Boulevard Barges Japan

1Rob Kickflip Volcano web 750px

Most Boulevard missions are out on the streets of Long Beach. This trip, however, was a bit more ambitious: we were loading up the crew and making the 5,500 mile journey to Japan. We had no expectations and very few obligations. The end goal was just for the team to skate some exotic spots, meet some new homies and hopefully reel in some tasty moves. Oh, and eat some weird shit. They eat some weird shit there. So after being herded into the flying Greyhound and staring at our iPads for 13 hours, we arrived in Tokyo. Well, some of us did…

 

2.Tiago SubwaySleep web 750pxLet's face it, our immigration system isn’t doing anybody any favors. So after four days worth of flying time to retrieve a piece of paper that would allow him back in the good Ol' US of A, Tiago arrived, burnt but not broken. 

3.Yokohama AirBnB web 750pxOur crew consisted of Rob Gonzalez, Danny Montoya, Rodrigo Petersen, Tiago Lemos, Kilian Zehnder and Brazilian filmer, Luiz. We lucked out and had a very traditional Japanese house for our first stay in Yokohama, complete with paper walls, bamboo floors and door jams at eye level. With no time to spare, we headed out to the Yokohama Skatepark for a cruise with the locals.

5.SkateMom web 750px
6.Toya SSBSTS Yokahama 750pxDanny lines up and goes the distance with a switch backside tail over the grates

9.Killian SlappyCrook web 750pxKilian took it under the bridge with a slappy crooks off the drop

7.Tiago Stevie 750pxRunning late for the Interstyle Tradeshow, Tiago sends a Stevie over the box on our way out

11.Tiago BigInJapan 750pxAll smiles here with a mandatory pit stop by the DC booth

12.Tiago NollieBackHeel 750pxThere is a reason they gave him a shoe! Tiago ends the show with an earth shaking nollie backside heel to flat

13.DannyMontoya FsNose Yokohama web 750pxOutside, Danny squeaked in this rooftop front nose

16.Rob Cop 1 web 750pxJapan is known for it’s high kick out factor. Cops and security would show up quick but lucky for us we had the language barrier on our side

17.Rob Cop 2 web 750px
18.Rob Cop 3 web 750px"Arigato" which means thank you, was the only Japanese word we knew. Anytime somebody would try to give us the boot we'd just repeat the word over and over while politely bowing. I'm sure it bugged the shit out of people, but eventually they'd just leave in a state of frustration and confusion

20.MtFugi web 750pxThe real Mt. Fuji. Seen from the back right seat of an overly cramped five hour van ride to Nagoya

23.Rob G Wallie5050 web 750pxNo stranger to long van rides. Rob G. warmed up with a wallie 50-50 into the bike lane

25.RP Sw180 5 0 750pxSurprisingly there's a huge Brazilian community in Nagoya. Rodrigo stepped right in with this switch 180 5-0

36.Luis BSidesGoneBad web 750pxWhen B-Roll goes wrong: Boulevard's primary filmer Luiz ended up at the bottom of a set of stairs, lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood after going on a quick b-roll excursion. With zero witnesses to the actual slam, we were fortunate that Tiago stumbled across him and some local bystanders were quick to call an ambulance. Needless to say, Luiz spent the remainder of the trip confined to a hospital bed with a clouded memory of what led to his trip ending spill. Heal up quick Luiz!

26.Tiago Crook Nagoya web 750pxTiago got the trip back on track with this waist high crooked grind

27.DannyMontoya NoComply Nagoya web 750px…and Danny slid on over to the throwback bank sesh and a backside no comply.

28.Tiago Cops web 750pxI couldn’t tell if Tiago was signing an autograph or if he got a ticket. Either way, we were off to the next spot to meet some local rippers

29.Kase Crook 750pxNagoya talent, Kise took this high speed crooks past the stairs

30.Yuto SwFlip Nagoya web 750px…and Yuto Kojima got his back with a switch flip

31.Sora Treflip Nagoya 750pxTokyo’s Sora Negishi followed them up with a perfect three flip

32.Killian SwBsHeel Nagoya web 750pxKilian closed out the crisp night with a switch back heel

33.Tiago Ollie Yokohama web 750pxThe next morning, Tiago took a quick flight over a crusty bar across the street from our Airbnb before we headed to the airport and hopped on our flight home

 

Thanks for everything, Taka, OSC distribution, DC Japan and everyone else who helped us out along the way.

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