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Recap - Obama

2012-01-25T00:00:00.000+09:00

Unfortunately, I don't have anything new to show. So, here is a picture Yukino snapped from our trip to Obama last year-

Osaka Castle and EVO at night

2012-01-14T19:07:00.000+09:00

I went out recently to get a good picture in front of Osaka Castle. I figure this is the only place to get a good shot of it AND the car. I hate the construction crap just behind though. I want to go back and spend more time trying to get a better shot but its too cold!

Aki on a racequeen's blog

2012-01-11T19:08:00.000+09:00

I took the family down to TRIAL the other day to have Yukino help me interview the owner. They have a "racequeen" as permanent staff there to just look pretty I suppose. She thought Aki was adorable and took a picture of herself and him and put it on her blog.

Her blog is here- http://ameblo.jp/chihiro-trial/

Here is my own picture-

He is such an ikemen (good looking guy) already.

A night in Tsuruga, Fukui - Day 2 - Nuclear Power Plants, Mountains, and crinkly leather jackets

2012-01-03T13:56:00.001+09:00

We woke up and went down to the free "continental" breakfast to see what delights were available. I have learned, a long time ago, that any breakfast advertised as "western" will in fact be not western at all. Our hotel this trip had potato salad, meatballs, miso soup, rice, carrot juice and croissants. As you can see, only one makes the cut for a real breakfast item. At least according to my definition. I am not complaining. I am used to breakfast in Japan. I just don't like false advertising.

After our delicious breakfast we got in the car and drove along the coast towards the East to see....something. No plan really. The coastal road was beautiful and since it eventually ends at the tip of the peninsula, and the largest thing out here is the nuclear power plant, traffic was non-existent.

About thirty minutes from the main city, we encroached upon the power plant. It kind of felt like a James Bond film. Everyone in hard harts being shuttled around.

If you look closely...

...you must wonder if they have a lot of people stopping by with their concerns.

At the end of the road there is a collection of old houses that look as if they hadn't been used in years. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

With a sign for a lighthouse and a warning for bears we set off for adventure-

A graveyard was the first landmark-

With a beautiful view-

Isn't this beautiful?

Looking back at the houses-

At the end of the flat trail was a very very steep set of stairs. We they ended we did not know. Curiosity got me and dragged Yukino and Aki along for the ride-

She looks happy but she was quite out of breath-

Finally, the end was in sight-

If they had cleared around the lighthouse better a beautiful 360 degree view would be possible. But, it wasn't cleared and our view was very limited-

I had the duty of carrying Aki back down and luckily made it all the way safely. I don't want to think of what would have happened if I had slipped.

We stopped by a beach-

Our first time on a beach with snow-

Cutting across the peninsula and down the coast some more brought us to a few lakes. These lakes open up to the ocean and were a safe haven for fishermen. I have never seen such a fishing oriented lack before-

These men standing on floats fishing confused me-

Further down were even more.... Can you tell me why?

Hoping to see a really cute old train, we stopped at a small train station but was not very happy with what I had waited for-

We were starving and stopped at a Chinese restaurant. I went in to scope it out for comfortablity and smoke odor. I asked, in what I think was pretty good Japanese, "Do you have non-smoking seats." The waitress thought I had wanted a menu. I repeated the question. She looked at me like an alien. I tried again. She had no idea. I said, "I do not smoke so is that okay?" She was completely lost now and got some old guys to try to help. I asked the same questions to only get the same response. The only thing that worked was making the gesture for smoking and "NO." Eventually they got it but I was so fed up that I didn't even want to eat there anymore. A little childish on my part but I was just so frustrated with that encounter. We ended up at this place-

Which was mmmuuucchhh better. Aki was sleeping when we went in. Immediately, an old Japanese man decked out in rubber boots, a red leather jacket that audibly crackled as his breathed and a military hat came over and in a voice way to loud for anyplace outside of a concert went on to talk to Aki. Aki didn't sleep after that. The man was very nice and we talked throughout our whole lunch. Which was very good. His wife and the owner of the place was very nice and accommodating when we had to change him on their couch. I wish I had gotten a picture of Aki and the old man. He was a hoot. And, he could understand my Japanese.

After a lot of driving in the snowy mountains again, we came out to Biwako lake where I amazingly/stupidly snapped this photo while driving.

The End.

A night in Tsuruga, Fukui - Day 1 - Factories, fish and a whole lotta snow

2011-12-29T18:51:00.001+09:00

With a bunch of time on my hands and not much to do other than stay at home and take care of the boy, Yukino and I booked a night in Tsuruga, Fukui. Never heard of it? Neither had I until I put my finger on it in Google Maps as our random destination. With a nice mountain drive in between Osaka and it and some ocean thrown in it seemed like a nice place. Plus, it has a nuclear power plant. Perfect for those blackout situations.

We tried to leave as early as possible and drove to Kyoto using the new highway that no one uses due to the crazy toll prices. I hate traffic so it was worth the $15 to get there a little less stressed. However, we still had to go THROUGH Kyoto which always kills me. We got lost a little bit but thanks to Yukino and her new iphone, we made it through managing to bypass all the crap traffic that usually plagues the roads.

Soon, we were out of the city and up in the mountain roads. I was really happy to try out the 4WD that our car is blessed with in the snow. However, the roads were pretty bad and didn't have a nice even layer to have fun on. I still managed to drive like a boss compared to others on the road. We soon came out into a valley that I had seen in pictures before-

Just as soon as we had got out of the mountains, back in I took us. I failed to notice the road closed symbols on my map and tried my best to go on. Locals thought I was crazy. Soon, with my car too low (stupid me taking all the "rally" out of my "rally car") I didn't dare trudge on any further.

I went back to the main thoroughfare which presented me with a driving condition unlike anything I have ever seen. To combat ice, water is sprayed onto the road. Makes sense right? However, this water was shot out like a small fire hose every ten or so feet. At the side of the car. For fifty miles. It was like driving through a car wash. For fifty miles.

After a very wet drive we had arrived to.....not much-

There was a statue-

And, a main road-

With just a few minutes walking one thing was clear. This place is much better than Wakayama City. I think anyplace on Earth is better than Wakayama City so my last comment doesn't really carry much weight with it. To be fair though, Tsuruga did seem to have some really nice restaurants and bars so.

We were starving and usually prefer a small restaurant but ahhh, the joys of having a baby and the problems that come with it. We decided to go to a nonsmoking food court at the top of a shopping mall.

Had a nice view too. I have never seen snow and water in such close proximity-

Creepy building #704 of thousands in Japan-

I thought they had forgotten the "T" but Yukino thinks its a plain on the Japanese word for "interesting"-

With the daylight waning we jumped back in the car and drove to the east along the coast. Taking a wrong turn took us through a tunnel to a massive concrete factory that blew us away-

Above the tunnel on the city side is a nice temple that required some careful footwork but was an otherwise normal and nice place to see-

Crappy picture I know-

Back in town we made reservations for an izakaya next door that was reported as worthwhile. I wish we could have gone restaurant/bar hopping but .... Anyway, we were very lucky since we were able to reserve a private room. Their only one. And, Aki fell asleep for most of the dinner! It was amazing! We haven't had a dinner out together since Aki was born and this was a perfect first one.

Grilled fish on rice-

One of the more horrid looking fish I have eaten here (notice the white eye ball that some people eat?) but it was incredibly delicious and had a lot of meat to it.

We spent way to much on dinner (there was a lot more than pictured) but I assured Yukino it was okay since it was a special occasion. It was after all. I figure we will be able to do this once more before we come back to the States for a visit. For the $120 it was worth it.

My family's first Christmas tree

2011-12-24T18:25:00.000+09:00

Here it is in all its glory. Not too shabby eh? This is the FIRST REAL Christmas Tree Yukino and I have ever seen in Japan. I have been here for almost four years and Yukino thiry one. Score one for the Johnstons.

Prepping for Christmas in Osaka.

2011-12-23T22:38:00.001+09:00

Christmas is just a day away. My third Christmas in Japan. Unlike other years however I do have my own family now to share it with. Not just myself, girlfriend, or family half way across the Earth.

Of course I naturally want to have a great Christmas with my wife and son. That is the Johnston way. Christmas in Japan for the most part sucks. It's a more-so-than-America commerical holiday that is covered in LED Christmas lights and topped with Christmas cake.

I do have the LED Christmas lights but no cake for me. My students gasped when I said there was no such thing in America for Christmas. Also....ack.... I was going to say no Christmas chicken for me. Well, at least not Christmas FRIED chicken for me. Unfortunately, I went to Costco tonight to get supplies and after seeing the selection I thought I was going to punch someone. Oh how I wanted to punch something. Costco has frozen turkeys. Too big for my oven. They ran out of frozen chicken. They have spiral ham for $70. What I was really aiming for was a large turkey breast. I bet you know why I wanted to hit something. Yup, no turkey breast. What...the....****. Where did they all go?! The Japanese customers were lining up by the dozen to buy roast chicken. They don't want turkey. Wheaedgjvbkh!

So, after taking some time to walk around to double check and calm down, I put the aforementioned $70 spiral ham in the shopping cart. Next to Aki. So cute. Except for seeing that price tag. Then, Yukino mentioned the idea of getting a big raw chicken. "Crap," I thought. "Okay," I said.

I got a big bag of yams, some beautiful Coppa Parma and Le Pie d'Angeloys (both of which I have no idea the taste of), lots of rolls, muffins, bagels, and beeeerrr.

Craft beer is very difficult to find here and when you do, it is very expensive. I was skeptical of this beer but it was worth it-

And the muffins we have no place to put (notice the squished one thanks to Yukino)-

So now we have way too many things for our refrigerator and freezer. I can't imagine the situation we would be in with our former fridge.

Please appreciate your gigantic fridge.

Workin on the car and a nice Datsun

2011-12-20T14:08:00.001+09:00

With out current cars suspension pretty well shot, I managed to pick up these off of Yahoo Auctions -

Over $2k worth of suspension for about a fifth of that. I love Yahoo Auctions. They aren't the stiff and more adjustable "racing" type I would like but for a family I thought they were a nice compromise.

Having someone install them would cost a bit and I was confident I could do them my self. Having a small garage and no quality car jack made a trip to the "Rental Pit" at TRIAL a necessity. I brought my friend Nakazawa to help out and off we went-

As I had figured, the installation went pretty smoothly. Next was the hard part. The alignment. For some reason alignments cost three times what they do in the states. I have no idea why. After some reading and some tools bought for the job, I thought I would have a go at doing it myself.

Maki, the owner of the place came out to help me with the measurements-

In the end, I ran out of daylight and didn't have the right setup. I paid $260 for an alignment! HA! What the hell!?

This Datsun outside my apartment made me feel better though-

Doin the car parts export game

2011-12-15T20:49:00.000+09:00

While I can think of a million things from America to sell here for more, there only a few items from here that I can make money on by selling there. One large market is car parts. I have sold a few things in the past and made some money as a result and today was no exception.

I bought these for $100......

...and sold them for $330. Excellent!

I would love to do this more but I hate gambling with this stuff and don't have a lot of room to have (more) car parts sitting around. Perhaps some small stuff though......

Gymkhana Final at Meihan Sports Land

2011-12-09T22:45:00.000+09:00

Earlier last month I went out to Meihan Sports Land to catch the finals of the All Japan Gymkhana series. I saw the application for the media pass but have always had full access at this track in the past so I thought nothing of it. Big mistake. After arriving and paying too much ($30) to get in I found out that I was only had access to the gallery. Which sucks. There were hundreds of cars there. The whole cart track was used up for private pit use. The whole parking area of the main track was used for pits. And, I couldn't get close enough to see a damn thing. Boo. So I sat back, and relaxed and watched a bit while practicing different photo techniques with less than impressive results.

While there were A LOT of different cars there this day, the EVOs are the choice for winning at these races-

This little guy about to head out was incredibly fast and incredibly loud. These three were in a class of their own (literally)-

The cars go from left to right in the back of the course here, come straight towards the camera on the right and have to do a 180 turn past the cones here. Two line judges and a sensor system ensure they are make it all the way-

My attention span only lasted about an hour or so. Cars going fast one at a time gets boring pretty fast I find.

I hit the road in my own EVO and toodle (quite fast) around the mountains and country side. I stopped to check something out and found this unused lawnbowling/croquet court in the middle of nowhere. You can see elderly people playing this in the countryside but it looks like not even them enjoy it here anymore-

Dance contest and some cool cars

2011-12-02T19:05:00.000+09:00

Running thin on pictures now. It was bound to happen.

When I went to the Show up Osaka show it was my first time in that area. I still don't know the name of the area but it was held at a large shopping mall in the port area of Osaka. Lots of cosplay people doing there thing which I wish I took pictures of. I am still timid about taking pictures of people so obviously. Which is silly in this case because that is what they do. They dress up like characters of their favorite anime or game and take pictures of each other.

There was also a children's dance contest going on which always makes me feel a little uneasy. I just don't like the idea of groups of preteens looking so .....slutty dancing in such a .....slutty way.

For some reason I took a picture from our balcony-

We took quite a long walk to the cellphone store to pick up my new phone. Not new really. Just fixed. Stupid phone. Along the way I spotted this normal for Japan clean Toyota Corolla-

And soon after, this clean S2000-

Yup, runnin thin on pictures. I am almost up to date with everything and that kind of saddens me. Bummer.

Sushi courtesy of Atsushi and some hiking in Nara

2011-11-30T23:50:00.005+09:00

I upload photos by folder. This folder contained a lot of car pictures that I already uploaded to RoryFollowsCars.com. Other part photos from this folder are ....these.

My friend/boss Atsushi stopped by our apartment for the first time with his son to see Aki and spend some time together. He brought some wonderful sushi that was a nice break from cooking or crap food I pick up somewhere -

Among the salmon, rolls of tuna, and two assorted sushi plates was a fresh block of katsuo. I just looked that up and it turns out it is "skipjack tuna" in English-

One of my favorites was this seafood covered plate of rice-

Aki was still only less than a month old at this point-

And, Yukino took ninja photos of us sleeping together-

On the weekend I went out to take photos at the aforementioned car event. To get there I usually take the 4 mile tunnel the mountain between Osaka and Nara and continue on through the center of the city. While I don't due that anymore thanks to finding a nice one lane shortcut that most of you would be scared to drive down, I did take the main thorough-fair this time which passes right through the most popular and famous parts of Nara. If you didn't know, Nara is famous for friendly deer and while sitting in an incredibly traffic jam I saw this one that I had to take a photo of-

Insert car photos here - http://www.roryfollowscars.com/

After spending some good time at the track I left to use the remaining daylight to have fun in the mountains. While taking a tiny, windy road back I spotted a dirt road off to the side with some signs that I couldn't understand. A few minutes down that road I stopped at a haikyo that I had to explore.

If it weren't for the crazy amount of spiders the size of my head, I would have many more pictures. Stupid Godzilla spiders....

Continuing on despite my map not showing any roads our here at all brought me to some curious trails off to the side. My curiosity got the best of me and before I knew it I was jogging along the trail with my camera in hand. Turn after turn I just had to find out what was worth making a trail in the middle of nowhere. Soon I was confronted with a climb instead of a hike-

But, the view was worth it-

At the top of the climb was a nice open space, despite being inhabited by more Godzilla spiders, that looked rather odd in such a wild area. I am always surprised to find wilderness intruded upon by humans with roads and useless wooden structures-

I took these photos mainly for reference so I could look up this area later on. I did follow the road as far as possibly but...it was a dead end. Not too surprising. Just another well made road in Japan that took an incredible amount of money in time to make just to be a dead end.

Perhaps the road engineers here are incredibly geniuses when it comes to nice viewpoints though?

Some much needed love for the car

2011-11-23T12:51:00.000+09:00

After owning the EVO for over 4 months at this point, I finally hand polished and waxed the car. And what a difference it made! I was really worried since the whole car had water spots from sitting outside so long at the dealer and just washing it didn't do anything. After about six hours of work though, it was looking pretty spiffy. Not showroom condition but damn good considering what it looked like before.

This clear of a reflection was definitely not possible before-

However, the look should change a lot this week since I have a new set of wheels and tires coming and I am putting on a beautiful set of Ohlins and RSR suspension this weekend. Should look even spiffier! Plus, I found a great place to take a night photo of the car in front of Osaka Castle.

Polo at night, preggers and mushrooms

2011-11-20T18:20:00.000+09:00

I would love to get more involved with bike polo. I really would. But, it's just not worth it. My bike is set up for normal commuting and such. To play bike polo effectively, my bike needs a much lower gear ratio so I can sprint and such. That would make my daily commute a lot longer and much more exercise. Most bike polo players have a bike dedicated for playing. I can't afford that. Plus, bike polo is held at times that just aren't convenient to me. Hell, with a baby now no time is convenient. Bike polo will have to wait.

The last time I played was a Monday night near Osaka Castle. Fun but not that fun. My bike is to thank for that.

The last picture of Yukino pregnant before Aki's entrance into this world-

In traditional Rory form, I have been collecting parts for our car that just sit around collect dust. Some I will/have put on. Others, are going to be sold. I can't imagine anyone reading this will want anything for an EVO but both Yukino and I get a kick out having these mushrooms laying around-

Hopefully I can sell them for enough money for a six pack of Asahi or two.

Around town - old homemade racing vids, kenmeri, and an umbrella

2011-11-14T20:15:00.000+09:00

Not in that order however.

This umbrella seemed to have been left out in the rain where it collected just a bit of water-

Yukino and I met Nakazawa and some friends for dinner and drinks around his place. We ended going back to Nakazawa's place to see his old street racing videos he took decades ago. I had always imagined him living in a big fancy apartment but he is currently living a place made for one. Good enough for him and his ton of crap made for a teenager. He is so cute. So were his racing videos too. So cool to see what racing on the highways was like twenty years ago.

Coming back from one of our excursions we stopped at a supermarket and I got a great parking spot next to this "Kenmeri" Skyline-

Back from vacation - the easy life - part 2

2011-11-09T21:19:00.003+09:00

Yukino and I had a few more days in and around Tokyo and I tried to make it to the old beach area as much as possible. However, I did find myself in Tokyo a lot though-

"Pub Lounge - You and Me"

We drove out to a famous car shop that specializes in Lancer Evolutions to ask some questions. The main guy was of course overly nice and tried to help us as much as he could. Their super quick demo car was in the garage hanging out-

Back at the beach I met with some friends at Kamakura beach. Or maybe it was Zushi. Oh well. They had a slackline that we had to try out though. I am proud to say that I was the best one on it that day :)

We planted our self in front of a live house so we could have some tunes while we hung out and drank. Strangely, when I looked around us I didn't see the usual crowd of young hotties but instead I found lots of older women. With umbrellas-

This one was covered up from head to toe-

It turns out that some older singer man was performing and that age group just loooovvess him.

We kept busy with Coronas and snacks until the sun went down-

And kept going into the night at this beach bar/restaurant-

Soon it was time to move on but not until I had the chance to go to the new Chample. As you may remember, Chample is a restaurant I used to work at in Ofuna. They had opened a new one in Kamakura and closed down soon after. They did open again in a new spot that is very cute and cozy. It was great to see my old staff friends and was even serenaded by one-

That concludes my time in my old stomping grounds. After this it was back to Osaka and back to real life. More on that later....

I am on Speedhunters!

2011-11-05T10:04:00.001+09:00

As of recently I have been trying my hand at automotive photography. The opportunities to do so are so plentiful in Japan that it would be a waste not to. When I was at TRIAL shooting photos for an upcoming interview/photo article (hopefully), I just had to take photos of this van I had seen before. Sporting a lot of custom work, it was made to go fast and that's it. While I wasn't able to take it out for a true test drive, I managed to drive it around the lot and just that made me realize how the practicality of it went out the window. Stiff suspension, no mufflers, and rattly everything makes this thing a track car only. Amazingly, I sent off my photos to Speedhunters and they accepted my words and pictures. Awesome start I think.

Please check out the article here - http://speedhunters.com/archive/2011/10/26/car-spotlight-gt-gt-elgrand.aspx

And, if you haven't already, please see my new car website that is ever so slowly updated. Familyだから。 http://www.roryfollowscars.com/

Back from vacation - the easy life

2011-11-03T15:21:00.004+09:00

After spending about twelve days in the States, I came back to Tokyo to meet the wifee and do some much needed hanging out with old friends. After doing some family things it was back to Fujisawa for some good old fashioned Shonan fun.

My first night of fun on my old stomping grounds involved some wonderful drinking times with Richard. He ended up in the same place our minds usually do at 5am after too much drinking. In the garbage-

I had too much fun to take pictures so lets just skip that. Back in Tokyo we went to ARMS to get some good "American" grub. Just after getting back from America. Strange. Still delicious though in a way only Tokyo can do-

Perhaps it's the atmosphere of a tiny, clean and fashionably burger shop that makes it feel more.....Japanese-

Near Yukino's family's place I liked these gas pumps-

We met some friends for a nice walk in a park. A rather large park at that. I spotted this little guy-

Really amazing if you look closely. The strange tail. The two funky black side pontoon like parts on the side. All there for a reason but what is it?

The park was huge as I mentioned and have a zoo, a large pond, extensive walking trails, a small restaurant pictured below and another one that we went too. It was an amazing place with outside seating, expensive drinks and good magazine and seats. My place to drink a beer. And that is what I did while everyone else had a funky cafe caramel machiataotoato thing.

Soon it was time for dinner and Ma and Joe took us to Konamon, an okonimiyaki (the famous dish from Osaka) restaurant in the heart of residential Tokyo. It's like they took a park, and built a enormous log house restaurant(s) in the middle and made it look like everything grew around it. With price a premium you wouldn't believe in this area, a space like this dedicated to okonomiyaki blew my mind.

We had a blast of a time eating tons of food and drinking lots.

Perhaps the next day, we went out to the mountains of Tanzawa with the parents and sister for some BBQ and swimming fun. We went back to an area I had been to a few times before but with the father at the wheel we went further up stream looking for a suitable place. He eventually settled on a place with too many people and no water to swim in. I said no. Or, suggested at least that we find a better place. With ME at the wheel I brought them to a place that Yukino and I had been to two times before. It proved to be the worthwhile choice as there was space to set up camp and get some actual swimming done. Ayana, Yukino's sister's baby sure liked it and the mother sure was keen on cooking-

Oddly, like the other two times, a huge group of special needs kids and their chaperons showed up-

Yukino, the swollen and pregnant wifee, cooking-

Yukino's dad looking like a boss-

More to come soon!

Up to Obama - Beautiful Obama, Robby rooms, and some countryside

2011-10-29T21:52:00.000+09:00

We had arrived in Obama and went straight to our hotel. Yup, this is Obama-

They had asked if we wanted a free upgrade on our room. Of course we said yes! Instead of the big suite we had pictured in our heads, they gave us a room with THREE beds! Interesting.....

However, it did have a great view-

The town is pretty tiny but has a pretty good drinking night life for it's size. There are two main drinking roads near the station that seemed dead but every place we wanted to go in was packed. I suppose that is what happens when establishments only seat five.

Most of the place is pretty new but this place stuck out like a sore thumb-

Oops!

We settled on an izakaya that had some seats open and dug into the local offerings. As Obama is a fishing village, the fish was quite fresh-

After eating and drinking too much, and me running around the town to find an ATM that would work, we paid our bill and went for a walk. Here is a hot spring foot bath near the beach. Later in the night, around 3am, a man was actually using it-

Strange item on top of a vending machine-

Back in the hotel elevator, we noticed they had a robby chapel....

And robby lounge-

The following morning we got up early, went for a beautiful swim in the ocean, tried to find some caves and saw a typical, hideous car dashboard-

It was time to head back but we went took a little detour along the coast which afforded us some more time at the beach. The beaches up here were gorgeous and puts the popular ones to shame. Too bad I didn't the camera didn't work or something. Use your imagination I guess.

Going back inland we found a waterfall-

On a dead end road that went forever and obviously cost a crap load of money was this-

Further inland we stopped for lunch at a road station. This quasi bosozoku looking bike was awesome-

Swimming in a river was the order of the day and Yukino somehow got us to a good place to do so. Yeah, half of it is concrete lined but that part and the more natural area downstream were lovely to swim in. A cute older couple even found the area pleasant to swim in-

The view to the other side-

We got back and went to my friends restaurant that had this nice orchid protected from the rain-

The end :)

Up to Obama - Abandoned vacation homes and Obama's water

2011-10-24T22:42:00.004+09:00

The original plan was to find someplace nice to swim. Easier said than done when most of them seem to be lined with concrete. The road we were on brought us to a popular swimming area accompanied with touristy things. Popular twenty years ago maybe. And, those touristy things are all abandoned now. Probably because what little swimming one could do was relegated to this small pool-

Across the road was this eerie looking road with obvious abandoned houses up the hill so up I ran and left Yukino behind-

First up is this place-

Inside was a quite secure place that allowed no entry-

Next door-

Hmm, a company get away perhaps? I have tried incredibly hard to find out about the company but have come up with nothing.

Yup! It looks as if it had been used only a few times. What a waste-

Downstairs-

Next door was...... a Lotus 7. Kind of out of place....

But there was more!

The roads went up but I had already left Yukino alone for a while and I was out of breath by running all over the place. Back at the bottom though there were plenty of abandoned inns to keep my interested though-

We drove and drove and decided to stay somewhere for the night. Obama was on the map and it was quirky enough for me for want to stay at. Plus, it was in a prefecture I had yet to visit (tick). We had arrived about an hour before sunset and were able to breath in the fresh air-

A sure sign you are in Obama, Japan-

Up to Obama - A beautiful lunch

2011-10-20T22:48:00.000+09:00

We didn't have a plan this weekend when we set out but luckily it turned into a wonderful two days of fun. To start, we went to northern Osaka to do some driving and stop at the top of a mountain. We didn't know that at the top was a little temple village however-

The hundreds of stairs were not a welcoming sight for Yukino and I but we had to get to the top. Along the way was this super cute "restaurant" that we vowed to stop at on the way back down-

At the top was this monstrosity!

The inside was rather bland and I don't understand why they would build something so .....modern in this haven of old religion.

The view was spectacular though-

At least the modern building had its own hand washing thing. Thank god for Yukino-

Around the corner was the original parts of the complex-

I was standing in Osaka AND Hyogo at the same time! I knew, even while taking this picture, no one would care about that....

Surely enough we stopped at the little place on the way back down and sat outside to have some lunch-

Cold soba for Yukino....

...while I had cold udon-

One of the best lunches I have had in a long time.

Lots more of what was turning into a long trip soon!

Driving in Hyogo and Kyoto - devil bugs and flower parks

2011-10-16T23:52:00.002+09:00

For poops and giggles, Yukino and I headed up the western side of Hyogo just to look around. Its a big prefecture and has a lot of fun roads and things to see.

Even in the middle of nowhere there are tuning shops doing pretty cool work like wide body conversions (white MR2) and full blown race cars (pink S2000)-

I believe our camera was really struggling to take good photos at this point-

To the top we went!

Going up was a breeze on nicely paved roads. Going down was a bumpy bumpy ride

Going down a dead end (I do this a lot. 20% of the time its not closed as the sign says) brought us to an interesting camping place. I gotta take the fam here sometime-

Gotta love the hairpins in Japan-

A waterfall!

The walk from where we parked was a short one but absolutely HORRIBLE! There were hundreds of small, strange looking flying insects that attacked us none stop between the car and the waterfall.

Again, with Yukino so pregnant, any small foot bridge was a trial for her. Especially ones that looked like this while trying to bat away devil bugs-

Another dam! And, luckily we could drive across this one and go around the other side of the reservoir. The other side is always better than the normally traveled side.

Cool shrine in the middle-

Just across the border in Kyoto is this strange "Flower Park" that I had noticed before. This time I went in for further inspection, managed to open the gate and had a looksee. The now defunct "park" is quite large, take over an entire hillside but looks to be slowly integrating with the next door factory.

At the horse races

2011-10-13T23:21:00.000+09:00

Horse racing is a ....big thing here? I am not sure. But, there are a handful of race tracks around and one is conveniently located close to Osaka. Taking the train less than an hour brings you to an otherwise normal station. Except, EVERYONE gets off at the stop.

We brought along our super cooler for supplies and it proved to be a smart move. I had to take a picture of it among all the old lady bag trolley thingies-

The arena from a distance-

Stepping off the train was like being herded cattle but after some spreading out on the sidewalks and such it became much more normal as we got closer-

Super cooler!

The place is new(er) and much larger than I had imagined. It is HUGE.

This is the area where horses are trotted around to be viewed-

Number 6's name is Ninja. Badass. He even had the kanji and a picture of a throwing star groomed into his rump.

This was a side of horse racing I hadn't expected. At least in Japan. Old guys everywhere, camped out on newspapers with pornographic images.

Outside was beautiful and again, HUGE-

It seemed that 90% of the people there were pretty serious about betting. Betting cards littered the floor everywhere and people were yelling at the finish of every race. Conveniently, they have great betting machines that take all the fun out of talking to someone when placing a bet.

The sound at the end of each race was extraordinary! People were standing, jumping, pounding on chairs and their friend's heads. Insanity. I believe this was when I found out my camera was slowly dying and couldn't take videos. Bummer.

I could at least take photos to show that I could still fit in the seats-

The first race had the aforementioned Ninja in it. I just had to bet on him because of his badass name. I tried. I really did. But, it being my first time to a horse race, with the betting cards in Japanese, I didn't make it in time. I would have won over $100 on the lowest bet. CRAP!

I still managed to come out on top by betting on a horse with "Burlington" in it's name :) It was a fun day but soon it was all over. No more yelling. No more beers. No more old guys. Still lots of newspapers though.

Osaka Bike Polo and grilled chicken with friends

2011-10-10T22:21:00.001+09:00

Soon after I had bought my fixie bike, I met a nice bike polo player on the way home who kindly informed me that there was an Osaka Polo club and that I was free to join them anytime. They meet every Monday and Wednesday night either at Osaka Castle Park or another park, as well as Saturday during the day at the Castle park. My first time was on a beautiful sunny Saturday. And, since this was in the peak of summer, it was unbearably hot. It was incredibly hot. Everyone was constantly going to the vending machine to get something to replenish all the liquid they were loosing.

Everyone was very nice and open to teaching me. My bike isn't set up for polo as ideally as it could be but I tried my best. And, was horrible. I scored once which I was happy about but was slow as a dead badger out there.

Teams are randomly drawn each round and players line up behind their goal for the start-

Someone on the sideline counts down and players sprint for the ball in the middle and the game is on!

There was even another American there, Kip-

Things can get pretty close contact and bikes and bodies are frequently hit. Everyone is friends though so no there are no hard feelings-

Its a big game of cat and mouse. If you have that ball, there are at least two players gunning for you-

The game is slow and technical for probably more than half of the game. You can't put a foot on the ground and if you do you have to touch a marker off course before entering the game play again. Lots of balancing and tricky mallet work-

I had a ton of fun and met some pretty cool people then. I wish I could do it every week but for my bike to be competitive, it would loose all the practicality of using it as a real bike. The people in the club either love playing so much they don't care about that or more likely have another bike to use on a day to day basis. I cannot afford that.

Later that night Dancho took Yukino and I out to a yakitori place somewhere near Kyobashi station. Nice and small with great food-

Getting deeper into Japanese car culture - Evo club

2011-10-08T11:56:00.003+09:00

Car forums don't seem too popular here so Minkara provides what is lacking in that department. It's a kind of social network for car guys/girls and has pages for car clubs as well. I have always seen pictures of car club meetings in Japan and I finally got the chance to join one. The plan was to meet at convenience store and then head out into the mountains for some nice hotspring action. Nothing like sitting naked with other car guys right?

The weather wasn't great and the club members were a little odd but I went with the flow and did the drive out to the onsen. It was a slow drive since we had to keep everyone together but soon we arrived at a ridiculously large hot spring place. Hot springs here are either really cute and small or gigantic places for families. This was the latter.

You can see my car second from the left next to the most badass EVO I have ever seen. Full blown race car.

We all got naked and got into the soothing hot ass water. After an hour or so we went upstairs for some dinner. Since Japan has a zero tolerance for drinking and driving, there are are a few non alcohol beers that people enjoy-

A few other guys and I opted for the daily dinner set-

Conversation was sparse but the leader, in the gray shirt on the right, was a hoot and brought life to the "meeting"

Some night shots before we all parted ways and I got lost in the countryside-

Meet Aki, my son

2011-10-06T17:59:00.001+09:00

I am skipping ahead here with the timeline of the photos but I think that's okay.

Here is a cute picture of our new baby, Aki-

Akame 48 Watefalls - More watefalls and salamanders

2011-10-05T22:29:00.000+09:00

Continuing from my last post we have a different view of the last waterfall-

The trail was quite precarious at point and had little treasures like this waiting for you here and there-

The perfect swimming spot-

A cool cave shrine-

The place was heaven for a waterfall loving couple like us-

The weather the whole day wasn't very inviting but just after the half way point into the hike, a good hour or so, the clouds opened up. Wet rocks became wetter, crazy steps covered in moss became death stairs. Yukino in here current pregnant state was in no way fit for this. We got back to a tiny shop that was managed by some old women and sough refuge there. Her family hiked out to visit and was extremely kind to us and gave Yukino a poncho. We sat for a while and drank coffee with a few other people exploring the falls but eventually hit the path in the rain to get back to the car. Hence, no more waterfall pictures.

But, I did see more salamanders!

Just outside the museum was this interesting stall selling food. Hekoimanju, or Farting Manju. Manju is a pancake type snack with filling inside. This place, while advertised as "Farting" had DELICIOUS manju. I got the cream cheese and apricot and Yukino got the apple. Delish!

It says "Laugh at the name and eat with satisfaction."

And, finally, some sad ice cream lights-

The drive back was amazing but sadly I didn't take any pictures. I was having too much fun on the mountain passes. We could see that the roads were popular with drifters and I can only imagine what they are like at 2am on a Sunday morning. Someday I will find out...

Akame 48 Waterfalls - Giant Salamanders, Ninjas, and....waterfalls

2011-10-02T22:50:00.004+09:00

On a cool and cloudy Satuday, Yukino and I drove out to Mie Prefecture to see the Akame-shujuhachi-taki, or Akame 48 Waterfalls.

Along the way, I thought this view was nice and went in closer to check it out-

I believe it was a tea house or restaurant of some sort. I would have stopped in for some macha but really wanted to keep driving.

Just down the one lane road was this across the river. You might want to click it to make it bigger so you can actually see it-

On the other side of the road was a nice place to enjoy the view and pray-

It was about lunch time and food options this far out were scarce. We stopped by a conveniently placed tourist spot that had a restaurant and while I can't imagine to many people riding bicycles to this place, it had this sign saying to not forget to lock your bike-

Lunch!

A big mirror ball!

Some rice fields!

We (I) went down the wrong road a few times but eventually we got there. I was quite surprised at how touristy the place is. Lots of inns and crappy places to buy crappy gifts. To make it even more touristy, the ninja history of the place was amped up-

The walking map-

The main trail was to the right but boy did I want to go left-

Want a Ninja Burger?

To make it more touristy, and make you feel as if you are getting something more than waterfalls when paying to get in, you must pass through a "museum" that takes advantage of the local GIANT Japanese Salamander-

They are HUGE! And, GROSS! Below, there are two of them. Can you spot them?

Yuck!

After mumbling yuck a hundred times, we walked through and were greeted by a nice waterfall-

More waterfalls and wet times next!

Camping in Wakayama - Day 2 - Beautiful driving, avalanches, and a coffee grave

2011-10-01T10:22:00.000+09:00

Waking up in the morning wasn't fun but getting on the road was. Food options in that area were....non existent but I think we managed to get some sort of food somewhere near where the following picture was taken.

I had to explore this path and it lead to a nice area to take the previous picture-

I found some roads not on the map that went up and up and...

The road along the ridgeline was AMAZING. The view, not so much. But the twisties! Left, right, left, right. And, without seeing another human being for the whole hour of that. The road was in great condition until..

An avalanche had covered the road and instead of removing the rubble, they just turned into a little hill of a road.

We soon came out onto a main road that cruises along the tops of other mountains. Notice something? Like the absolute lack of any sign of civilization? It was a first for me. 和歌山だから　(because, its Wakayama).

In the back is a huge hydrangea farm and in the front is a nice Honda Beat and a beat van-

I realized that my car doesn't like high altitude. Gotta keep that in mind. Anyway, the road led us straight to Koya-san, the place we visited the winter before.

The place is huge and was great to explore since last time we didn't get to see too much.

Graves everywhere and some of them are just insane-

No picture taking was allowed past this bridge. Pretty religious place.

People chuck water on these statues for good luck-

A big rock hanging-

Some of the graves were just ridiculous. Here is a grave for maybe the founder of UCC coffee-

How about a rocket grave?

After this we leisurely went home with a last impression of Wakayama with us. That place is amazing and I can't wait to go back. That might prove harder for obvious reasons. One you might not know about is the landslides and such since the recent typhoons. The place is a mess with dozens of people dead and missing. The lack of roads in such a large place makes accessing anywhere there very difficult. I hope to find out for myself sometime soon.

Camping in Wakayama - Day 1

2011-09-27T19:22:00.000+09:00

Yukino and I had the wonderful intention of going camping every weekend. For some reason or another, that didn't happen. We had bought all the accoutrements for doing so but just never got around to it. Bummer. BUT, we did manage to get our for a weekend just before it became too hard for her to move around.

We searched a searched for a good camp ground. I wanted to pitch tent in the middle of nowhere but Yukino being a pregnant lady, wanted "facilities." Most camp grounds in Japan suck. They do. They are family oriented places that don't allow any sense of being in the wilderness. Yukino and I searched and searched and eventually found one that didn't seem to have anything more than a toilet. Perfect.

After a few hours of driving and paying the strange and friendly old couple running the place, we had arrived to be pleasantly surprised by the complete lack of people.

The water was a tad cold but we had everything we needed for a night of relaxation-

My little portable stereo had some problems staying ON and was not so quickly remedied by this high tech wonder I found nearby-

Here you can see our badass-for-Japan cooler from Costco. This thing beats the pants off any cooler and it shows on Japanese people's faces. We loaded it up with everything we could get from the nearest (an hour away) supermarket-

Our firewood didn't last long-

But, as you can see in the background, we did an excellent job finding wood-

I was incredibly proud of Yukino, despite her pregnant state, for searching in the pitch dark and getting tons of wood-

With just the sound of water nearby and bugs in the trees, we slept soundly on our awesome air mattress.

Flea Market, Nana and Mio, and cars

2011-09-24T13:57:00.002+09:00

Once a month the Shitenoji Temple has a gigantic flea market filled with an incredible amount of goodies. Too bad its not always on a weekend though.

Bamboo?

This guy looked like he took that message a little too seriously-

Stopped for some coffee after-

Nana and Mio came to town and we had a merry time-

Stopped by Trial for something-

Replica cars are a bigger thing here than I have seen in other countries-

Next up is some camping in Wakayama!

Near Tsuruhashi station - make shift spaces and oooolllddd games

2011-09-22T22:37:00.002+09:00

I love this "apartment" under the train tracks-

In the crappy shopping arcade in between the two stations is a incredibly old game arcade. The machines rattle, the place smells and the games are half the price than they are elsewhere. This woman can occasionally be seen playing games-

Thunderstruck with Dancho, a drunk guy, and some old people walking in a circle at 5am

2011-09-19T11:47:00.000+09:00

Dancho and I headed out into the heart of Osaka at 11pm-

He loves ROCK ROCK and I was game to check out what all the hubbub was about-

Getting drinks was interesting-

The place was so much smaller than I had imagined. It is a well known bar that is frequented by quite a few famous people. Or so I hear. This guy isn't famous but he was having his birthday bash there that night-

And, he took full advantage of it-

We stayed quite a few hours but we had to then go meet Yoshimi and ....some quiet guy that weirds me out sometimes. Dancho prefers to fly on moving walkways rather than stand-

Even taxis here have bling bling LEDS-

I liked the name of the place, hence the picture. ひげ　means "facial hair."

Guys standing and eating way too early in the morning-

Great name-

"Mr. Lady Robin"

Somehow we ended up at Osaka Castle to drink a few and eat snacks outside. It wasn't the best idea at the time, but hanging out at the edge of the sixty foot wall at the moat was pretty fun-

And, the sunrise was very beautiful-

Fusion!

Here you can see the drop better-

At the center of the castle park is....the castle. This morning, at 5am, was a group of old people dancing in a circles. I was surprised but not that much. It is Japan after all.

That wraps up my night with Dancho. I have been meaning to have another one soon. He has so much energy its nuts and hes a really nice guy to hang out with. Soon Dancho!

Welcome back party with the teachers

2011-09-15T21:44:00.000+09:00

It was just shortly after the school year started that the annual "something or other" party was held. The teachers who had moved onto other schools came as well as the new and current ones. It was great to see everyone after spring vacation and to see how things were going for the ones who left. The food was better this time and the drinks more plentiful.

The woman on the left, Ueda-san, used to sit next to me in the teachers room and is a great hoot of a woman. The new lady isn't much fun....

After a few hours of drinking, eating, and schmoozing, a bunch of the male teachers and I went out to an izakaya near the hotel the party was held at. It was an izakaya restaurant that had an interesting menu item. For a few dollars you could take as many clams as you could with one hand. If you could get a certain amount, perhaps 15, they would be free. It was addictive! Everyone including me tried a few times and no one could do it. We just ended up with way too many little clams to eat.

Tracy Sports and a Top 100 waterfall in Shiga

2011-09-12T22:29:00.002+09:00

With so many car tuning shops around, I should have my hands full with visiting them. But, with so many around, I find that I get lethargic and decide that I will just get around to it someday. I do manage to visit a new one about once a month and this time I visited Tracy Sports just across the river to the north.

My car next to a few examples of their work-

Possibly the same day, we drove up north, past Kyoto and onto Shiga prefecture.

This was a first for me! You had to open the gate your self to drive on this road-

The place was GORGEOUS. It was great being in such a beautiful place, surrounded by old building and farms and nothing commercial-

The road with the gate was not the one we were looking for so we turned around and went back down the avalanche stricken road. We finally what we were looking for. Sorta. We had to pass through Gulliver's Village to get there. Click on that link and see what kind of reality shock we got after being in such a beautiful area.

Our goal was one of the top 100 waterfalls in Japan. That gets me every time. Top 10 I can understand. Even Top 20 is good. But Top 100? There is even a Top 100 roads list here. Top 100 mountains. Top 100 water. Yeah, just water. What the hell! I like Top 100 things though so I guess I am glad for all these ludicrous lists.

This waterfall was quite a bit in and proved difficult for super preggers Yukino. Soon, we made it! And, it was closed! Yes, a waterfall can be closed. The incredibly steep path down to the bottom where it can be viewed was closed. Someone had died the week before. I almost attempted it but thought better of it with the whole soon to be dad thing in my head. Someday though. Someday, I will climb down there via the provided chain that looked really dangerous.

A bit after was few other nice waterfalls. Not top 100 but waterfalls none the less. Sorry for the funky picture as I had to do some extreme color editing to make it visible-

A day in Awajishima - Flowers and onions

2011-09-08T21:12:00.001+09:00

Awajishima (Awaji Island) is nestled nicely in the bay between Shikoku Island and mainland Japan. It's looks pretty close but thanks to traffic it takes a loooonnngg time.

View Larger Map

With a tiny population I wasn't expecting much. Which is perfect. I don't like places with people. More fun for me. However, being on the way to Shikoku, lots of people pass through and inevitably get off the highway to check out stuff.

A popular spot is right as you get off the bridge. Lots of souvenirs, foods, and photo opportunities-

I really liked the DIY BBQ corner-

And the fresh fish you could buy to BBQ-

There is one main road around the island and being a normal Japanese road combined with tons of stupid people on bikes, it was slow going. After about twenty minutes of banging on the steering wheel, I veered right towards the center of the island-

Where I met slow traffic of another kind-

Mooooo-

I found some wonderful "roads" that brought us in the back way of a popular touristy flower garden place. Since this is Japan, Awajishima has its own famous product naturally. I wasn't very excited to find out it was.....onion. Boring old onion. I love onion but really? Are these onions better than others? I didn't care to find out.

The flowers were very nice though-

Lots of families relax there-

Moving on, we stopped at a shrine (or was it a temple) that had this rather surprisingly nice Roadster parked in front-

With limited day light we pressed on with the South side as our goal. The Nojima Fault, the cause of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, is located right on this island and that means more tourist attractions. We stumbled upon the museum but thought better of paying a crazy amount of money to go inside. Especially when they had gigantic windows on the outside that I could look through at all the good stuff! Of course, in Japan, no one besides a foreigner like me would do that. Ugh. I saved $20 by looking through that window!

Anywho, here is a sake factory!

And, the bottom. Across the water you can see Shikoku. There was quite a line to get to the parking to this place and it was .....sorta worth it. Its a famous vantage point from which you can see the Naruto whirlpools. Everyone failed to tell me that they aren't like an IHOP and they sometimes close.

Coming back was uneventful. Especially thanks to being stuck behind a slloooowww local farmer on that one road around the island. With some pretty slick driving I was able to get around but, still boring. Boom! Awajishima!

Hitomi-go at Meihan Sports Land - MORE!

2011-09-05T18:43:00.000+09:00

I went on a photo/video taking frenzy this day!

Beautiful S15-

S14-

S13-

Onlookers usually slap the wall in hopes of egging on the drives to get closer and closer-

Runs were usually about 8 minutes long and as soon as one was finished, the next group headed out. Sometime the drivers go out onto the track in a cloud of rubber burning smoke but unfortunately this group was pretty sedate-

I love the dashboard table and shift knob-

Rare to see anywhere but completely stupid to have one in Japan-

This Stagea was kicking ass all day-

And, here it is-

I liked the look of this FD. Really....beefy-

The judges-

A RWD Skyline GTS ripping it up-

The aforementioned Stagea-

Badass Corolla-

It looks like a GTR....

It looks like a GTR drifting with that lack of counter steer-

Stock looking FD trying his best-

The GTR looking car had a GTR engine..... Could it be a real GTR.....

This car was about to go out onto the track-

So, I promptly knocked on the window to ask for a ride. He was incredibly welcoming but he didn't say no! I quickly ran back to another foreign drifter I had met earlier to ask if I could borrow his helmet and jumped back into the car-

Unfortunately, he wasn't very good. This was his best run while I was in the car-

These two S15s were practicing their tandem drifts and were getting closer and closer throughout the day-

In Japan, a "high five" is called "high touch." That is why I laughed and thought about how much fun it would be to work there-

Hitomi-go at Meihan Sports Land

2011-09-04T15:56:00.002+09:00

Meihan Sports Land's tracks can be rented out for some pretty big cash. But, if you get enough people together its peanuts. There are track days every week but Hitomi-go is one of the bigger ones that is organized every two or three months. I went by myself which allowed me to have some more fun behind the wheel than with Yukino and arrived around lunch time.

When I arrived things didn't seem to hot-

The paddock afforded some nice views though-

Again, how anyone could sleep with cars screaming behind your head is beyond me-

Perhaps the beginners were out when I arrived. Much better drivers came out soon after-

Getting closer!

And that is the face you can't help but make with smoke and rubber flying at you-

Rilakkuma hiding in your taillight!

There are always a few crashes-

And, parts coming off of cars-

I have waayyyy to many videos and pictures from this day. More with come soon. I will try to figure out youtube so I don't waste my space on here.

Kobe Chinatown and more

2011-08-31T21:50:00.002+09:00

Nearby Kobe has the only other Chinatown in Japan I believe. The one in Yokohama is very impressive so I didn't expect much from the one in Kobe. Which is best really since the former can get pretty crazy with people. Kobe is also a great place for old western style architecture since it was one of the cities open to foreign trade after the policy of seclusion was removed-

A VERY cool Nissan Stagea with Skyline front end-

The shotengai nearby is one of the best I have been in. The architecture, lack of people, and interesting shops made it a worthwhile walk-

A bench! In a shotengai! With space to sit on!

NICE men's clothing shop-

Chinatown!

I think there was a cheese concoction inside this thing-

I got one of the popular duck treats they had there. I think I got a crap one that lacked a lot of duck and had too much other stuff that fell out all over the place-

Across from the parking lot was parked in was Meriken Park (from the word American maybe?), a popular place in Kobe right on the water. In 1995, the Great Hanshin Earthquake destroyed an incredible amount of Kobe and killed about 4600 Kobe citizens. There is little left to see from the damage but a small section of the park has been preserved to show the force of the earthquake-

I believe this was an aquarium-

There was also a strange selection of water craft. The following two looked like something out of Thunderbirds-

The "pirate" ship was my favorite though-

I tried to take a "cool" photo of the car-

Rather than taking the boring highway or main roads back to Osaka, we headed up into the mountains looming over the city-

The roads were absolutely lovely to drive on and even made Yukino a little sick with the none stop left, right, left, right driving-

And finally, a man playing videogames while driving-

Crashed cars and nice views

2011-08-28T23:49:00.000+09:00

Luckily the crashed cars mentioned in the title was not my car. You will see.

One a beautiful Saturday, Yukino and I headed off towards Meihan Sportsland for a car race. On the way we stopped again at famous Japanese car tuner, HKS Kansai. And, again we were not given permission to take pictures. Ha!

Right before the entrance to Meihan was this poor NSX. Ouch!

The event that day was too expensive for how much time we would have had there so we moved on-

I really wish we brought our DSLR for these pictures. It was absolutely beautiful-

And, some cool building somewhere-

Not the most amazing day trip but lovely nonetheless.

Sneaky Power Rangers, prohibited octopus balls, and the day I got my car

2011-08-27T13:40:00.000+09:00

While I was walking to the train station near my place, I couldn't help but notice these three sneaky "rangers" getting ready to surprise someone. Funny but not really surprising. That is Japan-

Yukino getting some udon in a shopping arcade in Kyoubashi-

I love this! No octopus balls allowed inside! HAHHAHAH

Mini vans are pretty popular here and while some go over the top with gaudy modifications, some subtly enhanced like this one-

The previous car was spotted on the way to picking up this-

The same day we went north to Minoh to have some fun in a car that wasn't a rental. It was cherry blossom season but I can't remember if they were on their way out or in when we went for this drive. I imagine all the brown is covered in white at some point-

This gigantic tree has some importance that I don't know about-

It allowed for a good photo of our new car though-

A Doghouse Hanami party

2011-08-25T13:14:00.000+09:00

Our friend and owner of Doghouse Inn, Osugi, organized a wonderful hanami party at the nearest park a while back. The park was packed with families enjoying the cherry blossoms but Osugi obviously had thought ahead and somehow was able to setup the most lavish picnic spot I have ever seen-

Of course Henry was there-

A local pizza shop owner stopped by on his badass portable calzone making Vespa-

Our friend Nakazawa on the right came and we were all pleasantly surprised when Danny from the 50 Kaitenz and joined in on the fun-

I really really enjoyed the $6 fried calzone-

Osugi was first up on the makeshift stage-

Then it was Danny and some other guys turn. The little girl was adorable with here bubble blowing-

It was great to see Danny play acoustic-

And theeennnnnnn, the kazoo was brought out-

After the last part was an auction to raise money for the disaster that happened earlier here in Japan. I managed to snag a great dodgeball shirt for about a dollar. I thought I was taking a picture...oops-

Just a weee bit more cherry blossoms coming up. With something else really cool in the pictures..

Cherry blossoms by day and night

2011-08-24T15:29:00.001+09:00

It was cherry blossom season and Yukino and I did our best to see as much as possible. While this area didn't have any, it is a really nice place to hang out and have a coffee-

Osaka Castle Park is one of the most popular areas for cherry blossoms and it really is an amazing place to see them-

The next day we went out to check it out during the day. Near the entrance are a bunch of these trees that look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book-

People were out in full force taking advantage of the white coverage the trees provided-

A few minutes away is Sakuranomiya, another place famous for cherry blossoms-

This is the most extravagant homeless house I have ever seen-

I had never seen such extravagant food stalls either. They were amazing with full service food dishes, music, and places to sit inside-

I took a break with a draft beer on the river-

Fresh seafood was readily available-

Interesting-

Later that night we joined some friends for some midnight cherry blossom action-

Dinner in Osaka and a night in Wakayama City

2011-08-21T15:41:00.001+09:00

While walking around at night I thought this was a cute shot-

Not as cute but much more delicious-

Yukino-chan-

We were going to southern Osaka to look at a car we had seen for sale on the internet. Shin Imamiya train station is located in central Osaka near Tennoji. You always know when you arrive there due to the smell of urine. Lovely place really.....

This is a special train that runs from Nanba to Kansai Airport-

We opted for the normal train and went and had a look at the car we eventually bought. Since we were so far south, it seemed like a good idea to go a bit further to Wakayama City since neither of us had been there.

Having arrived at one of the Wakayama City stations, we were surprised to say the least at how little there was. It was the biggest city in the prefecture after all. We strolled around to find....nothing. We did find the castle though-

The castle grounds were very beautiful with lots of ups and downs and fun things to find.

The floor looks smooth but in reality it has lots of little edges that make walking on it not very fun since you have to take your shoes off to enter-

I took this photo in hopes of capturing the mans ridiculous fashion-

Some people were enjoying their cherry blossom barbecues and picnics and some even had pizza delivered inside the park.

We booked a hotel for the night and promptly headed out to see the nightlife. Or, lack of. Seriously, Wakayama City must be the most boring city in the world. What little we could find seemed to be shut down and bars and restaurants were few and far between. We settled on Indian food-

We walked, and walked and walked. The walking paid off as we found a restaurant that $1 draft beers! Amazing!

I cannot remember where this was but it says "drink paradise."

In the morning we went to an old school joint for breakfast-

And, had a pretty decent breakfast for about $4-

The train back was pleasant as it went through the mountains rather than the residential areas. I am glad we went but wow. I would hate to live in Wakayama City.

Hidden evil amusement park on top of Ikoma mountain

2011-08-19T12:43:00.000+09:00

Continuing on from where I left off before, I went closer to check out what the sounds I had heard and what the buildings were. A little bit closer-

It turned out to be a tiny amusement park set on top of the mountain-

They even had a ride with the same name as my friends bar-

The place was very small and looked very bad. The guests were mainly parents and their very young children and a few old people. I was out of place with my foreign face and motorcycle helmet. Did I mention I had hiked the last hour and a half with a helmet in my hand? Stupid stupid stupid.

The haunted house-

Miniature golf is not very popular here for whatever reason. So, I was quite excited to see one for the first time-

I have no idea what this place was-

Nice views were able to be seen however-

I was jealous of this kid-

On the way back down near my scooter was this sad sight-

As well as a few other goodies that I thought I would look up on the net at a later date-

Just next to the bike was a stairwell that had to lead to SOMEWHERE right?

Or, just this-

I did push through a bit and found random things on the ground-

Lastly, I came across this place that had a foundation as stable as a half done Jenga game. I didn't care to enter that one-

Exploring Ikoma mountain to the extreme

2011-08-17T20:51:00.000+09:00

On a nice weekend day, I took my scooter out for a ride up nearby Ikoma Mountain lying between Osaka and Nara. The old route 308 is an extreme road for any mode of transportation and I received quite a few looks as I slowly but surely made my way up the insanely steep road. I stopped for a moment to take a photo of a waterfall however and give my scooter's engine a break-

On Google maps there seems to be tons of small roads winding all over the place on the mountain. I tried my best to find them but it seems that most of them are blocked off or turned into hiking trails. I was really hoping to find some haikyos but didn't have any luck. Here is a nice viewpoint I had visited before at night-

Just down the road from there I noticed this car hidden in the bushes-

While attempting to find a road I came upon this cute set of houses on the mountainside-

Here is where you go left if you want to go up and over the mountain. I remember this turn off fondly as I had to drive on it and make sure the car didn't fall off-

Having finally made it over the top I continued to explore for .....something. I am always exploring roads and trails thinking I am going to come up on something special. I usually don't.

I did see this perfectly restore Beetle hanging out an amazing house with an amazing view of Nara City-

Finally, I found an abandoned road! It was covered in leaves and a little wet so I went up to make sure it was worth the trouble. Walking down I cleared a trail by dragging my foot and hoped it would provide enough traction to get up.

The destination? This house-

The house was a bust so I kept going up, secretly passed a house and went up another seemingly abandoned road. At the top was .....nothing special really. A clearing and some stuff-

But! There was a trail!

I went up and found an abandoned house! I tried to enter but self preservation kicked in and I thought better-

Strange dog kennels in the middle of nowhere-

The trail was hardly a trail with no markings and lots of underbrush to pass through. That is why it was cool to see that some form of life had been here ages ago. Sprite can-

The trail went on, and on, and on. Once I get about 10 minutes into an adventure, I cannot stop. I had to keep going to see where the hell this trail went. Eventually, it did meet a "real" trail. To the right was a Temple. To the left was, well, I couldn't read the kanji. But, I could hear bells of some sort. I headed left and then broke off onto another lame excuse for a trail that went straight up the mountain. I didn't want to beat around the bush and walk slowly around the mountain so I opted for the direct route. It almost killed me but I was able to find these graves, literally, nowhere on the side of a mountain-

I trudged on, carry way too much clothing that I had to shed to battle the sweat my body was forming on this cold day. Sounds were getting closer and closer. Soon, I saw this-

Stay tuned for more!

NYC deli my butt, around Osaka Castle in Spring and the car I almost bought

2011-08-12T12:18:00.000+09:00

A friend tipped me off to deli in Kobe called New York Deli. As you can see on their site, they bill them self as the only REAL deli in the Kansai area. If you know me, you know I love sandwiches. REAL sandwiches. So, I was quite excited by this news and planned a little bike trip out their. By little, I mean a three hour bike ride. I had time so I thought it would be more fun than the train. It was but booooyyyy was it NOT worth it. I got all the way there by taking backroads. Sure, taking the main road would have only taken an hour but that is no fun right? So, after getting lost dozens of times, not being able to find the place, finally finding the place and then!? It was CLOSED! BOO! The surrounding area is very beautiful however and quite popular for rich expats and Japanese to live in. This was the only picture I took-

It was a nice day during the cherry blossom season and I went for a ride around Osaka Castle for lunch. The park surrounding the castle grounds is very very nice and I definitely appreciate being only a few minutes walk from it. It is like the Yoyogi Park of Osaka. Countless events are held there every week and people enjoying doing whatever activity you can think of there. It is also a very nicely maintained park with great vegetation and seasonal treats for people walking through.

The park is inundated with cherry blossom trees and they bloom beautifully all over. The nearest entrance into the park from my apartment included a nicely lined walk way complete with fountains and small vendors selling flowers, small and big plants, and bonsai trees.

Occasionally you can see this young man with a speaker system blaring techno music attached to his belt. While doing little dances to the beats he paints something. It is interesting for about thirty seconds then realize its BS. Other people don't think so though-

When I was in the market to buy a car I found an amazing Subaru on net and asked the guy to check it out. The next day I headed North of the city a bit and met him outside the station. The car had its fair share of nicks on the outside but nothing major. He took me for a ride and it was obvious this was a race car. Full roll cage, teeth chattering suspension, bucket seat, lap counter, gigantic brakes etc. It was the smoothest riding car in the world but it was definitely the fastest I had been in. He went all out on a small straight city road that was not suitable for high speeds whatsoever and I almost peed myself. The stopping power was just as insane since I thought we were going to slam into the back of a car after the high speed run but the giant brake rotors and calipers worked with such force that the seat belt was cutting into my collarbone.

The price was absolutely amazing for the car since it had sooooo many quality parts inside and on it. However, it WAS a race car and I didn't need a race car for a family car. My car now is already bordering on stupid as practicality goes. This goes to show you what you can get cheap in Japan though!

An Osaka Nijikai

2011-08-09T18:44:00.000+09:00

A good friend of mine, Dancho (which means "boss" and isn't his real name), had a much belated wedding party here in Osaka. While the first party was reserved for family and very close friends, the second was open to all of his friends and was held at the Hard Rock Cafe here-

After a bit of waiting they finally arrived-

The food was much better than expected. For $100 to join everyone, it had better be good. Eventually the not so newly married couple made the rounds to light candles on each table representing something or other-

In very cheesy fashion, the staff got them to stand up and do a little dance-

And once Dancho starting telling people to come up, I just KNEW he would point to me and drag me up there-

After, the couple and a few friends went out for some more drinks. All the food and fun got to Yusuke quite fast-

Off to America

2011-07-15T00:22:00.001+09:00

I am on vacation! See you in two weeks!

Hidden car shops, Ryan comes to town, and the Monkees in PukaPuka

2011-07-07T23:09:00.001+09:00

While Yukino was a the doctor I rode around the nearby neighborhoods and saw a beautiful Lotus Exige cruising around. Upon following it, I found it parked outside a strange looking shop. Bring back Yukino, we peeked in to find a quite special car shop famous for its light wheels famous around the world. The owner, a very cool lady, was happy to show us her tiny place and even let me try their badass Gran Tourismo setup a customer had given them. I admit I was very very bad at it-

In the garage next door they had this restored little Honda that I attempted to fit in-

Her daily driver-

A strange building nearby the shop-

Just a F430 in coin parking near my apartment-

Just a Maserati (or was it an Alpha) parked in the fashionable area of the city-

My good buddy Ryan came to town for a day or two and we were able to spend some good quality time together. Outside a restaurant we met these two "fine" ladies-

And ate some basic izakaya food-

And finally, some Monkees action-

Snowboarding the day after the tsunami disaster

2011-06-28T22:05:00.000+09:00

I was at work during the earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11th. It didn't affect Osaka at all really and life went on as normal here. While other parts of Japan were obviously in a much worse state of affairs, I was quite distant from it. Literally and mentally. I had already booked a weekend snowboard trip up North where I was to meet some friends on a similar bus package. However, the Tokyo bus was cancelled. And for good reason. The Osaka one decided to keep to the schedule though. No reason not to really.

After a night of highway bus riding we had arrived at our cute hotel-

There was a big event planned for that Saturday night and my friend Dan was DJing at it. He smartly rented a car for the drive so he was able to come to Tokyo despite the crazy traffic. It was great seeing him after so many months and a really fun guy to snowboard with. He also loves riding in the woods and was even a bit much one time. After scouting out our route from the lift a few times, we headed into the steep valley and never headed back. Not that we had a choice-

Break time for sausages and cell phones-

At night, across the street from the hotel is a popular bar/club/restaurant that was hosting the special night. Big jumps, music, great food and drinks were a welcome after a long day of riding.

This guy is actually the guy who picked me up earlier in the night when I was trying to hitch a ride back after getting some beer. Super nice local guy who tried his hardest to conquer the jump-

Unfortunately, EVER SINGLE TIME he tried the jump he failed.

Inside were DJs and bands-

After racing - A little mountain drive

2011-06-26T01:32:00.002+09:00

After our short visit to the races we kept on driving through Nara Prefecture to see the sights.

This sign, facing the wrong way caught my eye. I ventured up the "road" to find nothing but the sign stating that no motorcycles were allowed. Still made me laugh-

While driving we spotted a group of mini bike riders cruising around. It's so cute to see forty older men riding motorcycles the size of your wallet-

A pitstop, as well for many others, was this bridge.-

Down the road from the bridge was a sign for a waterfall. Naturally we had to check it out-

I spotted this place from the main road-

Going in for a closer look revealed it to be a 80% abandoned place. The main entrance hall was obviously taken care of but beyond that it was all haikyo. Had I not had a girlfriend waiting for me, I would have eagerly climbed in the window to explore but...ya.

Wanting to get into the mountains some more, we drove past this poor shrine-

And, this hillside tea farm (which you will see again)-

RC Nara Gymkhana. And, more drifting.

2011-06-20T19:50:00.002+09:00

I thought the All Japan Gymkhana Finals was a dirt track oriented race. With that in mind, Yukino and I set aside (or I did for both of us) our Saturday to do a little trip out there. The usual roads and sights were had on the way there so nothing to report.

These cute cars where just inside -

After arriving I was a little stumped at where exactly this big event was. When you arrive at Meihan Sportsland you enter through a gate, pass the main building and have easy access to three tracks right away. Where on earth the dirt track was beyond me. We soon figured we would try every little road there was to see what we could find. Up the hill behind the kart track we found an absolutely amazing motocross track. The elevation changes were stunning. It looked incredibly dangerous and incredibly fun. There were even a few preteen girls there on bikes so I figure if they can do it, so can I. But, I think I will just leave it to the ladies.

Just down the road from the motocross track was the main event for that day. I must have misunderstood as this was not a dirt race at all. However, still good. The place was inundated with badass cars. All personal rides that people have put their heart and soul in to go faster around the track.

EVO!

The best viewpoint was on top of the paddock. Even up here, only half the track was visible. Boo. Plus, they had crazy Initial D music blaring the whole time. I didn't mind but Yukino wanted to die.

Remember, gymkhana is a timed solo race around a preset course. It's all about technical skill with your car and a lot more safer than high speed racing.

I apologize for the boring videos but as I mentioned, there weren't many advantageous places to watch from and the donuts these guys were doing with the 4wd vehicles was pretty cool-

4WD was the main order of the day-

Watching cars doing pretty much the same thing was getting pretty boring so we walked back down to C-Course for some drifting action.

Back to the track for some action-

One more before we head off into the mountains-

Around Osaka - food, smoking turtles, and funky buildings

2011-06-18T21:45:00.002+09:00

MMmmmmm, delicious beef-

At one of our favorite restaurants we were delighted to get a myriad of great food once again-

Henry looking as beautiful as ever-

Just another building-

My first homemade quiche!

The longest bike ride of my life - Warehouses, smokestacks, and mountain Maples

2011-06-17T19:11:00.000+09:00

Having rode about five hours at this point, I thought it couldn't hurt to go further. I was DETERMINED to reach the ocean on my bike. Going over a gigantic bridge and down into a warehouse area, I was surrounded by these behemoths-

The whole place was open to me. No trucks, cars, or people. Completely quite amongst the giants of industry. Riding around gave me a sense of calm that the inner city couldn't. Even the middle of the mountains couldn't give me this feeling.

I couldn't help notice this gigantic smokestack-

I rode around the completely empty service roads for a while until I got to my destination. I wasn't expecting a fishing tourist attraction but that is what I got. Sort of. It was more like an abandoned beach area that peoples would go to if there wanted a good time. However, at the present time, it was a rundown place under construction that looked to have few visitors. The fences between me and the sea seemed to reinforce the last observation.

I was able to snap the following picture as the 5pm "last call" song was played through the loudspeakers. As I left, I was "kindly" exited by a "nice" gentleman who kept yelling at me and questioning why I was still inside.

I couldn't help but notice a some wandering trails through the underbrush outside the fishing village. All around the smokestack factory place was nice vegetation and seemingly a nice attempt at walking trails. While they had not seen action is years, it was a new discovery for me and I kindly greeted the neglected sidewalks-

I love abandoned tunnels. I really do. This would would have been perfect except it was securely locked. New, unused, Japan-

Yamamomiji (mountain maple)-

Back across the bridge with anti-suicide nets-