Why DId You Come To Japan? is a popular Japanese reality TV show that features encounters with newly arrived foreign visitors at the international airports in Japan.
As the TV Tokyo director explains, “Based on interviews with foreigners at the arrival gate, if the purpose of your visit sounds interesting, we will accompany you to film your amazing adventures, experiences, or activities wherever you go in Japan.
We would like to rediscover and re-acknowledge the beauty and wonder of Japan your foreign travelers’s eyes.“
So here comes large-statured Frenchman Stève Stievenart (@steve_stievenart) and his Irish ice swimming colleague Ger Kennedy (@gerkennedy_swimmer) off the airplane at the Narita International Airport after completing an Ice Zero Mile in Anchorage, Alaska in 0.8°C water on their worldwide tour. The swimmer- Stievenart known as the Seal – and the observer and expedition leader – Kennedy known as King Walrus – are very hard to miss in Japan. Smiling, laughing, and towering over the business-suit clad Japanese businessmen crowd, how could the TV Tokyo cameramen miss them? Not only are their engaging and colorful, but their story in Japan is unprecedented.
Stievenart aimed to be the first person to attempt and complete an Ice Mile in Japan. In Hokkaido, the northernmost island in the Japanese archipelago, next to Siberia.
But they also faced a logistical and operational problem. They had not yet received official permission to attempt an Ice Mile en route to their choseen venue in Mombetsu, Hokkaido.
Kennedy summed up their experience, “Unfortunately and ultimately, we were not granted official permission to swim in the port by Japan Coast Guard where we would have had a more sheltered swim. But, thankfully, the sea state was just about calm in the nearby public beach. Those conditions allowed us to officially complete a first Ice Mile in Japan.
Due to ice cold currents from Siberia from the annual drift ice which reaches Japan in February, this was our original preferred location. All other lakes have brackish water that is either frozed or at -1°C water temp.”\
Stievenart completed his final Ice Swim of the Ice Sevens Challenge in the Sea of Okhotsk in 2.50°C water and -7.00°C air temperature (details to be confirmed by IISA).
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