Neil Hartmann News & Noise 11/24
Has Hokkaido's winter finally begun?
November is a weird month in Hokkaido. Everyone who is even slightly related to the snow or tourism industry starts acting like they have to pee, running around in a bit of a frantic mood. Changing tires, looking at the weather app on their phone more than needed, complaining about the cost of Toyu (kerosene) and a variety of other pre-winter duties. People tend to stay to themselves and seem standoffish when you approach them. Please forgive them they have a lot to do before the big snow storms start hitting and we all get buried under a blanket of white. I am one of those people by the way.
The winter seems a little late coming, with a few false starts over the last couple of weeks. Each time the temps go back up and the annoying Yuki Mushi and Abura Mushi (nats) appear again. I am ready for winter now! My yard and property are spick and span, no loose ends here my friend! I even changed the oil on my snow blower! My 80-something-year-old neighbor showed me how to do it!
It looks like a big cold front is moving in just in time for Thanksgiving so I will make sure to capture that with a few snow reports tomorrow.
Don’t forget my daily winter JZKSNOWREPORT will be on YouTube shorts and Instagram when I can remember to post both.
I have been editing like a beast lately! Not Mr. Beast, but just beastly in the manner I have been editing. That means non-stop morning to night sitting in front of my computer screen clicking a mouse. A lot of client work right now, in fact, I have a backlog. There is a video I shot several months ago and I have not been able to touch it. The data sits quietly on my Hard Disc Drive waiting its turn. Hopefully, the client is also quietly waiting. They have not called yet…
I have been working on a new series of Tourism videos the first of which was released about 10 days ago. I will link the video below. This is for the Hokkaido tourism board to promote the island to Americans. Wine and nightlife-loving Americans that is. The video is all about the growing winery and vineyard community here in Hokkaido.
After making and watching hundreds of tourism-related videos I now hate the genre. They all bore me to death. So I really pushed myself this time to try and do something different. Not the same old beauty shots mixed with sunset backlit bullshit. I actually wrote a script and then narrated it on location and back in the studio as well. It is a pretty fast-paced 15 minutes and I must be honest the goal was to make a tourism video like Mr. Beast would make one. I don’t think I reached that level but… Did you know Mr. Beast spends 2 million dollars on the production of each of his videos? Wow. Maybe someday I will get the chance to spend that kind of cash on a production.
Anyway watch the vid and please tell me what you think about it. I am busting my ass on this computer chair right now to finish the second one! Coming soon.
One more bit of news! I am going to be opening up our rental guest house for visitors sometime in December! We obtained a small house next to our property here in Jozankei and slowly we have been prepping it to list on everyone’s favorite Airbnb! This is going to be an amazing house for up to 3 people or a small family. I will make a full announcement when it is truly ready. This winter will be a bit of a test run. By next winter I plan to include a full quiver of Gentem and Field Earth boards along with a rental van, brea basket breakfast, and hopefully a nice sauna! Got to have a sauna! Here is a photo of the house! It will look even better covered in snow!
“Active Mountain Studio” aka Jozankei-AMS
Now a final question and I will let you get back to your busy life! Thanks!