I got myself a camper once again.

And this time I've actually rented out a torii gate and then, you know, I'll show you when we get there.

Last time that I rented this camper van was with mitch when we went down to Biwako to do the training for our boat license.

This is the third time to attempt this.

You to rent out the tortilla to rent the van to pack everything up And every other shoot has been canceled due to a sudden change in the weather.

So we really got our fingers crossed for today and that, that is a, that is a beautiful view of Mount fuji right there.

Actually, I'm gonna need my jacket.

It's a little cold out here.

But look ad fuji.

Nice.

I love it so much so far so far.

Lucky with the weather.

Let's hope it stays.

We're gonna take about a 20 minute hike up the road and kind of pre scout the road can.

I didn't turn off google maps.

Apparently we're going to scout out the road condition just to make sure it's safe to drive up tomorrow morning.

This is not the target that we rented.

The one that we rented is slightly better.

Okay, mm hmm.

This up here, it is a campsite.

Really, really nice camp.

So look at this.

These have got to be the best spot in the campsite right here.

Look at that.

The A seven s.

3.

The moonlight is actually just about enough to light my face.

I still can't see kiki though.

Is this it?

I feel like this is it.

Mm hmm.

Yeah, there's something slightly unnerving about an excavator out here doing construction that doesn't feel like that's what kind of love it.

And there we go.

This is the Torii Gate.

We've rented out.

I love this.

How could you not love this?

Look at that gorgeous view of Mount fuji in the background.

The lights.

Just incredible.

How is it?

Nah?

Oh, look at that.

Okay, let's ah, let's go to sleep.

So we have that whole space rented out from first thing in the morning and that Torii gate is actually relatively new but has an insanely complicated history.

It was built there before the whole corona things start.

And then it got so popular that they had to shut it down and then they opened it back up for a while.

But you had to pay and now you have the ability to rent it out.

But it looks like that's actually gonna be ending soon as well.

We've got special permission to go there at night.

You're usually not allowed to go there in the dark.

They've got cameras everywhere and they will show up like they showed up tonight and they're like, oh, it's you, you're a little early, aren't you?

And we're like, well, yeah, we're just scouting this space and then we'll enjoy tomorrow morning.

But the gentleman told us that they've just had so many problems lately and the police keep getting called and it's unfortunate because it is a beautiful space and we have to wake up at something like three o'clock in the morning kiki is going to get the big spaces and I get to cram myself.

I like sleeping in small spaces.

So you're welcome.

You're very welcome.

Alright?

Just before five o'clock In the morning.

Right now it is, it's a little colder than I was expecting.

Yesterday was 24.

It is currently just above zero.

So as for whether luckily there's not a cloud in the sky, but Mount Fuji is a little hazy right now.

It'll probably be that way until after the sun comes up.

But we're still going to try to get at least one shoot with this early morning light.

I wanted to do a shoot at this location since the first time I ever saw it pop up.

I knew if I was going to do something with it, it had to be something worthwhile and good.

Which is why I brought the shamisen players out.

Mm hmm.

And this is my worry already, despite us having this reserved from 4:00 AM, it looks like some staff have already showed up.

They, they said they wouldn't need to come this morning.

But I think we just need to lightly explain to them.

So all seems well they've opened up the office and we're just going to get everything set up.

It's getting brighter and brighter by the second.

I should probably actually have the girls come down and get set up.

We've been doing these shoots for somewhere around 10 years and every single shoot we do.

I still get filled with excitement.

What up with the keys be jump played so hard that her UB city fell apart.

These by the way, are so that they can slide their hand along the neck of the shammy sen without it getting stuck.

But wow!

First time the girls are warming up in the camper van and I, I no longer need this.

So take this down for now.

So if you look at this, if you zoom into the tortilla and make mount Fuji really big in the background.

That's compression, by the way, the more you zoom in, the bigger the background gets, it's an oversimplification, but that's the way it works when you zoom in like this, the area looks really amazing, but the second that you zoom out, it loses a lot of its charm.

This is what it looks like.

This is what the area as a whole looks like.

So this is what I was talking about yesterday when I said that they charged if you came with a smartphone, it was free.

But if you came with like a DSLR or a proper camera, they would charge you 500 yen to get in.

In fact, this one over here even says a membership card is required to take a picture of this place, But it seems like their membership system wasn't super organized, which led to a lot of trouble and a lot of angry people and I don't care.

Just look at that.

Yeah, it's pretty cold.

It's pretty cold.

They got kaido little heat packs.

Look at that.

Yeah.

What's better under the cherry blossoms or fuji.

So this place opens to the public at nine a.m. We've got reserved until about 88 30.

And funny enough, despite the super official and real looking tortilla gate, this is not actually a shrine.

It's just, it's just a tortilla gate that is owned by one specific family.

They own this land and they decided to set this up here.

So this is technically private land.

Like this is All right.

So it was at this point in the video that I was going to recommend everybody to go and check out this beautiful space.

And I've been on the fence about sharing this for the last little while, but I also don't want other people to go there and have a vastly different experience and what has been portrayed here.

So I figured I should probably share what happened as we went to leave.

We wrapped up 15, maybe 20 minutes early.

Tidied everything up beautifully said thank you to the lady in the office and as we were about to get on the road.

An older gentleman, probably late sixties, maybe seventies showed up and out of the blue started yelling at kiki now confused and concerned.

I stepped in hoping to bring that the situation in the stress down and I asked him what the issue was.

He shooed me away and said, I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to them.

I tried to just stay friendly and I said to him actually I'm in charge here if there's an issue, I'd love to know what it is so I can I can help figure it out.

I was worried that maybe we could damage something or he left something behind or made a mess or something.

And he looked at me and said you're the issue when I agreed to rent this space out, it was for chinese japanese shami said had I known that a foreigner such as yourself was coming, I would not have agreed to rent this space out.

Now, obviously confusing a little surprise.

I didn't want to escalate the situation.

I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.

So I thanked him for allowing us to use the space.

I let him know that payment had already been processed and that we were leaving and as I went to go, he almost immediately stepped in front of me looked me in the eye and said I want cash.

I reiterated to him that as per our agreement, the bank transfer was already completed.

Let him know that he could check that on his end and see it.

He cut me off saying that no, he wanted cash, one payment per person which again, we had already agreed on how many people was going to be there And if we didn't pay, he was going to call the police.

It was at this point that it kind of started to feel like a shakedown and I still did not want to escalate the situation.

So I simply said to him, you have all of my contact information and our agreement, we will be leaving now if you wish to call the police that is where they can reach us.

But I am not going to be involved in this anymore.

Got in the vehicle and we left now take from that what you will afterwards.

I talked to several photographer friends, japanese and non japanese, some of which had had similar troubles or seen similar troubles when they were there.

Others which did not.

So I can't really say you should definitely go there or you definitely shouldn't go there.

But I did want to let you know that this type of situation not only happened but isn't uncommon.

In fact if you read some of the reviews of this place online or some japanese blogs, it seems like trouble just seems to, I don't want to say follow this place because the place isn't moving but on the plus side kiki and I did get at least one or two absolutely gorgeous music videos which I will of course link everywhere will be posted on the chinese sent in Tokyo Youtube channel as well.

And other than that little incident, we had a great time.

I hope that you enjoyed this.

It's unfortunate that it ended this way.

But again, I didn't want to kind of bury this under the carpet and then you go there and potentially have a crappy time.

So go check out the music videos we made and I will see you guys again real soon.

Bye bye.

Mm hmm.

Mm hmm, mm hmm.

Mhm.