Konnichiwa! Welcome to my adventure journal where i will be sharing my photographs and stories with you. I hope that when reading these articles you are inspired to #optoustide and go have an adventure.
On a twelve hour direct flight from Denver, Colorado we arrive in Tokoyo, Japan at six o’clock in the evening. We grab our ski bags and head to our hotel in the Shinjuku District. Famished and curious we drop our stuff at the hotel and walk out the door in search of delicious food. A twenty minute walk puts us right in the heart of Shinjuku. We rush around letting our noses guide the way. We pass through a little corridor entranced by the amount of delicious looking treats and inviting smells in such a small vicinity. overwhelmed and nervous of what to eat we find a craft brewery and stop in for a drink. Three beers later we head back to the spot and see an old man and a two open seats at a quick service udon stand. We sit with business men and people chowing down with no time to spare. The rest of the night is filled with more food laughs and beer. The next day we get on a bus at Shinjuku station, follow the color coded pathways and find our bus to Hakuba with no time to spare. A three hour bus ride wouldnt be complete without free wifi, amazing gas station ramen, and zen bathrooms. We arrive in Hakuba at the main bus terminal to snow falling and our good friend Mel. We catch the shuttle to the Bohemian hostel with Gaspard our host for the next week.
We woke up the next morning with a 30 cm snow report and head straight to Cortina ski area, a huge red roof Swiss inspired chalet in the middle of an old growth forest with some of the best off piste tree runs on the planet. Each day we became more and more spoiled with snowfall and different adventures. From skiing deep pow off the chairlift at Tsugaike Kogen with apres foot onsens and beers , to 80 cm deep sidecountry bowls at Goryu, hiking the ridge for some deep turns at Happo-one and skiing down a road back into town for some RAMEN-GYOZA. Each new day brought on new relationships, delicious food, beer vending machines, deep powder, and wild adventures. Ski touring in japan is fantastic and you can venture as far as you want, even to another city. We are lucky enough to have such a good friend whom happens to be a guide, to show us the goods! Who is also confident that the train will come!
This is Kevan fe Hucking off a huge damn outside of Happo-one ski resort and below is exiting the white room at cortina.
Japan is amazing. I will return and you should go. Cheers. #Explore
@jake_gasaway