The Land of the Rising Sun

After an extremely hectic October/November/December in New Zealand I've decided it was time for a change! I arrived in Japan 2 days ago on Thursday 9^th of Jan. I am currently sitting in a hotel lobby at the base of Hirafu Ski Resort. I will be spending a month shooting snowboarding photos around Japan. Had a pretty interesting trip over consisting of some long plane flights, lesbians at motels, old women with crazy coughs, really fast trains, and not many foreigners after Tokyo.

Will Jackways, Andrew Kennerly, Lee and Chook picked me up from the down town Sapporo Train Station at around 1am Friday morning. I had gone from around 28 degree heat, to -12, and It was straight into the $6 bottle of whiskey for the drive back to Niseko, I was in constant awe the whole way back. So many endless opportunities to shoot just off the side of the main road!

Will Jackways on the drive from Sapporo - Niseko

Air New Zealand had somehow managed to loose my board bag between Auckland and Tokyo. Its meant to turn up after 5 oclock today, fingers crossed. We got straight into it on my first day after very few hours sleep. I rocked a whole lot of borrowed gear ( nothing too new here ) Its been dumping its tits off and everything is on. The boys bought a hi ace meaning we can pretty much smack up anything in sight! We’ve Already got a couple of hammers in the bag first day. Yayer! Will dropped a big piss off building in Niseko, crew shredded some road side pillows, and a final session was had on a Wallride beside a dope bridge. I cant post my hammers here as they are saved for the publications, but check out between sessions!

Looking up the main street towards Hirafu

Will J and a dope Japanese Road Worker!

I will be traveling for just over 3 months between Japan, Europe and America, shooting snowboarding stills. I will be updating everytime I can get to an internet connection, so keep checking backl. I get back to Wanaka to set up base for a very busy 2008 NZ season late April.