This past week I was lucky enough to go on a trip with VANS to a Navy Base in Yokosuka, Japan followed by a couple of days in Tokyo.
VANS are sold in the Navy Exchange Supermarket on base, and some Skaters and Bikers on the team were invited to be involved with the customer appreciation weekend. Bucky Lasek, Omar Hussan, Josh Boarden were the Skaters, and Scotty Cramner, Ryan Guettler, Coco Zurita, Michael Steingrabber and I were the Bikers.
The first 2 days were spent visiting some Elementary (or Primary) Schools on the bases and getting tours of the Aircraft Hangers and the George Washington Aircraft Carrier. The Schools we visited had around 300 kids and we did a demo on flat ground on the Basketball Court, but we usually found something to use to bunny-hop over. The kids got so pumped at any trick, so it made the experience fun.
Saturday the 2nd May was the main day for the Customer Appreciation event. We got to do 2 demos on ramps the Nate Wessel built for us. Box jump and ¼ set up. The ramps were dialed, but strong winds were a little tough. We managed to get 2 demo’s done and showed the kids a little more than some flat ground moves from the days before…
Straight after the massive autograph session we packed up and got the train to Tokyo, 12 of us from VANS, our entire luggage going on public transport was a mission. We arrived in Shibuya, Tokyo after 1 and a half hours and checked into one of the nicer hotels in the area.
Shibuya can be somewhat compared to Times Square in NYC, Its got all the shopping, electronic bill-boards, and people you could fit in one area. We took a day trip to the markets and to an electronics shopping district and we got to go to a Karaoke bar with my good mate Shoe-G (from Tokyo) were he set the place on fire with “Welcome to the Jungle”.
Japan was a great trip; it was fun mixing with the Skaters on the team and session together at the school, on the ramps and at the bar. We had no problems at all getting around, 90% of stuff has English written underneath the Japanese. Everywhere we went was super clean, and the people were real polite.
I have to thank VANS once again for an amazing trip…
Colin Mackay
