20 Years of Stories: From Main Street To Summit

20 years of pow, 20 years of kanpai’s and 20 years of stories - Rhythm Japan is officially 20 years old!

It’s hard to believe that it's already been 20 years since we set up shop in Niseko, but as they say ‘time flies when you’re having fun’, and when we look back at the last two decades, ‘fun’ is the only way to describe it. 

The people that have come through the doors, both as staff and customers; the shenanigans on and off the mountain, setting up shop to then pack up a couple years later and move to a new location – it’s been a wild ride to say the least. But, all along the way, history has been building – so much so, that now when you ask customers about the first time they stepped foot in one of our Niseko store locations, the answer is normally “which one?”



Yep, from our makeshift origins in a renovated toilet block in Lower Hirafu to Rhythm Main St, our epic Rhythm Hirafu location right at the feet of the Hirafu gondolas, and everything in between, we’ve been all over town over the past two decades. And while it’s all too common to have customers coming through our doors saying “ahhhh, I remember when you guys were located here and it was just Matt Hampton (Rhythm CEO and Founder) and a few other crew”, there’s still a lot of you who need to be caught up to speed on all the epic store origins and the stories that come along with them. 

But how do you even begin to cover 20 years in a single blog? We guess by starting at the start…. so we thought, what better way to explore some of the hidden Rhythm origin stories than chatting to the crew responsible for them? 



We caught up with a bunch of our ‘day ones.’ The longstanding staff who have worked alongside Matt and countless others over the years, getting their insights into the evolution of Rhythm in Hirafu, and hopefully helping to fill in some of the blanks – or at least try to. As we found out, sometimes it’s not always that easy to remember 20 years back – especially when it includes 20 different snow seasons, but we did our best…

Djan Aston, Property and Employee Experience Manager: 

“I first came to Niseko in 2005, which was Rhythm's first year of operation. Tomomi 'Tomi' Nishimura (General Manager) and I worked in Barunba. We’d literally just got to town and were trying to set up Barunba on the first night of the season and Matt and Christie Hampton, and James Cattermole walk through the door asking if they can get something to eat – we hadn’t even finished the menus but were like, 'yep, give us 5 minutes'.”

“They sat down, had some food and a few drinks. Then we decided to close the bar and head out partying with them. We went up to a bar at the time called "Fatties" (which was two lorry trucks welded together) had a rager with those guys and that was it, pretty much from there on in that was the crew.”

Sometimes that’s all it takes, from the next winter onwards (and still to this day) Djan and Tomi were Rhythm crew through and through. Looking back, Djan reflects, “it was pretty simple back in those days. The focus was never (and still isn't) about making money or business, all any of us wanted was to be here to ride and have fun – and that kind of just overflowed onto our customers, I guess they could sense that vibe.”

It wasn’t just the customers attracted to the vibe, with Rhythm’s long serving Head of Finance, Sachiko Clayton stating, “I really enjoyed the chaos, it was totally different from my background. I come from a small quiet Japanese town near Hakodate so it was one of my first times experiencing a more global environment.”



And just like that, the Rhythm crew began to grow – as did our stores, moving from the original hole-in-the-wall store in lower Hirafu to a variety of locations around town, including the first ever Rhythm HQ, which, at the time was located inside the building which now houses Phoenix Bar and was previously J-Sekka – where Sachi’s accounts office was about ‘the size of Harry Potter’s bedroom.’

But that was only short lived, within a few years the word had got out, with more and more tourists starting to come experience their first dose of Japow, leading Rhythm to grow into multiple locations, with Rhythm Summit and Rhythm Main St both opening up in Hirafu in 2010. 



By this stage, you’re probably pretty confused, so let’s fill you in on some of the store background. 

Tom Phillips, Rhythm Summit Store Manager: 

“Ok, so Rhythm and Beats was over on the corner where the new Byron Bay coffee shop now is. That was Rhythm and Beats and then that was turned into Rhythm Summit – the original Rhythm Summit back when the current Summit was Rhythm Main St.”

Wait, what?



“Back then Rhythm Summit was the backcountry retail, backcountry rentals, plus retail. Then that moved over to where Mina Mina Music Bar now is, before moving to its current location – which was when ‘Main St’ moved up to the now ‘Rhythm Hirafu’.”

As you can imagine, it was a bit of a whirlwind for a few years there. Although, even with so many moving locations, each time requiring rebuilds, new stock and even more staff, it’s an era that the crew look back on fondly as a time of shenanigans, growth and a whole lotta DIY.



“One thing that really stood out for me with Rhythm is that we were just really good at just figuring it out,” reflects Djan. “If there was a problem, we’d find a solution, you know? That was probably one of the funnest parts about it all, we had a lot of autonomy to do little things like that – probably things people didn't even realize along the years, but it was a lot fun for us.”

Well, at least that’s Djan’s take, Sachi on the other hand…



“Ahhhh, in my memory, the preparations were really hard! All the small things like ordering the big signs out the front of the store, it seems easy but – I didn’t even know a sign maker!” 

“Even though it’s 15 - 20 years ago, I might need to complain to Matt,” she laughs, “every year it was, ‘Ok, Sachi, I swear it’ll be the last time we set up a new shop.’ Then the next year Matt would come back and say, ‘Sachiiiiiii – I think we are going to open up a bigger shop.” 



But as Sachi acknowledged, those times figuring it all out with the crew were really where all the best stories stemmed from, and even though she still holds the belief that “sometimes we should have left it to the pros” she always admired the DIY nature of the Rhythm “innovators.”

Djan: “That was kind of the spirit of Rhythm—we all just mucked in, rolled up our sleeves and did whatever was needed to help the whole operation run." 



"So when we took over the Berg Plaza to open Rhythm Main St in 2010 it was all hands on deck. I think Matt came over here with his mates and they renovated the building over summer. Sachi’s office got a massive upgrade, there was a nice big front counter, it looked amazing, and everyone spent most of my season working there doing all sorts. I don’t even think I had a job title — maybe at some point I was ‘Operations Manager,’ but it never really mattered, everyone was just happy to do anything to help it thrive and grow."



Something that Matt Macauley (Hirafu Manager, Ex-Main St Manager); (Sean Potts (Rental Manager, Ex-Main St Manager) and Emily Gattinger (Head of Merchandise, Ex-Main St Retail Manager) know all too well, spouting off stories of make shift kei truck ski racks, toboggan shenanigans and a very ad-hoc carpet lay which saw the crew putting down far too much glue and discolouring certain tiles while building ‘Rhythm Main St.’ 

(Little did they know, now Summit Manager, Tom Phillips actually mentioned said carpet tiles, stating, “I would say the trickiest thing physically in terms of DIY was pulling up the floor downstairs”....)



Looking back on the era of Main St, the crew shared how they felt that era really helped define what Rhythm was, both in terms of staff ethos and store aesthetic.

Emily: “Before Main St, the building was known as the Berg Plaza, a mix of souvenir shop, ramen spot, and karaoke rooms upstairs. In concept, the building was a hub for visitors to create a memory or buy a piece of Hirafu to take home.

When Rhythm took over, I believe some of that spirit stayed in the walls. It became the first space to bring the Rhythm team together, setting the tone for the culture, pace, and passion that still define the business today (one renovation at a time).”

A sentiment backed by Sean, who added, “that building definitely had something that was a little bit special. It was a small crew but everyone was really in it for the team – I don't think we employed a contractor for the first few years I was there, we didn’t need to. If something needed to be done, we would just do it.”

And while it seems like most decisions were made on the fly, it's the blueprint that’s paved the way for success today, with Emily adding,  “looking back at old photos and the people that were there, you can really see the energy. I feel like that store really set a lot of the foundation for what the core culture of Rhythm is all about.”

Matt Macauley (Ex-Main St Manager, Current Rhythm Hirafu Store Manager): 

“It was a pretty unique thing to stumble across, Matt (Hampton) and the crew were all full send all the time but then they were also running a business and doing an epic job at it. I think my first year here was like ‘08 or ‘09 working for Rhythm and I haven't looked back really.”