FISE UP MAY | Y TOWN PLAYAZ CREW KOUKI X YUMI
FISE UP MAY
Y TOWN PLAYAZ
Up and down the japanese hills
Y Town Playaz is a crew, a group of creatives people who do different things like skating, bmx, surfing, painting and drawing, make videos and clothes. Nothing new in the concept but again the japanese refinement makes it look so nice that we had to explore the city of Yokosuka with Shintaro Hongo and his mates for our latest edition of FISE up keeping on exploring the streets of this funny world.
Cover of @kawa_img magazine / Pic by @shinsaku_arakawa
Y CITY
There is quite a long story of skating in Yokosuka, people that are the generation above us already used to make skate videos here. The city is super relaxed, the people are laid back. There is lots of nature with the sea nearby and lots of mountains, super different from the rapid pace of Tokyo (1 hour north). There are lot of uphills and downhills, but a lot of interesting spots then.
Y CREW
It's hard to name everyone since there are so many of us, but anyone who's part of the videos whether they film, edit or have a part in it is part of it. I grew up skating with a lot of the crew since my young age and met a lot of other people too through Umikaze, the local skate park.
Y STYLE
It's hard to pinpoint because it differs from person to person, but I’d say the unique thing is that everyone is super friendly; we are not constricted to having one specific crew because people constantly join and ride with us. Places like Tokyo are a bit stricter with who's part of what crew etc. For instance skaters and BMX ride together most of the time. We move as a big group so whatever we do we end up filming what happens on the same spot.
Y PROJECT
At the beginning Y TOWN PLAYAZ was just an instagram where I’d upload skate spots in Yokosuka for us all to go to, but then it developed into more. So, we started taking videos at these spots and did premieres in Yokosuka. In the past year we've started to branch out more with exhibitions and starting making clothing. We also have a homemade rug (by @itanji).
In the future we want to keep making videos and travel around Japan and collaborate with more people. We have a friend who makes clothes, like Lola's Hardware, Time Scan and Itanji, and we could do something with them. We want to connect with people from all around Japan to make Yokosuja a more prominent centre for skating, bmx and creatives in Japan.
Rug by Itanji
Y...OU
I am Shintaro Hongo, 23 years old, skateboarding for 15years now. My dad was a skater and really influenced me and my brother Masaki; he used to make us ramps in the garden and in the house and we also watch all his skate videos. I work in Yokosuka with my friend Shogo Zama at a newly opened skate shop that continue the history of "Ours" skate shop where we used to hang out. So in short i skate, edit videos and plans lots of the events and collaborations we do.
More on Instagram :
YUMI X KOUKI
Y TOWN PLAYAZ edit filmed by Shogo Zama
