Not that this takes anything away from them, but I thought Lowtex paid for flight and accommodation for all the riders and filmers.

Don't most jkids live at home and get an allowance 'til they're married and move out? I think that offsets the crappy wage a little bit. Sucks that wage is basically based on age rather than skills tho.

A $400 snowboard is 84000yen in Japan. LV bags are 20% more there than anywhere else in the world. So somethings are more expensive for sure. But as long as the parents are handing out the money, those prices are seen to be "normal".

Japanese consumers purchase 40% of the world's luxury goods. A 2002 survey of women in their 20s said that 94% owned an LV product, 92% owned Gucci, 58% owned Prada. And these aren't the chinese knockoffs either.

So 8400yen ain't no thing.