My favorite road in Japan

My favorite road in Japan has finally been updated on Google Maps. Before the imagery was so bad you couldn't even see it and it wasn't even marked.  We took it last year after camping as you can read again here - http://followrory.blogspot.jp/2011/10/camping-in-wakayama-day-2-beautiful.html 

This road was so amazing and I can't wait to go back to it now that the EVO is more setup for mountain driving.  I hope Aki likes it!

Just follow the road down (click and drag the map) from the T at the top and imagine how much seesawing action you would have to do with the steering wheel.

Edit- I just noticed the landslide I wrote and photographed in the above camping post is STILL there.  Because, it's Wakayama.

Edit again- There are MORE landslide overtaking the road.  Haha.  Again, because it's Wakayama.

Edit again - Check out this blog - http://afumitu.blog.ocn.ne.jp/enjoy/cat5890329/ Its easy to see what kind of destruction happened to this road and the ones branching directly off it after the typhoons last year.  Amazing.

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The Drift Muscle 2012

Yesterday in horrible rain I attended the first round of The Drift Muscle, the newest series for competitive drifting.  Please see my car blog http://www.roryfollowscars.com/ for more wet pictures.

This was my first real race to shoot at and naturally my photos are lacking but I definitely learned a lot and am looking forward doing it again.  That shouldn't be too hard since spring is accompanied by car racing and my calendar is filling up with events to attend.  Lets just hope my little car blog can get me more press passes!

A walk to Hanamaru Udon

Yukino and I had a craving for udon from Hanamaru Udon the other day so after finding where the nearest one was we set out for a walk.  A walk that was much longer than expected but still nice.

A drive to Takedao onsen and abandoned train line

I have bookmarked quite a few interesting places in Japan I want to go to and only a few are within an hour or two.  We didn't have a lot of time the other weekend to go far so I picked one I have wanted to visit for a while.  Train lines come and go here and this one was abandoned not too long ago.  The old tracks have been turned into a hiking trail for the most part but a lot of it is hard to access. 

After an hour or so of some pretty strange back country driving we had arrived in Takedao Onsen.  Don't let that link to their site fool you.  There is not much there and I definitely would not want to stay a night at any of the inns there unless it was free. 

A walk around - DenDen Town, fugu, and Miss Osaka

Ugh, I had written almost all of the text for this post but then lost it.  I won't type it all again.  Sorry.

Nipponbashi is the Akihabara of Osaka.  Electronic shops, maid cafes, manga/anime shops and lots of other areas of dorkdom are crammed into this area. 

New camera lens and the reason why

Yukino and I have a pretty good Nikon D40 that is a pretty decent camera.  A bit cumbersome to carry around but if used properly the quality of the shots can be amazing.  The lens that comes with it is pretty decent and covers about 90% of the pictures we want to take but with something special coming up it was time to invest in something a bit....larger. 

With a budget in mind I opted for the 55-200mm VR lens.  Even when it is completely zoomed out its quite close which doesn't make it suitable for most shots but the zoom and the anti vibration is quick a kick to use.

The new lens (notice its blurry due to the stock lens)

On TRIAL's Blog

Its a bit old but I just found a post on Trial's ameblo blog about me and my friend changing the suspension on my EVO at their rental pit.  Click HERE.