Niseko Powder!!! Japan Day Three
Storm totals this morning were in the 80 cm range. That’s almost a meter of snow in two days.
We woke up early and had breakfast around our modest home. It’s interesting here in the mornings with 7 people trying to eat in a small living space.
Roommates Anthony Bonello and Stephen Brawn enjoying some fruit salad and bran cereal breakfast.
After loading up the van with 8 people, 3 movie cameras, 1 still camera, backcountry packs, skis and snowboards (it’s a challenge everyday), we headed back to the same zone we hit up yesterday.
I always tuck myself into the corner of the bus, sandwiched between broad shouldered ski dudes and tons of equipment.
It wasn’t snowing nearly as hard today so I actually got to see some of the sights around. It is beautiful here. The mountains here are all inactive volcanoes but the air smells of sulfur.
Here you can kind of see the peak behind the cloud. We had about 30 minutes of blue sky today, the rest of the day it continued to snow.
JT Robinson got in last night bringing the number of people in our 6 bedroom apartments to 11 or 12, I can’t remember.
I’m stoked on my hiking steeze. I’ve been using my scarf as a headwrap. And the Roxy Mumbo Jumbo skis are awesome to skin on! They are like big, floaty snowshoes on the skin trails.
The bootpack
Sweet grass productions director Nick Waggoner and photographer Mike Brown setting up the shot.
JT ripping it up Niseko style
The only other skier besides our group I saw today. He was stoked! I tried to speak in Japanese with him and quickly realized how poor my Japanese is.
My new goggles! Love the lenses.
Forrest Coots and Mike Brown hi-fiving after a great day.
After skiing we stopped by this board shop where this guy Taro shapes surf and snowboards.
Taro showing off his latest creation.
Taro showed off some of his photos and we looked at Japanese surf and snow magazines. It was so cool to walk into a shop in the middle of another country and have the same vibe, the unspoken bond between loves of snow and surf.
We finished the day with burgers and beers at Jojos in Niseko. I finally got to take a long shower and wash out the hand soap I accidentally washed my hair with at the hot springs yesterday.
More pow and pics tomorrow.
