com/
Check out the new web site made by the crew at Art Creation using my photography. A few of the photos are left overs from the original site, but I re-developed everything to match my new photos and I think you would have trouble figuring out which are which.
It is a pleasure to be a part of a web project that looks this good. Certainly a first for me.
Jozankei Art photos
Festival in Jozankei
Yesterday kicked off “Kappa Week” here in Jozankei. It has been a busy few days setting up the shop at the Gensen Park location. The summer vacation family crowd has been out in full force, and thanks to everyone who stopped by. Here are a few photos of the location and some of the artwork. Several days left so don’t hesitate to stop and say hello. The beer and snacks are quite refreshing in this heat, and there are some shady spots to sit and relax.
このへん トラベラ
The TV show “kono hen traveler” came to Jozankei two days ago and spent the day filming around the village. They even came by ‘On Cafe’ and filmed with us! The show stars Taka and Toshi who are super popular now, and also Hotohara. All three are comedians so it was fun to hang with those guys and hear them making jokes live in person. As part of the show after filming at the cafe, I drove them in my camping car to the river for a ride with the local canoe service. Check out my photo of the stars hanging in my car! The show will air on the 4th and 11th of August, check it out on HTB here in Hokkaido.
Busting my ass
Yesterday spent 12 hours shooting photos of a hotel near my house. It was hot as hell and the client was on my ass all day long, shoot this shoot that, can you take a picture of this shampoo bottle? Oh how about this book case? On and on non stop for 12 hours. I shot 1300 photos in that time. Anyway more about that job later, for now here are a couple of the photos.
Mountain Party at On Cafe
Tomorrow we are holding a season ending party at On Cafe. If you are a skier, snowboarder, or just a mountain lover come by for some cheap drinks and a chance to meet like-minded people! We’re planning to have these mountain parties at the beginning and end of every season.
The Neil Hartmann Weblog 