First snow of the season in Utsunomiya!
Friday, January 23, 2009Posted by Michael at 6:49 PM 0 comments
Tokyo Auto Salon 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009Larry, Dan, and I headed down to Kaihinmakuhari today (about 30mins east by local train from Tokyo Station) to attend the 2009 Tokyo Auto Salon. Ever since I first started reading Super Street back in the high school days (10 years ago??), I’ve wanted to go to this car show. Just from what I saw in the magazines all these years was enough to make me want to attend it one day. The Super GT (formerly JGTC) machines, the custom tuner cars, and of course the “race queens,” or RQ’s as the locals call them, were everything I had imagined and then some. The show was somewhat comparable to SEMA back in the States. Huge convention halls filled with booths from OEMs, race teams, internationally known tuners, and the small start-up tuners were the main attraction. Outside, next the building, they had a D1 Grand Prix mini drift course set up where they had famous drift machines and drivers show off a little drifting expedition/competition. There was a panel of judges and right in the middle of them was the original Drift King himself, Keiichi Tsuchiya! We were standing pretty far from that tent but, luckily they had a camera with a huge screen setup so we could still see all the action and were able to snag a few decent photos. This year, as I was told, they split up the show into 2 separate buildings. The main, huge building was for “domestics” (i.e. Honda, Toyota, Nissan…) and a smaller auxiliary one was filled with “imports.”
The show itself was pretty awesome. All of the major tuners we’ve all seen and read about in magazines in the U.S. seemed to be there. Mugen, Nismo, Top Secret, Jun, Mine’s, Spoon Sports, Bomex all displayed their cars. Speaking of Top Secret, we got to meet and take a photo of the legendary “Smokey” Nagata, owner and supreme bad-assed-ness of Top Secret.
After having walked through the whole place and seen just about everything, we decided to make a quick round through the main hall again to hit up the major hot spots and pick up a few souvenirs. It was also the perfect time to get pictures taken with the models since the "photographers" like to get their look-on done early.
After the show, we decided to make a visit to Ueno to eat some American food at TGI Fridays. That was the first time in about 3 months I have had ribs and it was…. Deeelicious. Damn, I just realized I forgot to take a picture.
Posted by Michael at 12:00 PM 2 comments
Yokohama...Tokyo...New Year's Eve!
Friday, January 2, 2009On Tuesday, we took a train to Kamakura, south west of Tokyo. Kamakura is a very historic area famous for the shrines, temples, and Daibutsu (The Great Buddha). First, we went to Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine, the most important shrine in the city of Kamakura. The shrine is dedicated to Emperor Ojin, his mother Empress Jingu and wife, Hime-gami. Next, we went to Hase to go Kotoku-in to see Daibutsu. The statue stands at 13.35 meters (43.8 ft) high and weights about 93 tons (186,000 pounds). It is hollow inside and they allow visitors inside Daibutsu to read about the construction. It was fascinating, but very cramped and dark. Since it was still day outside, we wanted to take advantage of the sunlight and off to Sea Paradise we went. Sea Paradise is located in Hakkeijima, a little bit west of Yokohama. There was an aqua museum, dolphin center, hands on area called Furai Lagoon and amusement park rides. We first went to the aqua museum and a show. There were seals, dolphins, penguin, and whales in the performance. We then went off to Furai Lagoon, it was a popular place since there was interaction with the sealife. Most people were waiting to pet the dolphins. Since it was kind of chilly out, Michael and I opted to go play with the starfish instead. Starfish feels prickly! After Sea Paradise we went back to Yokohama’s Chinatown for dinner. The great thing about Japan is many restaurants put menus outside and have displays of food so it’s a little easier to make a decision. We found a restaurant with a course meal and it was delicious. As we were leaving, I heard the lady speak Chinese, so it was nice to know that it was Chinese operated because we were reading in a brochure that Chinatown is mostly Japanese owned. Another thing we noticed in Chinatown was roasted chestnuts. These were a big hit there; I didn’t know it was a popular Chinese item.
On New Year’s Eve we went to stay in Shinjuku because Meiji Jingu was close to there and that’s where we wanted to be at the stroke of midnight. We dropped off our luggage at the hotel and then went to Tokyo Tower. We saw Tokyo Tower, but did not go up this time because the line just to buy tickets went around the block and then some. It was very busy and we didn’t want to spend 2 hours just waiting in line. We shall go up Tokyo Tower another time. After Tokyo Tower, we went to Asakusa to see Sensoji Temple. There was also a popular stretch from the outer gate (Kaminarimon) to the inner gate (Hozomon) aligned with shops. This shopping stretch is also called nakamise. There were a lot of fresh made goods, plus some souvenirs. It was rather crowded, maybe because it’s a tourist spot or maybe because it was New Year’s Eve and people were setting up. There was also a famous 5 storied pagoda that was beautiful. Asakusa is next to a river so we walked around the area for a little bit before going to Akihabara (electronics town). Akihabara was all about electronics, anything and everything. They had camera shops, computer shops, shops that sell wires, tvs, etc. It was a little bit overwhelming because I kind of want a new camera, but there were so many flashing lights and maybe because I was feeling tired, but I did not find a camera. I saw one that I kind of liked. After Akihabara, we headed back to Shinjuku area for dinner. We tried to check out the west side of Shinjuku station because the Tokyo Government Towers were on that side, but there wasn’t much going on. We did get some pictures of Tokyo Government Towers in the dark. Since there wasn’t much on the east side of the station, we went back to the east side and walked around Kabukicho area. This area seemed like there were lots of bars/hostess bars. We found a yakiniku place and it was delicious. This was the first time Michael and I had yakiniku together because it’s so hard to order at yakiniku restaurants because they usually have no pictures and just show the meat names in Japanese. We got another course meal and this time it was too much. It was yummy!
For ringing in the New Year, I wanted to go to Meiji Jingu Shrine. This was a very popular place, I think I read 2 million or so people were projected to be there. We met up with Dinorah and Arnulfo around 9:30pm at the station and headed to Meiji Jingu. At first we were following the crowd, but unfortunately they were all heading to a concert that was close to the shrine. Good thing we planned a little earlier. We found our way to the shrine after a little while and walked towards the main area. We got there early, so we were in the main area. The police start blocking people off in groups because it gets pretty packed. At midnight, someone in the shrine hits a big drum and everyone starts going to towards the shrine to throw money into a wishing well. I know this is very simple, but it was a great experience. After you make your wish you exit to the right and there are shops set up by the shrine to sell ornaments, hamaya (evil blocking arrows), pieces of decorated wood to write wishes, etc. I bought an arrow and made a wish. After the shops there was an area with tons of food vendors. It was a tradition for Japanese folks to have noodles on New Year’s to represent longevity, so we had some noodles. I guess it’s also a tradition in Chinese culture because we have to eat noodles on our birthdays. This was a great vacation, but we are exhausted. We wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
Posted by Michael at 11:00 PM 0 comments