Daily insights for city builders, delivered every morning at 6 AM ET. I’m Brandon Donnelly — a Toronto-based real estate developer and founder of Globizen. I’ve been writing here since 2013.

Cat day on Hokkaido

February 9, 2025 · View original


Today was day 4 of skiing and snowboarding on Hokkaido. We did a “cat day” with Type Two Three, which is a guided backcountry day using a snow cat. It was incredible and we were up to our waists in the fresh stuff. Our guides were two former US Navy SEALs and our driver (pictured above in the middle of the group photo) was a professional snowboarder who competed in the men’s half pipe event at the 2006 Winter Olympics (in Torino) for Japan. His name is Fumiyuki Murakami and, if you’re into snowboarding, I would encourage you to give him a follow on Instagram. He’s a fantastic snowboarder and a very nice man.

Today was a great day in the mountains.