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Car Danchi Movie series
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Outdoor Japan
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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.
Commentary Neil here Hot Topic and a couple hot takes today the Japanese city of kotto is Banning tourists from some private alleys in its gisha District it’s not really the right word for it it’s an area called gon in the city of kto the city will place signs in both
English and Japanese around the areas called gon warning tourists to stay clear as well as find anyone who doesn’t listen the associate press reported ooh the title of the story kyotto is implementing more rules for tourists so quite a few big YouTubers have been talking about this I just finished
Watching a video uh from that guy uh super famous British YouTuber based in Tokyo does great videos he’s amazing I’m sorry I forgot his name right now anyway um I thought I’d comment on it I’ve been to kilo numerous times I have spent some time in that area they’re talking about
Gon I have actually Spent A Day filming professionally filming a uh not a a geisha a Michael and we’ll get into the difference in a moment because that’s important there’s so many details in this story that are lost Lost in Translation here and even when you watch
Some of these videos where people are commenting on it they don’t really go into you know what is gon what what is gon what do these gisha and Michael do like why are they even there and you know that’s that’s the kind of information that I think is is rather
Important just for a moment though let’s go over what the problem is so this area in the city of kotto is famous as it’s it’s a beautiful little area these narrow little streets with these little back Alleyways and it’s just filled with basically bars okay they don’t call them bars but
They are drinking establishments they are basically private drinking establishments they’re called like houses and there will be one uh lady who is probably a former Geisha or some related and she’ll be like the stable master and she’ll have her staff of gisha and Michael Michael is the
Young version The Apprentice to become a gan gisha white face makeup kimono the whole deal with the wig those wigs alone cost tens of thousands of dollars they don’t even make them anymore I think they’re like handed down anyway so young girl girls from around Japan I don’t know if they have to
Audition or apply or how it exactly works but they pull young girls from about the age of 15 to come to kilo and learn the tradition and the skills and everything you need to be a true Gaya now what is a Gaya let’s go to our favorite source of misinformation Wikipedia
Gea also known as Geo uh are female Japanese performing artists and entertainers trained in traditional Japanese performing art styles such as dance music and singing as well as being proficient conversationalists and hosts so they kind of covered that in a nice layer of sweet sugar there the
Important part is those last two words conversationalists and host Hostess is probably the more uh accurate word so Japan has a thing called hostess bars hostess bars are basically bars where they have a lot of ladies working they have all different grades you have really cheap trashy ones to
Really kind of high-end expensive ones where the ladies are dressed nicer they’re uh educated trained a little maybe a little more cultured and they are good conversationalists and hosts so in the higher end Hostess bar you’ll have uh you know CEOs and uh presidents of companies you know kind of elite type
People will come in in the evening and they’ll socialize maybe they’ll bring some business partners are you know they’ll they’ll kind of gather their crew and they’ll entertain them and these ladies will help in the entertainment process and they will serve drinks they will drink together and everybody’s Happ hostus bars I
Believe are basically a cheap modern-day crappy version of what the gisha system is the gisha system operates in a much more secretive much more high-end much more Elite manner this is for the Uber Rich the ultra rich in Japan and has been historically for a long time gon
Especially so you’ll have these young girls who come at about age 15 and they train for about 5 years until they’re about 20 and then I don’t know maybe some of them quit they can’t take it the ones who stick around eventually become the true gisha when everybody like gisha gisha G
When everybody’s talking about Geisha walking around in gon most of what you’re seeing are Michael these Young Apprentice girls they dress much more colorful they don’t have the super expensive wigs um I think there’s differences in the makeup I’m not an ultra professional but I’m speaking from my personal experience
When I went there spent a day filming in one of these houses with two of these young Michael girls it was for an eyewear brand and I learned a whole lot and what I got to see was sort of the the real back end you know everybody just sees
The the front side of these these shops you don’t they don’t even have like names on them you don’t even know how you could go in there you can’t go in there you’re not allowed in there they’re basically private clubs for the owners of these girls now I don’t want that sounds
Terrible they’re not maybe owners as in like it’s not slavery but these uber wealthy men are basically paying they’re like the Sugar Daddy it’s like a sugar daddy system it’s like a well-regulated organized sugar daddy system so these guys will pay money to the house to support the girl of their
Choice so maybe they hang out there maybe there’s a new girl and she’s got the makeup on she’s she’s great conversation they they hit it off he’s like oh this I want to take care of this girl and we’re talking like large sums of money here from what I
Heard I don’t know was I heard something around like $330,000 a year now you know it’s kind of like sending your daughter to University here in Japan like you’re you’re paying the tuition you’re paying for the housing Etc same kind of situation but someone who’s totally unrelated so you see where I’m going
With this there’s a whole deep world of Japanese tradition and culture and Heritage and all kinds of stuff packed into these two words that everyone throws around gon and gisha it’s like you can’t just go gon gisha it’s like there’s a whole lot of stuff running in the
Background you know you’re looking at the operating system on the screen but there’s a massive layer of motherboards and circuitry and processors behind that running that system so when you go there as a tourist and you walk around the the streets and you’re like oh it’s so beautiful here
Let’s take a picture oh look here comes a geisha she’s probably not even a geisha she’s probably a micho she’s walking down the street tourists are like snapping jumping in front of them snapping pictures they wear these ungodly massive heeled shoes that are super hard to walk in like sandals I’ve
Heard stories of these girls getting knocked down I’ve heard stories uh of you know people pulling on them trying to get them to turn around so they can get a shot of their face um basically just obstructing their movements and as part of their job I guess they go
From like private you know maybe uh dormitories or residences to their place of work you know at certain times or maybe they go to another place to meet another customer and they’re they’re moving around they’re doing their job and all these tourists we’re just hanging out going oh look it’s one of
The Disneyland cast members let’s get a picture with Mickey the gisha so it’s Anno now when I went there and I was tasked with doing this filming we had permission from the sugar daddy we had permission from the house and we had permission from the Michel who were we were
Filming and we did not have any like official filming permits Japan is kind of a still way behind on the official filming departments unless you’re like a massive you know movie uh production then you’ll need to obviously you know rent space get permits but for small low-key Brands
And little filming things it’s still very unregulated so we were obviously though conscious of what we were doing and we were super careful and you know we tried to clear everything with the locals and we had a very small crew of two three people and we f some shots
Outdoors walking in the Alleyways with the Mich and it was really really cool experience um but for me personally it was it was more interesting to see the whole back end of this this unique culture I think it’s great I have no problem with the whole system there are
Things about it I’m sure I don’t know you could probably go a couple layers deeper and uh yeah whatever but all I’m saying is that you have to understand that that area uh serves a specific purpose in the culture it’s a very necessary thing and tourists walking around on those
Streets is absolutely not a necess a necessity for those businesses they don’t need that they don’t want that they’re not interested in it it just happens that millions of tourists come to Kil every year and and gon because it is quite beautiful uh has become a real
Photogenic spot so I believe it was the last time I was there maybe like 2 years ago we stopped through I noticed they had signs up everywhere um that now said you know no no photography no filming you know uh 10,000 Yen fine so if you had your smartphone out and you’re
Snapping pictures of uh one of the Michael walking around the street uh you could get fin 10,000 Y which is like now it’s like what 60 bucks I mean people might even be like hell I’ll take the fine what’s 60 bucks for a great photo of uh you know one of
These Michael or gisha walking around on the streets no I need it for my gr man I need it for the feed um I don’t think that did anything to stop people you know maybe I see stuff like that and I’m like oh okay all right no no photos I’m cool with that
You know or I walk further away and I get my zoom lens out I’m just not I just try not to be an you know you don’t want to be an sticking your camera in someone’s face or you can go super street photography style shooting from
The hip with a silent shutter you know there’s there’s ways to get your photo or get a photo without being a total ass and that is the problem there are a lot of asses out there and they ruin it for everybody anyway it looks like they’re serious about actually Banning U
Tourists now here’s the thing though can they really enforce it are they going to put some security guard or police person on you know the entryway to these little Alleyways I mean they are very narrow little alleyways it is quite easy to police them but then what are you like checking
Passports no what about people like me who actually I’ve lived here like over 30 years and I speak perfect Japanese I might actually have some business in there you know like like that photo shoot I might actually have something to do in there and then you know how are
They going to patol that check that it seems kind of silly I think they’re just trying to cut down on the number maybe get rid of the the overly obnoxious you know larger tour groups Maybe by announcing this and putting up signs and threatening fines maybe it keeps away you know
The the worst offenders and everybody else is like yeah okay just just don’t be an ass you can go in look around you can snap a couple photos in silent mode and uh you’re all good but just just don’t be in don’t be in a total tourist
Ass well did I cover everything I think I covered everything basically it’s another lesson to not believe everything you hear and read about other cultures you know I think even in your own culture it’s hard to really know and understand every little aspect of culture and these little micro cultures
That exist in certain places and then to go to a completely foreign land with another language and go oh Keon and Thea yeah I read about it on Wikipedia they’re conversationalists and hosts and they sing and dance man it’s cool we can go get photos of them when they walk
Around sorry I didn’t I hope that uh accent didn’t offend anybody I it didn’t mean it it just that was my rude American I was just trying to act like a rude American um yeah I have no real solution but I think we’re going to see more and more of these
Issues across the board whether it’s super crowded lifts at ski resort here in ISO Hokkaido or if it’s over tourism and rude people pulling on the hair of the wigs of gishes walking in the streets of gon uh there was a whole bunch of other stuff that I just didn’t
Even know about and I learned in that guy’s video um I’ll get you his name he’s really good we’ll close on that and um basically there’s like uh people have been carving their names in the pillars of like ancient temples you know how people do that like uh Andrew and Jennifer forever you
Know that kind of a thing um there was what else was there there was a couple like that and um then of course we had that whole series of like over thtop rude influencers like doing live streams and just berading people and there’s one guy spending 3 years in jail um I wonder
If he’s if he’s enjoying his live broadcast of jail time there so be careful now let me get you this guy’s name so last week I was in Kyo having a quiet Str there he is abroad in Japan I think his name’s Chris um it’s his channel abroad in Japan is the channel
British guy great Super Famous 3 million followers uh he makes really interesting videos if you don’t know about him you should check him out but if you know about me I’m you must know about this guy I don’t know why I’m the one introducing him I need him to introduce
Me anyway that’s it for today uh let me know what you think and uh I’ll be back with more soon drive safe