Corey and Nathan just recently returned from a United trip to Japan, so we hit them up with a couple of questions about their experience. Walter Pieringer was also on the trip with the crew, and there’s a bunch of his photos from the trip that you can check out over on the United blog after you’ve read this Q&A with Corey and Nathan.
How crazy is Japan and how was it traveling around with the United team?
Corey: Japan is a really wild place compared to the USA. They take so much pride in keeping the place clean. You hardly ever see litter just laying around. The toilets are insane and they are not scared to use vending machines to serve you food!
Nathan: Oh man, the trip was so good! Japan is definitely a crazy place, but in a good way. The city (Tokyo) is on overdrive all the time with lights and people. Plus, all the guys at Zen Distribution really went above and beyond to make sure we had a good time. Thank you guys so much!
You guys looked cold. What was the weather like? Hard to get the blood flowin’?
Corey: It was a bit cold for sure! Temps in the 30′s at night 40′s during the day. It was hard for me to get the blood flowing for sure. Not ideal weather for bars, you know, but duty called at times.
Nathan: The weather was less then ideal, but still manageable. I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to the cold, but as long as you had a couple layers on you were fine.
What were the spots like? I’ve heard some spots in Tokyo are hard to ride with the amount of people everywhere?
Corey: Spots were a bit scarce but not terribly hard to find. Christian and Ashley found a few good things not far from the hotel the one day Nathan and I had to ride in the comp. It would have been nice to have a little more time to explore the city, I know it has some gems! I don’t recall having to much trouble with the amount of people around, but I could see it getting that way in certain areas.
Nathan: Spots were great actually. There was a G-shock contest the first day we rode, so Christian and Ash got to go out and ride some spots while we were at the contest. The next day we just traveled a couple hours from the city for some shop stops. So I didn’t get the chance to ride the spots in Tokyo. Everything else we rode was real good though so I didn’t mind. Just more reason to go back.
What was the food like? Sushi three times a day?
Corey: Food was not to bad once we found the right places to look for, which just so happened to be the last few days of the trip. I didn’t have sushi one time on this trip, actually. I really thought I would, but we never went to a sushi place some reason. Mostly ate Starbucks for breakfast because that seemed to be the only place we found that had breakfast-like foods. Sad, I know… Had some really nice noodle dishes a few times and some dope buffet style places.
Nathan: It was a little different than I thought. I was under the impression we’d eat a bunch of sushi as well, but it was more hot rice and meat dishes. Some of it was definitely different than I’m used to but that’s all what makes the experience.
Any crazy stories from the trip? Or any random behind the scenes moments during filming that are memorable? Any shout outs?
Corey: No crazy stories really, everyone seemed really tame this trip. James got a tattoo the last night in Tokyo. Walter almost had James’ 5D camera taken by a lady from bar we went to one night. We had a bag of chips that was not allowed in there so she tried to take them but Walter wouldn’t let her so she took the camera instead. It was a tug a war game for few seconds. In the end Walter let the chips go and got the camera back and we all had a chill night out. Huge shout out to Zen Distro and the boy behind the scenes for taking really good care of us all, they made the trip happen for sure!
Nathan: First thing that comes to mind is right when we were leaving the airport when we first landed, mine and a couple of the crew’s phones who were on made this crazy noise we’ve never heard before with a message on the screen in Japanese. We ask YoHei, the driver, what’s going on and he said it was a warning and that we were about to be in a over five point earthquake. About a minute later all of a sudden it felt like a group of people are rocking the van back and fourth, you look outside and all the light poles are bending back and forth. Then a couple minutes after that YoHei gets a tsunami warning. Obviously that stuff can destroy peoples lives but, for what we were in, I was so excited! That’s something I’ve always wanted to experience and now I can I say I have. All in all it was an unreal trip and I’d jump at the chance to go back. Huge thanks to Yossy, Nishi, YoHei, everybody at Zen Distro, and United for all making this trip happen.
Click here to view United’s blog/photos from the trip.