Back on the net today in the hotel lobby – Hyna just made it through to the semis of the Asian Open somehow?! He got super sick just as we arrived here but managed to scrape through bang on the cut off line with 15th place in the qualifyers and then 18th place in the next round which put him out of the comp by 8 places (top 10 go through) but then 9 invited riders didn’t show so he got in by 1 place! I was going to post his run and a couple of others from the qualifyers but this is far more entertaining – The Japanese seem to love stretching over here, they can be seen all over the mountain going through their routine; this is next level though. Guaranteed no injuries for this guy today thats a given. Outstanding flexibility. WATCH ABOVE!

The airport carpark a few days ago!

Airport ques

Alts Bandai from shot from our last train – STOKED!

We finally made it to Alts Bandai in one piece but it wasn’t easy… Gnarly blizzards in Sapporo meant our flight was cancelled and we had to rebook for the next day but couldn’t get one until 7pm which would have stuffed up all of our train transfers from tokyo so we had to take the plunge and jump on the bullet train all the way down to here.  For a solid 24 hours it was like being on the amazing race trying to hustle to get first dibs on flights for the next day and then trying to book a seat on the train so we didn’t have to stand for 12 hours.  Never been on a bullet train before but for some reason I had high expectations of luxury cruising through the night, with plenty of room to stretch out and sleep – it turned out to be the exact opposite and was easily the worst 12 hours i’ve spent in Japan; 5 train transfers in 12 hours is DRAINING.  All that aside we are now chilling in Inawashiro and riding Alts Bandai which is pretty dope – qualifying is today and the sun is out; i’ll update again at the end of the day with the haps…

252 yen in 1 yen pieces – i’ll take two ice creams thanks; one on a stick and one in a tub…

Thats alot of snow right thur…

Last night riding chair equipt with plastic cover…

Just like that it’s all over – it’s been two weeks up in kutchan/niseko and gone way too quick but all good things must come to an end and it’s time to move on.  Tomorrow we head down south to Inawashiro where we will be staying for a week and riding Alts Bandai – the Asian Open is here so I will be filming that and hopefully some other stuff outside of the event but will see how we go.  Pretty sad to leave this place actually it’s SO epic up here I definetely recommend you come visit if you havn’t already and if your looking for accommodation look no further than www.nisekolongstay.com.  Best rates around and super nice people you can even get meals for 600yen a night if you like.  Will be on the road for a bit now so not sure how easy internet access will be but will try keep things updated as much as poss… cheda.

Takashito, Hyna and Koutarou talking about something in japanese?, hopefully not me.

Today Hyna was back on his board but just cruisin – we met up with a couple of his Japanese mates; Koutarou and Takashito and they took us to some lil pillows and tree tap thingy.  Mellow lil features but pretty sick, a couple 5′s went down and a tail tap back 3 which was dope.  It was dumping all day again to my disbelief?! can’t believe how much it has been snowing lately, I don’t want to leave but tommorrow is our last day before heading down south for the Nippon Open, should be good times anyway.  Going to shoot something again tommorrow so should have some footage up…

Not alot happened today – it’s pretty quite around here at the moment with 5 people gone and only 2 left… Hynes still resting his shin so I went nightriding this arvo with dave, bryn and crew and scored it again! This place is mental it just won’t stop snowing – day after day of freshies… Sorry about the lack of real snowboard content here but it’s been a bit slow lately, tommorrow should be good though, hynas back on his board so we might do a lil something in the evening… Above is a photo of me getting mass titties – carefely scupltured by the niza man; it’s the most digging he did the whole trip, well worth it of course.

And just like that the crew goes from 7 to 2; Today we dropped off Ferret, Jeremy, Mark, Animal and Rob at Chitose airport about 2hrs away. By the time we arrived though a gnarly storm had kicked in and turns out that planes weren’t flying till tommorrow morning so instead of ruining tokyo for 3 days they will have to ruin sapporo for 1 day and tokyo for two.  It all works out the same and i’m sure whatever happens there will be a story to tell and I can’t wait to hear it.  All I have for you today is a lil video showing the diffuculties of dealing with a ‘non-english’ speaking culture – This is Mark and I trying to get jumper leads off the local gas station, it’s no easy task and we we’re lucky enough to have hyna tell us the word for ‘battery’ which is ‘Denchi’ in Japanese – thats all we had but with a bit of sign language and awkward pauses the message got accross.. anyway CLICK HERE for an ‘awkward japanese conversation’. ARIGATO!

Driving and that…

From 7 to two…

Classic Hokkaido…

Animal gets the feature shot of the day today.. although you can hardly see who is in this photo I can confirm it is ‘the muel’.  After a solid day of rain things we’re looking pretty grim but it finally got cold again and started dumping and hasn’t stopped for two days now..Woke up this morning pretty amped to get amongst the pow but things didn’t start too well with a flat battery first thing – Mark and I headed to the local gas station for some jumper leads and managed to get him to drive to our place to give us a jump start only to find that I had somehow misplaced the key for the van so couldn’t start it anyway!  Things we’re going from bad to worse and I was starting to think that today wasn’t going to happen at all… but somehow Mark managed to find the key in the snow down the road which had fallen out of my pocket on the way… crazy he found it but so stoked that he did.. So we finally got away at midday, and after a near miss 2mins from our house at the intersection on the corner (yea I forgot to give way) we made it to Niseko Harufu and it was with out a doubt the best pow day of the trip… Bottomless pow that kept on refilling itself after each run..  I’ve got a couply shots here to prove i’m not all talk so do yourself a favour and – CLICK HERE

Hynas got way too much time on his hands with stitches in his shin he’s resorted to creating online cooking lessons.  Apparently his pancakes are insane, i’m yet to try one but they do look pretty good.  Click here or image above.

Last night got a bit out of hand – being stuck inside all day because of the rain kinda does that to you with nothing much else to do but drink cheap vodka and whiskey we headed down the road to tom’s place and played sumo wrestling, irish jigging and other gymnastic type activities before heading to the bar for a couple of hours.  It’s been snowing today though and a little last night as well so night riding should be on tonight and hopefully go shoot something tomorrow.

Believe it or not thats our house… few drinks early in the night.

and onto Tom’s place

Animal with his family

Bob Marshall mid Break dance

More activities

Today sux.. it’s raining.  and rained most of last night so theres not much to do, on top of that hynas injured and animals lurking around talking smack about all sorts of shit… Today we went to the onsen at the hilton and drunk some vodkas, good times although I would rather be riding pow or shooting something but never mind – hopefully the snow returns in the next few days and we can get amongt it.  below some more pics from ‘the niza man’ over the last few days.  Arigato!.

Hyna Tunnel Art…

Thats a tunnel again.. not really that interesting.

Ice Sculptures – Hyna, me, Mark, Ferret, Jeremy…

This old lady was actually prety happy about the whole situation..

Manderson throwing hammers – Switch Frnt Blunt Sameways…