Japanuary
/In January, I made the pilgrimage to Japan with Bryan Fox. Growing up snowboarding in the Northwest, I watched videos of people riding the famous Japanese powder that has inspired names like Japow and Japanuary (its usually the best conditions in January). Japan's location in the North Pacific gives the area a unique combination of cold temperatures and tons of moister. With a few days notice, I packed my things and met Bryan in Vancouver BC. After 21 hours of travel, we were in a rental van in Hokkaido. For the next 10 days, we drover around the island looking for hotsprings and powder. I was blow away by how affordable travel is there when compared to winter towns in the west. The food is cheap, the 7-11's have delicious sushi. The hostels are cheap and you can hike to ride world class powder. They have hands down, the best local snowboarding scene with people living in their vans traveling around in search of the best powder. I hiked around with a tripod and camera and made this lil vid of him shredding for Quiksilver. We had a blast.
Here are some more links,
