PICS from my trip to the Japan WRC...Finally!
10-09-2005, 06:39 PM
#16
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This was the coolest thing I did in Tokyo. Visited the Japanese Sword Museum.
W O W
they dont let you take any pics inside(dammit) but pics really cant do justice to what these swords are like, alot of them date back to 1200-1300s, some even from the 1100s, you really cant belive items of this beauty and precision were made by human hands almost a thousand years ago, really breathtaking, dont miss it if your ever in Tokyo. I only got one shot on the way out, little display about the process of forging the blade.
The swords in there are just priceless, but I did find a shop in town selling lesser examples, heres one you can pick up for just $30K
W O W
they dont let you take any pics inside(dammit) but pics really cant do justice to what these swords are like, alot of them date back to 1200-1300s, some even from the 1100s, you really cant belive items of this beauty and precision were made by human hands almost a thousand years ago, really breathtaking, dont miss it if your ever in Tokyo. I only got one shot on the way out, little display about the process of forging the blade.
The swords in there are just priceless, but I did find a shop in town selling lesser examples, heres one you can pick up for just $30K
Last edited by Krinkov; 10-09-2005 at 06:41 PM.
10-09-2005, 06:46 PM
#17
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Ha Jeremy your enthusiasm is much like mine the first time I went to Japan. It's so funny to see the west taken way over the edge. My wife is from Tokyo walking distance to Shibuya. Your right 7 eleven rocks Sebun Elebun iki bun
10-09-2005, 06:53 PM
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Fun stuff on the streets.
They cant just use normal traffic warning signs or hazzard lights, its always some multicolored pinwheel or flasher that looks more at home in Disneylands mainstreet electrical parade then on the street tying to warn me about construction. This one was the best, its a little cartoon man with a robotic arm waving at traffic, OMG :rotfl:
we all know about the JDM cars we dont get, but there are just a TON of cars over there we dont get that Ive just never heard of, cool ones, like this whole segment of midsized sport wagons, Nissan, Honda, Toyota all have theirs that we dont get, and they look hot! Heres the Nissan.
Heres this toyota one, turbo too, dont know what one it is, only said "GT4" on the back, anyone know?
Once in a while you will see an American car on the road, and its always a big obnoxious one too, like a Camaro or this H2, almost just for the novelty
They cant just use normal traffic warning signs or hazzard lights, its always some multicolored pinwheel or flasher that looks more at home in Disneylands mainstreet electrical parade then on the street tying to warn me about construction. This one was the best, its a little cartoon man with a robotic arm waving at traffic, OMG :rotfl:
we all know about the JDM cars we dont get, but there are just a TON of cars over there we dont get that Ive just never heard of, cool ones, like this whole segment of midsized sport wagons, Nissan, Honda, Toyota all have theirs that we dont get, and they look hot! Heres the Nissan.
Heres this toyota one, turbo too, dont know what one it is, only said "GT4" on the back, anyone know?
Once in a while you will see an American car on the road, and its always a big obnoxious one too, like a Camaro or this H2, almost just for the novelty
Last edited by Krinkov; 10-09-2005 at 06:55 PM.
10-09-2005, 07:05 PM
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after a couple days hanging around tokyo and Yokohama we hoped on a plane up to the big island Hokkaido for the rally, had to take the budget flight out Tokyo, on a Mitsubishi *sigh*
Japan airports are so nice and clean, we landed in Sopporo and they had fresh cut flowers to greet us at the baggage pick up, awwww.
Now heres where we do ALOT of driving, Sapporo is more or less on the west side ofthe Island, the rally HQ is in Obihiro, right in the middle of the island, to get there you have to drive over a BIG mountain range. tried to get a rental Legacy wagon but they were all out, settled on a Mazda6, at least it had Nav, this REALLY saved our *** a bunch of times!
Japan airports are so nice and clean, we landed in Sopporo and they had fresh cut flowers to greet us at the baggage pick up, awwww.
Now heres where we do ALOT of driving, Sapporo is more or less on the west side ofthe Island, the rally HQ is in Obihiro, right in the middle of the island, to get there you have to drive over a BIG mountain range. tried to get a rental Legacy wagon but they were all out, settled on a Mazda6, at least it had Nav, this REALLY saved our *** a bunch of times!
Last edited by Krinkov; 11-04-2005 at 09:55 PM.
10-09-2005, 07:18 PM
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driving on the wrong side ofthe road really isnt that bad, though the speed limit, even on the expressways, is never higher than 70-80kph (43-50mph! ) this in the land of the skyline! Good thing most everyone ignores it, I would typically try to drive the speed in MPH that was posted in KPH. No prob untill you get behind a big truck or bus going the speed limit, which made for some pretty hairy-chested passing maneuvers on winding mountain roads!
) this in the land of the skyline! Good thing most everyone ignores it, I would typically try to drive the speed in MPH that was posted in KPH. No prob untill you get behind a big truck or bus going the speed limit, which made for some pretty hairy-chested passing maneuvers on winding mountain roads!
Last edited by Krinkov; 10-09-2005 at 07:20 PM.
10-09-2005, 07:31 PM
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EVERY hotel or Inn within 2 hours of Obihiro was booked, we had to stay at a ski resort in the middle of the mountain range, thought it would be a small space, we come over a ridge and I see FOUR FORTY STORY TOWERS coming out of the ground!
so its got tons on vacancies since its the off season, but its still $250 a night, Japans not cheap
Heres the veiw from the room. 37th floor.
Finally after seeing very few Subys around Tokyo, I start seeing them in Hokkaido heading out to the rally, then I saw some more, and some more, and SOME MORE!! so many infact that by the time I got to Obihiro I stopped taking pics of all the modded Subys I spotted, they were fookin EVERYWHERE! Like every other car was a modded suby, Hokkaidos FULL of them. I ran out of space on my memory card twice, I'll have a full other post with all the cool cars I found at the rally, it deserves its own thread!
so its got tons on vacancies since its the off season, but its still $250 a night, Japans not cheap
Heres the veiw from the room. 37th floor.
Finally after seeing very few Subys around Tokyo, I start seeing them in Hokkaido heading out to the rally, then I saw some more, and some more, and SOME MORE!! so many infact that by the time I got to Obihiro I stopped taking pics of all the modded Subys I spotted, they were fookin EVERYWHERE! Like every other car was a modded suby, Hokkaidos FULL of them. I ran out of space on my memory card twice, I'll have a full other post with all the cool cars I found at the rally, it deserves its own thread!
Last edited by Krinkov; 10-10-2005 at 08:56 PM.
10-09-2005, 07:43 PM
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for a minute i felt like i was watching a movie of an awesome trip.. i want to go to japan so bad... theres just something about the atmosphere or maybe just the really cool cars!!
10-09-2005, 07:51 PM
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Okay enough of the foreplay, lets get right down to the heavy breathing...
RALLY JAPAN!!!!
Well this is what I flew halfway around the world for, then flew another 600miles to hokkaido, rented a car and drove over a mountain range to get to. Guess what, half the **** I wanted to see had sold out!
Boy was I pissed. The rally was not organized very well to encourage foreign spectators. Unlike other rallys where you can buy or reserve tickets much in advance, tickets for the rally only went on sale in Sept, and ONLY in Japan, so unless you had someone in japan to buy them for you, you had to buy them when you got there. No prob, I thought, its just a bunch of people standing on the side of the road, how can it sell out? it did. I flew halfway around the world without ever having a chance to buy or reserve tickets just to be told the day before the rally half the stages were sold out
Which really didnt matter much, since the stages were SO expensive(around $100 each!) that if I actually did get a chance to see all the stages I wanted too over the 3 days it would have cost me about $2000!
So the first day, Friday, I ended up seeing 2 stages, Rikubetsu, which was ANOTHER full 2 hour drive north of Obihiro, (no wonder it wasnt sold out!) and the head to head arena stage, which was a blast! the Rikubetsu stage turned out to be alot of fun too, Im glad it turned out that way. the drive up to Rikubetsu was gorgeous, AND I got passed by all the WRC cars on the way back to the service park. Also, there were hardly any foreigners out to see the rally, I thought there would be more but besides the people working the rally I was one of the few people that came from out of Japan to see it, and once I got all the way up to the little farm town of Rikubetsu, there were NO other foreigners, funny feeling, I got alot of attention!
the stage itself was very short, only 2Km, meaning the action was fast, no waiting around for the cars, the came one after the other, I have video of it to I'll try to post
Met a very nice Subaru flag girl.
and a HOT mitsu girl
RALLY JAPAN!!!!
Well this is what I flew halfway around the world for, then flew another 600miles to hokkaido, rented a car and drove over a mountain range to get to. Guess what, half the **** I wanted to see had sold out!
Boy was I pissed. The rally was not organized very well to encourage foreign spectators. Unlike other rallys where you can buy or reserve tickets much in advance, tickets for the rally only went on sale in Sept, and ONLY in Japan, so unless you had someone in japan to buy them for you, you had to buy them when you got there. No prob, I thought, its just a bunch of people standing on the side of the road, how can it sell out? it did. I flew halfway around the world without ever having a chance to buy or reserve tickets just to be told the day before the rally half the stages were sold out
Which really didnt matter much, since the stages were SO expensive(around $100 each!) that if I actually did get a chance to see all the stages I wanted too over the 3 days it would have cost me about $2000! So the first day, Friday, I ended up seeing 2 stages, Rikubetsu, which was ANOTHER full 2 hour drive north of Obihiro, (no wonder it wasnt sold out!) and the head to head arena stage, which was a blast! the Rikubetsu stage turned out to be alot of fun too, Im glad it turned out that way. the drive up to Rikubetsu was gorgeous, AND I got passed by all the WRC cars on the way back to the service park. Also, there were hardly any foreigners out to see the rally, I thought there would be more but besides the people working the rally I was one of the few people that came from out of Japan to see it, and once I got all the way up to the little farm town of Rikubetsu, there were NO other foreigners, funny feeling, I got alot of attention!
the stage itself was very short, only 2Km, meaning the action was fast, no waiting around for the cars, the came one after the other, I have video of it to I'll try to post
Met a very nice Subaru flag girl.
and a HOT mitsu girl
Last edited by Krinkov; 10-10-2005 at 08:23 AM.
10-09-2005, 08:09 PM
#27
Originally Posted by robsrex
I like how your STi shirt is covered by your jacket when you're next to the mitsu girl...very funny.
man those are some awesome pics, id love to visit there sometime....
10-09-2005, 08:11 PM
#28
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Got some good video of the arena stage too, gotta figure out how to post! The people at the rally were just awesome, something about rally fans, its like your all in a family (or maybe a cult!) but EVERYBODY is friendly with you like your old buddies, I hooked up that night at the Arena with a couple girls that flew up from Tokyo for the rally, they actually spotted me (one of the only westerners anywhere) and asked where I was from, I said "California" and they both "wooted", nice
We hung out and walked down the streets shouting at all the cars that were running around with Subaru flags flying off them, we picked up anyone else passing by with Subaru shirts or hats on and took over a ramen house with our newly recruited family, man the whole vibe was just awesome
One of the girls, Junko, even has a motorsports blog, http://www.maygoha.com/blog/
shes was heading to the F1 race this week too. You just dont find many girls like that here in America, *sigh*
Anyhow, heres what driving around most of Hokkaido was like all weekend, behind a WRX wagon, Evo, and another WRX, then you would get passed by random rally cars on their way to or from stages, sometimes with pieces hanging off or missing. awesome!
We hung out and walked down the streets shouting at all the cars that were running around with Subaru flags flying off them, we picked up anyone else passing by with Subaru shirts or hats on and took over a ramen house with our newly recruited family, man the whole vibe was just awesome
One of the girls, Junko, even has a motorsports blog, http://www.maygoha.com/blog/
shes was heading to the F1 race this week too. You just dont find many girls like that here in America, *sigh*
Anyhow, heres what driving around most of Hokkaido was like all weekend, behind a WRX wagon, Evo, and another WRX, then you would get passed by random rally cars on their way to or from stages, sometimes with pieces hanging off or missing. awesome!
Last edited by Krinkov; 10-10-2005 at 09:00 PM.
10-09-2005, 08:12 PM
#29
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Originally Posted by robsrex
I like how your STi shirt is covered by your jacket when you're next to the mitsu girl...very funny.
not to mention the. umm.. 3 finger salute
10-09-2005, 08:16 PM
#30
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For those of you who missed my earlier post...
heres a R32 GTR that I found on a car lot in Obihiro, less than 50K miles on it and still cherry. For sale for 650K yen(about $6300) got out to check it out and take the pic and a guy comes out and says its been on the lot for 2 months and he'll let me have it for 550K yen, thats ****ing old used honda civic money! you would look sad too, I grumbled all the way back to the car.
heres a R32 GTR that I found on a car lot in Obihiro, less than 50K miles on it and still cherry. For sale for 650K yen(about $6300) got out to check it out and take the pic and a guy comes out and says its been on the lot for 2 months and he'll let me have it for 550K yen, thats ****ing old used honda civic money!
you would look sad too, I grumbled all the way back to the car.