About to head out to the mountains in Nagano again, this time we’re doing Mount Okahotaka (pictured, Mount Hotaka, from the Wikipedia page). It’s the third highest peak in Japan, at 3190m. It’s our last chance to stay in mountain huts, as they close for the winter. It’s going to be cold, of that I’m sure, but hopefully we’ll be ready (been stocking up on Uniqlo stuff, which is affordable and on a technical level, much better than year’s past). And yes, I’m expecting snow, and we’ve even bought some spikes for for our hiking shoes.

I’ll have the list of participants from last night’s PauseTalk (Vol. 36) up later today or tomorrow, but in the meantime I wanted to share the latest round of portraits taken by Max Hodges, which are all viewable in this gallery. As with last time, I’m really loving these, and I’m hoping that Max keeps doing them, and then maybe culminate in some sort of exhibition to celebrate the fourth anniversary of PauseTalk next year. Max is also talking about compiling PDF books of the shots, which I think is a great idea.

And in case you’re wondering, the t-shirt I’m wearing is Gelman‘s “Sorry I’m Late!” tee he did for Uniqlo a couple of years back.

Marxy explains the success of Uniqlo over at The Business of Fashion blog. My favorite bit from the piece:

In fact, perhaps the brand’s most powerful asset is its neutrality. Wearing Uniqlo carries no meaning of its own. It’s as close as apparel has ever come to interchangeable LEGO blocks.

Uniqlo has yet another web widget for you to put on your blog, this time Uniqlo Tunes, a music player to promote the retailer’s HEAT TECH line — it can also play your own MP3 files. Via CScout Japan.