SLOG – Solo Top To Bottom plus base area tour of Sapporo Kokusai

Respect & Love to all. Thanks for watching. You can learn more about me below and follow the links to see the products and other creative outlets I produce.

Please purchase Dang Shades in Japan through this link!
このリンクから日本で Dang Shades を購入してください!
https://c.affitch.com?ref=9MA9GXT646KY

Our Soft Serve Ice Cream Specialty store.
Locale-JZK
https://locale.carrd.co/

Purchase or rent my movie series through Vimeo on Demand.
Car Danchi Movie series

Buy my photo book through Buena Book in Tokyo, Japan
Bluetiful Photo Book
https://tinyurl.com/Bueno-Books-Bluetiful

My hosting work for the city of Sapporo.
Visit Sapporo:

Neil Hartmann

Movie Production work for the beautiful town of Uchiko-cho in Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku.
Uchiko Town
https://tinyurl.com/Uchiko

My author profile on Outdoor Japan.
Outdoor Japan
https://www.outdoorjapan.com/author/neil_hartmann/

1972年カリフォルニア州サンディエゴ生まれ。ニールに先駆けてアメリカから北海道へ移住した父親を訪ねて９１年から北海道で暮らし始める、北海道のラジオ局(FM北海道、現AIR-G’)のラジオ司会者としての活動を開始。北海道テレビのスノーボード番組「no matter board」のオリジナル司会。98年長野オリンピックハーフパイプMCや日産エクストレイルジャムのレギュラーMCなど。９０年代後半からスノーボード映像の撮影を独学で開始、自主製作のスノームービー『CAR DANCHI（車団地）』北海道在住のスノーボーダーのドキュメンタリー作品シリーズ。『CAR DANCHI』は、およそ１、２年に１タイトルのペースで発売を重ね、現在までに10作をリリース。最新作『CAR DANCHI 10』は2018年の秋に発売された。

Along with Client and professional work, Neil created his own series of Snowboard documentary films entitled “Car Danchi” The first episode was released in 2005 and a total of 10 titles were produced over 14 years. As the video industry evolved and new outlets for creativity and promotion like social media arose, Neil, shifted again to incorporate this new media. For the last several years, Neil has focused on creating photo and video content for many brands, cities, and towns that concentrate on tourism and travel. “Visit Sapporo” YouTube channel video content. Uchiko Town in Shikoku video and photo production, Rusutsu Resort TV commercials, Social media management for Chalet Ivy Hotel brand, Rusutsu Resort, Niseko Moiwa Resort, and Promotional video production for Tokyu Grand Hirafu Resort, NEC, Sapporo City Ainu promotion, and more.

Besides the video production, Neil and his wife Erina own and manage a Soft Ice Cream specialty shop called “Locale-JZK” In the summer season you can find Neil and Erina greeting customers at the location in Jozankei Onsen. In the winter the shop moves to the top of Sapporo Kokusai resort, Sapporo’s largest ski area. Customers can enjoy delicious Hokkaido soft ice cream at 1,100 meters elevation during the ski season.

Little look at the cafe there all right here we go just came up to the mountain to deliver some supplies got to keep everything in Supply you probably can’t see it but there’s a helicopter flying out there there was an accident all right we’re going to take a

Run top to bottom T folksy it is January the 6th it is a Saturday the beginning of a 3-day weekend there’s tons of people up here and uh okay I got my phone I got my car keys I think we’re ready to go we had a little snow you can

See some snow up there on the sign there’s a little cornice Building Up on the Roof I have to knock that down and and uh let’s see where we can go and what we can find on the resort late afternoon like 2:30 something like

That uh like I said just came up to drop off some stuff it’s a windy day but we got some sun and it’s not Thaty Like I said I have no plans but I want to try to do something different I was looking back at the the footage that I shoot here and I’m like man just doesn’t look very exciting think it’s cuz the courses are kind of wide visually just a wide flat hor do look

Interesting usually like to get into with the tight trees more visually kind of hard this the Tre let’s see two the wall yeah two right in the roof knife on the edge yeah board is fast here’s a little fun one smash oo jump not going to hit the box that

Much all right I think it’s good I think it’s turning into a fun run already here let’s go side of the echo course the wind adding some s here a little powder upside actually not bad not bad 80 surface s attack that’s very nice snow very nice Snow all right very good for conditions I would say that here we go all right off Beast off Beast we’re in the off beast and that’s the end of it oh Jesus very tight exit here that did not work out very good okay that was the side country pretty

Exciting today’s gear setup is the classic giant v r with bambo top sheet the TT K2 those are boots got my needy pants on and oh sorry I got my my uh green clothing hand me down uh snowboard pants on and my Solomon jacket with the long

Like kind of like a tuxedo I’ll call it my Solomon tuxedo jacket why not all right up here uh D shades goles of course very good Autumn Beady and a smart wol face mask very nice oh man there are a lot of kids here doing these lessons so it’s like your

Vacation right now and uh all these schools they offer like intensive lessons like you know a week or 3 days straight or whatever it might be so all the kids out here skiing learning to ski teachers good for them to get a lot of work um it’s great I think it’s an

Absolutely great thing about uh kids growing up here in Hokkaido you’re pretty much guaranteed to learn how to ski uh a snowboarding is not taught in the schools so that’s up to you but you know Lear okay what do we do here we go down

The inside of the Swing course I do like that one but I kind of do that a lot uh oh I remember that I remember those days having the kid on the Rope yeah good stuff good stuff I don’t know let’s uh got way left see what happens over here beautiful views today

Beautiful sunshine over there yeah so the reason the snow at kokai stays so darn good is this you see that there’s a big old Cloud up there the sun is low in the sky this time of year the mountain is kind of facing like North Northeast so we don’t get that

Late afternoon sun and uh especially in like January and February when the Sun starts to get higher later in the season uh we do get some sun and that’s what resort can get baked a little bit wo we’re back at the side country oo exciting o pillow ah I like soft stuff around

Okay well this is really good snow actually really good snow so glad everybody had a good Saturday here was complaining about icy condition you okay sometimes you see these people they’re just like I think I hurt myself struggling to get down the Gonda yeah all right that was a little something different little

Spice nice man the lineup to the Condola it’s too much today really crowded oh let’s take the little road here slash by the shrine hello Shrine okay we paid our respects real quick there hey it’s better than nothing you know people most be just ride by that thing they have no idea there

That’s the local deity that’s our protector of the Mountain Man show some respect okay nice let’s go do a little uh walk around the base area just kind of show you things and uh see what it looks like here this will be fun get an idea of the

Crowds getting that last little bit of sun here before it disappears okay here’s our Gondola eight man Gondola and see the lineup so when the the line’s out to here pass the building it’s a crowded day that’s basically the simple way to look at but it’s crowded here’s our uh Bell this was

Originally built about 40 something years ago when they first made the resort the fantasy Bell the Bell haven’t ring the bell everybody there’s more people doing lessons restaurants in there where you buy your lift tickets over there and we have the metan lift fantasy lift over here and this is kind of the

Beginner LIF who don’t want to do the whole Mountain on the Gondola it is kind of long over here look at this it’s pack today it’s like Disneyland here a little too much there’s no Singles Line I believe or maybe there is there might be a line for the school kids this extra

Line here think is for the school kids to use Maybe is a Singles Line not enough people taking advantage of The Singles Line and there we have the snow escalator and this is now called the snow park so we can like rent sleds and you can rent these kind of funky uh B

Snowboards with like a handlebar here someone’s coming out with one right now there you go see that that’s uh that’s what I’m talking about look little snowboard with a handlebar and it’s just kind of fun to stand on and you get the vibe of what it

Feels like the sort of snowboard so for first time for first timer snow escalator from 9:30 to 3 cost 1,500 Yen for the day and you get to ride on this snow escalator as much as you want um very mellow little slope so it is a good spot for the the ultra

Beginners and uh yeah we got these new uh little Huts here let’s go have a look at that because I’ve not been inside them down here yet so this will be a first for me as well really don’t know what’s going on here yeah see so you can uh oh I see

They got all the oh this is where they’re doing the reception and rent and return so snowshoes 2 hours 2,000 Yen snowboard with handlebars for 3 hours is 3,000 yen snow RAC for 3 hours 2,000 y snow feet and a helmet or everything for 5,000 yen so I

Guess if you just plop down like 50 G’s 5,000 yen you can rant all of this stuff for like the whole day and try all kinds of different things so that’s what it looks like inside kind of a nice little emergency shelter to have outside your house actually there’s the rental

Boards and over here snow park what you draw draw boy okay that’s where you come if you want to rent something and so I don’t know if anybody has watched this video this far so far here’s our smoking section uh the whole Resort kind of went into like a

Non-smoking mode few years back but you know you got to have something for the cigarette smokers and uh there’s a little Hut right there with the old that’s like check out that classic wooden door man that thing is like ancient it’s a it’s like a nicotine stained door or something like that so

That’s your little smoking section if you want to go and have a sigy work on your lung cancer a little bit you’re welcome to do that and a lot of buses today as you can see a lot of buses backed up there and oh see there’s another there’s a little cute one so

They got different sizes on these little handlebar boards so that’s like a little one that’s a it says XS so that’s the smallest size the little kids I I I kind of dig it I kind of dig the idea you know um it’s like like skateboard with handlebars you know just something to

Kind of get the the vibe of what it feels like to slide on snow and use an edge you so I’m not against it at all and now that we’re on our like full walking tour here might as well just keep on keep it on kids kids are always so cute with their

Ski wear over here we got some old gondolas now these gondolas uh are the old six-man gondolas that used to be over there uh that building there they took down the poles and all the uh equipment couple years ago like two years ago and the building is still standing there

There they may repurpose it for something in the future and in a couple more years they’re talking about redoing the eight-man gondola that we have now into probably a 10man probably a 10-man gondola it’s a couple years off but there is talk about that so that would

Be cool to see you know new 10man Gonda be kind of cool all right and we’ll wrap it up going through the entrance here this this uh log building over here this used to be where you bought your lift tickets a long time ago and then

They also had right next to that tree there was a time when they had the lift tickets sold at a little Hut there’s like a wood Log Cabin right over to the left of that tree I believe and coming a big ass lineup stand in line but it was a it was

A cool looking little cabin it’s a very cool little wood cabin kind of classic pido country side Stop all right here we go coming through coming through and that’s going to wrap up our tour hope everybody has a good weekend and I’ll see you next One okay going to get back to the car get home edit up this video see you