A DAY OF FEW SPOKEN WORDS HD from KASPARWORKS on Vimeo.
Rather excellent video from my friends in Tokyo by Kaspar Astrup Schröder. Makes me want to go back! See http://pktk.jp for more. Thanks Brian!
Woo United Wifi has free Internet! Even though I’m flying NWA! I’m just about to board my flight home to Seattle, it’s 7:20pm on the 22nd here now and it will be 1:00pm on the 22nd when I finish my 10hr flight “tonight”…time zones are strange. I was going to meet up with Hajime and friends today to go shopping, but I of course got lost on the way there 
Hajime did you get my email?
One last goodbye to the to the tough people of Japan and the many beautiful cityscapes, and now back home to where there are benches and garbage cans galore! Seriously though I really missed Seattle (and one person there in particular), it’s too bad I’m only back for a day before leaving again.
So it turns out sake is a bit stronger than I originally guessed, which makes this the first official drunken blog posting (not that I’m making it a habit). I’m starting to wonder if I should continue to talk about my loving all kinds of food and trying anything on these sorts of trips. I’ve had three people respond to my love of everything suggesting that I order natto beans and gulp them down with abandon. So what did I do? I ordered a bunch tonight of course! With the consistency of snot, the smell of old cheese, and the taste of salty sandals, the natto bean is what the Japanese call an “acquired taste.” Actually it wasn’t all that bad, just the texture of snot is not that appealing to me.
Today was a great day, and the last day of our shoot! We met up with around 15 of the local traceurs and went to Odaiba, a man-made island filled with open spaces and wonderful buildings. The local guys were great, more into tricking than the fundamentals but we had a lot of fun. So many things about parkour transcend cultural and language barriers so easily. We all measured stuff out by our feet, loved moving around on all fours, and instantly understood a game of follow the leader combined with the floor is lava 
This is going to be an amazing episode!
I also met the band tonight that they are going to intermix with the parkour footage and interviews, very cool group of guys and very fun (sake and natto enthusiasts 
). So much great food today and so many great people, Japan is amazing! Tomorrow I’m being shown around for some shopping and then braving the 10hr flight back home to Seattle…for 24 hours before I leave for Washington DC.
The Japanese are a Tough People
Wow today was a productive day! We must have covered a good 15 miles or more on foot, Japanese people are very good at walking it appears. There are no benches anywhere and the majority of people just take the subway and walk wherever they need to go, it’s great! Except my feet and ankles don’t really think it’s that great, but that may be because of the insane beating they took today doing a ton of parkour stunts.
I’m really excited to see the finished product now, we have one more day to film but already we have some great movements in absolutely beautiful locations. Turns out it’s going to be a lot bigger than what I originally thought as well, we’re aiming for a full 26min show airing around the world, possibly on ESPN2 as well.
Tomorrow we’re going to meet the Japanese traceurs and I am so excited! The entire reason why today was so great was due to my new friend Hajime guiding us around town and just being a kickass guy in general. He led us to some spots that are going to look absolutely nuts on video, this whole piece is going to be one giant sensory orgasm
I did a few things today that really surprised me, the fear really is getting a lot smaller, even with so much on the line (if I hurt myself now I am so screwed professionally). Some wall passes very near to my peak, some railing precisions that I actually managed to stick, and a great little roof gap with no hesitation at all. Now if my ankles weren’t always so sore and tired, I would be in the best shape of my life!
A 4:30am cab ride takes us to Tsukiji Fish Market, one of the largest wholesale markets in the world, before dawn to film some…tuna…but they were really big tuna! Some must have been around 100-200 pounds! This is definitely the earliest I have ever gotten up merely to walk around somewhere while being filmed not buying anything. I think we have all the walking shots out of way, next two days should be full of parkour, finally!
Had a bit of a shock at the local sushi bar (supposed best sushi in the world bar). After waiting an hour in the cold to get in to a place that’s as small as my hotel room (the camera barely even fit inside), we started talking to the chef and some people fromShanghai about what we were filming. Having trouble explaining parkour I remember why I brought my phone and show them my parkour sampler. They not only had seen the video before but one was what only can be described as a “fan”! I couldn’t believe it! I travel across the world and still run into people who want to take a photo with me because they like my video, it’s nuts! Oh and sea eel sushi is my new favorite food
We then proceed to many different staircases, because you know, stairs are incredibly entertaining…and eventually end up running on all fours in the temple district…don’t ask me how
No pictures today unfortunately because I forgot my camera, but they will be coming when I do a full write-up.
Today was filled with a lot of “general vision” walking around shots. We never found a great place to film some training and it never stopped raining either. I think we have some really beautiful shots of Shibuya and Shinjuku though, and we did a few things on a rooftop and some running through the streets.
The problem I have found is that the streets are so packed in tightly that there really isn’t any opportunity for parkour. Even running around is difficult without getting an umbrella in the eye. Hopefully I’ll some time to do some exploring away from the really densely packed areas of downtown soon.
I need to get some sleep desperately, we leave at 4:30 tomorrow morning to go the fish market early, ug.
Some great shots in Shibuya today, at the incredibly busy crossing in the middle of the city. I stood out like a sore thumb, running across like a madman Did some surreptitious work on a rooftop as well, Tokyo has the most amazing rooftops I have ever seen! Still looking for a good spot to do some serious training though, today was too wet and we spent a lot of time lost in the subway
I’m off to do some scouting, should have some more photos up later today (early morning for you West Coasters).
Tokyo is amazingly active with activity and advertising, yet the people themselves don’t seem that active at all except for when they are walking somewhere… It will be interesting to meet some of the local traceurs.
So I ended up waiting around at the airport with no-one actually coming to find me for a few hours, then I took a bus the Shinjuku and wandered around till I found the hotel. All and all a very long day, about 14 hours of sitting around.
This hotel building is huge and very glamorous, it has it’s own mall inside that I got lost in. The crazy thing is it is actually very cheap and extremely small. Very glitzy on the outside, very very small on the inside. My toilet is amazing though…look how many buttons it has!
Just arrived in Tokyo, have 3min of Internet left. Have no idea where I am supposed to be… The airport looks just like all the other airports, just with more little CG creatures everywhere. I’ve already been yelled at for taking photos, but it will get better when we get into town and I get into the hotel.
As it seems to happen a lot with stuntwork, I have about 3 days left in town and I still don’t even know my schedule. I do know that I have a possibility of three stunt gigs in a row and could be traveling from Seattle to Tokyo to Washington DC to Hong Kong to Macau to LA and back home again. This is going to be a crazy month of performances, training, and long flights.
I’m definitely bringing my new Canon 30D though, hopefully uploading pictures and blogging the whole time! Check back often for more updates!
