https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/930981/J-A-P-A-N----A-New-Beginning
Within the ski and snowboard world Japan has built an impressive reputation.
For decades skiers and film crews have been traveling to Japan for the same reason.
The seemingly never ending supply of deep, light, powder.
All of these things peaked our interest and motivated our journey to the Land of the Rising Sun.
Ive never felt a reason to define what makes those moments so unique, and sometimes surreal.
Japan was our Neverland and after all these years of wishing we were ready to take the leap.
Admittedly, this wasnt my first time to Japan.
My maiden voyage to the land of the falling pow was this same time last year.
The experience was special enough to seduce me into returning to Hokkaido again.
Perhaps the start of an annual pilgrimage but it is too early to tell for certain.
There is so much information on Japan it can be overwhelming at times.
Every trip report or new edit pulling you towards different regions, time frames, and flight itineraries.
Both years we have decided on traveling up to Hokkaido, the northern Island of Japan.
Hokkaido typically receives more consistent snow conditions thanks to colder, drier storms that arrive more frequently.
Hokkaido sounded like the place that could deliver.
When traveling overseas on a 20-somethings ski budget every hack makes a difference.
The main challenge when traveling to Japan is finding lodging.
A booming tourism business keeps the prices of lodging going up and availability continues to drop.
The first way is to choose many locations to stay during a trip and travel between them.
We opted for the second travel method this year in Japan.
Unknowingly, we also had close proximity to a handful of really fun backcountry zones.
Green tea and coffee the only methods of making it to the end of the first few days.
Each day we woke early, checked the snow reports and discussed the plan for the day over tea.
By the end of the trip it became routine, just chatting about where to ski powder that day.
Each day feeling more confident in our predictions and more comfortable to explore.
Thanks to our good friend Cam we knew many secret stashes at the resort.
When we were willing to tour we were always rewarded.
Setting first tracks down perfect slopes constantly rewarded with face shot after face shot.
Despite heavy, tired legs by the end of the trip all I wanted to do was tour.
Each day scouring the mountains from the car to spot a rad zone.
Never confident that our car would remain in the parking spot without being towed or ticketed.
Japan rewards those willing to step outside the resort boundaries.
This trip wasnt about creating an edit or a shot list or skiing the biggest lines we could find.
This was a group of friends who grew up in California binging on ski movies and online forums.
We all skied some of the deepest and certainly the lightest powder we had ever experienced.
A collaborative effort just to create something cool because we wanted to.
