As some of you would know I flew over to Japan and had a look around, here is the full run down of what we got up too ha ha
CEO of Superlap Australia (Ian Baker) rang me up one day and said "Jake, do you want to come to Japan with us". My quick answer was "ummmmmm YES" ha ha. Ian and the Yokohama crew were heading over to organise the next lot of Japanese vehicles coming to WTAC in 2012. If you don't know what WTAC is then you better CLICK HERE.
So before I knew it I booked my flights and told work I was off to Japan for a week haha. I honestly thought I wasn't going to be going to Japan this early in my life, I think I was more nervous then anything as I didn't speak any Japanese at all. But who could possibly not jump at this opportunity right??
Plane flight to Tokyo on my own and was one of the worst flights I've ever been on. I was surrounded by a heap of sick people and was bound to catch something. Sure enough I woke up just before landing with a shocking head cold 'Great'. haha
First thing I did once I got of the plane was head straight for the toilet O_o ahhhhhh hahahaha lucky it was only a number 1... LOL
Anyway haha, I was now waiting for Ian to head down to the airport to meet me. Ian flew in the night before me. As I was walking around in the Airport I ran into Ian haha, no time for messing around and straight to the train map
ahhhhhh thankfully Ian was around as this wasn't even for trains.
Ian got the train tickets and we now waited, I couldn't get over how clean everything was.
Here is the Boss (Ian Baker) and also David Lysien who came along for the crazy trip.
The train arrived and we had a fair journey ahead of us. Ian told me a few of the rules with Trains in Japan, Its rude to talk on your mobile in a Train and its also rude for a young male to sit on a seat if the train is full.
Its always great to see a train with no one steering it O_o
So we finally finished out long Train ride into Tokyo. We now had the whole morning to look around and check out the sites.
The place really is amazing, My pics don't really show you much but it reminds me of how crazy the place is.
The Space train, best thing about this train was I could always remember where we were once I seen it.
Just like the movies haha. advertise on anything!!
and more
It was now time to check out a few shops, at first I didn't think they were all that impressive until you went inside the buildings and realised they had like 6 to 10 floors.
Stumbled across this new PlayStation thingy. Not sure if its released in Oz yet but looks like a new PSP.
Then the hidden stores that just keep going on and on and on... Japan is so cool
So I now understand how Japan are more advanced then us.... they have 2 extra hours each day then us hahahaha
Then we hit the guitar shops...... I had no idea what was what but Baker and Dave looked like little kids in a candy shop. I just took pics of the weird looking ones.
hmmmm what to choose....
Bakers drink for sure!!
To finish off Day one we caught up with Tats from Yokohama Australia and a crew of Yokohama Staff from Japan. I learnt quiet a few new words that night.
Baker insisted that I tried Japans ice cream and I'm so glad I did. It was unreal!!
DAY 2
It was now Day 2 and we had the morning free to do some more looking around before we caught up with the Yokohama crew.
I knew i was in the latest Option magazine so we went on a mission to find it. Every single shop we tried didn't have in but i did find these Option DVDs. I bought them without even thinking if they would work back in Oz and sure enough they don't baaaaah.
We then walked past a fuel station. Talk about using space efficiently wow!! The fuel lines come from the roof??!!
Walking around Tokyo was just unreal.
Cars which you hardly see in Oz are everywhere
Not sure what this was
This was a car park of some sort?? I guess it's easier to install a rotating floor then to do a 3 point turn.
Walked past Yakult to see they had a huge water feature like this either side of the entrance just for looks.
The buses
Before we knew it, it was time to catch up with some cool people.
We heading down town to the Yokohama Design Centre, was so surreal to actually be in this building. Here is from left to right (Wataru Furutani, Me, Kazu Sekiguchi).
I had a little look around and seen so many cool things
Advan Shoes anyone
haha I so badly wanted this
Oh and yeah this was very special
My weapon of choice is on the right!! AD-08 love
Model cars
Front desk ;)
Oh did I forget I also got to meet long time idol and Famous D1GP champion Nobushige Kumakubo
We were still here at 6:30 and everyone was still working. They even had a the siren go off at 5PM which means knock-of time but no one left haha. But it was time for us to leave and get some grub into us.
Carlos and Furutani took us out for an awesome Japanese dinner. Still cant get over how good the food is in Japan.
Baker was the chef
From left to right (Carlos, Furutani and Tats) Coolest blokes since sliced bread
We ended up having a look around the night life.
This was the place the Japanese gamble, the place was so noisy I didn't know how they could put up with it. Was insane!!
DAY 3
This was the most craziest day of my life. To put it simply, I was offered one of my life long dreams and of course I jumped at the opportunity haha. Kumakubo, the famous D1GP driver and owner of Ebisu-Circuit asked me to come out to Ebisu to check the place out.
It was a fair hike from Tokyo up to Ebisu and I even got to go on the Bullet train. This thing was insane, didn't even fell like we were moving.
One we got off the bullet train we had to get a Taxi to Ebisu, lucky for me I had notes which I just showed the driver and he took me. We managed to make it to Ebisu with no problems but the Taxi driver decided to hit up the touge course with us in the back seat hahahaha..
Yes he was lost!! LOL.
We caught up with Kumakubo and Suenaga who also is a famous D1GP driver who drives for Team orange.
What happened next I leave up to your imagination... Or maybe a video might be released !!!
Furutani, Ian and Tats picked us up as we were now headed for Tsukuba for the Rev-Speed time attack event. Furutani was driving and Wow, I thought we were in a race hahaha. Just to surprise me again though the crew dropped into the famous workshop K-Style. That's Kumakubo's workshop and were all the Team Orange cars were chilling. The Evo 9, Evo 10 and monster powered C33Laurel. Unfortunately my iPhone went flat as soon as I got to Ebisu so no pics sorry
DAY 4
Oh yeah...... Rev-Speed time attack event at Tsukuba Circuit. Another dream ticked off my list...
It was a huge surprise to rock up and see it snowing haha. Although you cant see it the snow wasn't around for long. Was sooooo cold!!
We tried warming up by doing a few laps of the place ourselves haha.. Spotted this bad arse EVO wags!
Fell in Love with this S15 time attack car
Was so surreal seeing this live. After watching the D1GP rounds they held here on DVD when I was a kid.
Was a happy chappy
This S14 time attack car was damn quick and I'm fairly sure the Scorch Racing dudes were involved with it.
Loved this 35 GTR, was easily the most simple and cleanest car on the day.
Forsberg, please take note on styling here.
This BMW was the only one putting put power down in the wet and it sounded so porn!!
It was fairly cool to meet the Revolution Rx7 again after I was the one who unloaded it from the container in Sydney last year for WTAC 2011 haha.. The thing is just unreal
I took so many pics from this event but cant put them all in this blog. After this event we went back to the hotel and down stairs got Dinner with a few beers involved.......
58 of them hahahahaha
We now needed a nice snooze!
DAY 5
First things first, Breakfast!!!
My breakfast, every time we ate I tried something different or at least thought I was. After going to New Zealand and Mike and Toni introduced me to Indian for the first time I'm all for change now lol
Murray Coote was showing me just how old school he really is hahaha. Nice phone Muzza
This was out boss of a rental car, the thing would shut off we you come to a stop then as soon as you touch the pedal it starts running again.
We then set on our journey back to Tokyo for the motor show. We got to see some bloody amazing sites which my phone camera doesn't really do justice.
It was crazy too see how jam packed Japan is and you understand why why they have no room.
I seen many exotic cars but thought I should at least snap one up.
We made it to our hotel after a fairly long drive from Tsukuba. Ive stayed at a few hotels and this place was damn good for the price. We unloaded all out stuff and headed straight for the Tokyo Motor Show.
More gambling thing's which made too much bloody noise
I kept seeing this Van every time we come back to Tokyo so thought it should get a spot in my blog
Was going to try the KFC in Japan but its looks the same so I didn't bother
We then crammed into the Train which was going to take us right out the front of the Tokyo Motor Show. Lucky for us we had Tats who knows Japanese and how to get around the place.
Now I got a little snap happy when we got on the Train..
Looking at huge buildings like this and wondering how the heck they stay up during earthquakes amazes me. As most of you would know I was in the Christchurch Earthquake so I know exactly what the buildings have to put up with.
Mad bridge
This building was crazy, had this big arse ball in the middle
Just after I took this pic the car park was full of crazy imports but no I didn't take a pic damn it
Damn cool
So weird hey??
We had arrived at the Tokyo Motor Show. It was the second to last day of the show but we had no idea it was going to be this packed!!!
The building was so insane, only in Japan hey
OK sure this looks like only a few people but wait...
This was the line up!!!
Getting closer... I think we waited a good 20 to 30 Min's in the line up. Honestly cant remember but I do remember being one of the tallest people around hahaha
The line up was insane and even when we left it was still this full on
So close now!!
Wooooooyeah, we made it in the place!! But were we going to see any cars??? It was insanely busy and any car with a little bit of interest we would not be able to get a close look at.
Using my height to take a picture and then looking at the picture to see what I was trying to look at
Getting a picture of a whole car was going to be difficult but I was up for the challenge
It was amazing how some plain small boring looking cars were getting a stupid amount of interest. But it was just the girl posing in front of it that was creating the hype
yeah....... no thanks!!
The Models at the Tokyo Motor Show were everywhere, even telling you where the exits were.
If you car is boring, put a girl in front of it and it will gain a huge crowd
Trying to get good pics!!! damn it
This was one of his actual race bike and the line up to sit on it was insane.
hmmm......
Not sure what these girls were doing but everyone wanted to find out
The more and more I seen of the new Suby and Toyota's latest creation I like it
Now we are talking, I spent a lot of time trying to get some pics of this bad boy.
Looks so damn good!
I just wanted to take it home
ahhhh my favourite stand!!
Tats and I had a good old yarn to the Yokohama reps.
Couldn't leave without getting some pics with the Yokohama girls haha. It was now time to leave as we had to meet up with some awesome people for a night out in Roppongi.
This was around 4.30PM and the sun was just about gone.
The train back to the hotel was obviously the same trip to the Motor show but felt like a whole different journey. Japan is just unreal
A massive skate ramp which turns out to be a tunnel under the river.
We were in a hurry so Macca's it was. Despite all the people smoking in here it tasted the same as back home lol
Tats loved it!!
Oh damn right it was!!!
Loving it!!!
After this we had a huge night out and experience the best night club I've ever been too. We had people from all round the world with us and everyone said it was the best night club they had experienced. The name was "Ageha" and if you ever go to Tokyo, its a must.
DAY 6 (Last day in Japan)
It was our last day in Japan and it came rather quickly. I meet Tats in the lobby in the morning as we were checking out and he said he was heading out to catch up with some friends in Japan. We were the only ones in the lobby so Tats asked if I wanted to come with. So damn glad he offered for me to tag along as I ended up seeing some freaking awesome stuff... oh and the fooooood!! Wow
Tats and his Friend who kindly took us around for the whole day
First stop was Tats friends local restaurant, this place was hidden in the back streets but I tell you what, it was the best food I had in Japan and I still think about it.
We then went down his favourite street, this picture doesn't do it justice at all.
love this place
I cant remember the exact name of the place we went to but it was packed
Who knows the name of this tower??
The statues in this building were damn cool
Everything here was made with so much details. I just wish I knew what I was looking at...
Underneath that big ball was this, so much detail put into this carving. Hate to know how long it took them to make
This was like a market, anything and everything you could imagine was for sale down here.
Place was so packed!!
New race suits 2012
And it just keeps on going, from food to light bulbs
Eels anyone?? this was the before picture
Ready to munch?? aaaaaah no thanks
Remember these haha
Wigs anyone??
how cool are these
This place was so packed it wasn't funny
The buildings are insane
Damn big flip flop or jandal for you NZ people
Now this is the place were you can make a wish. Tats took me through the whole scenario but I cant remember it all completely so if i got this wrong please correct me.
You start by waving the smoke over yourself before you enter the building.
I have no idea how they weren't coughing their lungs up
Once you go inside the building you toss a coin into this fountain. You then put your hands together, close your eyes and make a wish. (Anyone guess what mine was???)
As you can see from the building there was a lot of people looking for good fortune or wishes.
Once you have done that you then proceed to the next fountain to wash your hands with the water. We then went to see my fortune but it wasn't a good one so I am not going to explain that haha. Its ok though Because if you get a bad fortune you hang it up on the line and then it gets burnt at the end of the day.
We then moved through the big crowd to head back to the airport, Tats and I were on the same flight back to Sydney so it worked out really well.
Just another building being made in Tokyo
Spotted this on our travels back
Just another building being made in Tokyo
Spotted this on our travels back
Tats good friend dropped us at the hotel which transferred us to the airport. We sat in the lobby until our Bus arrived and looked at the HUGE X-mas tree. Reminded me that I didn't get some weird wacky presents while I was over here
We were now on out Bus to the Airport and got to see some awesome sites on the way there.
We checked in our luggage and caught up with Ian and David for our last meal in Japan. Must admit the food in Japan was what I was most worried about, turns out I bloody love it
. The Airport is that big we had to catch another shuttle train to get to our terminal
Tats and I had 10 Min's to spare so we checked into the Qantas lounge for some free food, drinks and checked out Face book after a massive 6 days without it haha. Was really not looking forward to cramming my 6 foot self into the tiny seat on this plane.
This picture was on my phone so thought I should share it haha Kicks!!!
Now this is the gold part!!!
Just after Tats and I cram into our economy seats the bloke tells us "Just after we take off feel free to head down the front to any seat you want, we are travelling back to Oz with 200 free seats!"
WIN!!! haha straight down to premium economy. I was fairly chuffed about this as you can see haha, it was an overnight flight back home but I stayed up watching free movies and eating as much as I could haha. Was the perfect way to end one of the best trips I've ever experience.
Huge thanks to Ian Baker and Tats Kano for letting me tag along on the awesome adventure. David for filming and taking heaps of pics which I also cant wait to see. Furutani, Carlos and the whole crew from Yokohama Japan for showing us around and showing us some damn cool things. Murray and Josh Coote for heading over for the 2 days at Tsukuba.
And everyone I've missed as I got to meet so many awesome people. This is only the beginning so stay tuned ;)
Peace
-Squid
