I'm out!

[BAC5.2]

I leave for Japan tomorrow morning!

Merry Christmas everyone. I'll be back on the 5th or so. I'll take lots of pics!

Phil

[magicmike]

what are you going to Japan for? Have a safe flight.

[bmxkelowna]

i bet you are going to get tons of pm's asking for jdm parts lol

have a good trip!

[0perose]

jdm yo!!

I need the rear glass with wiper setup for my xt6

(I kid, I kid.. but I really do want them damnit!)

[206er]

have fun and take some cool pics

[AWD_addict]

Look for the Colonel dressed as Santa.

[BAC5.2]

We arrived yesterday! Wahoo!

It's a LOT of fun. Lots of cool pictures.

[legacy92ej22t]

Sweet, eat some Sushi for me!

You should go to car dealerships and test drive some rides that aren't available over here.

[Richard]

You should go to car dealerships and test drive some rides that aren't available over here.

+ 1

Good luck and have a blast!

[BAC5.2]

Got back yesterday night. It was very odd flying against time. We took off from Narita International Airport at 5:55pm on 1/5/07 JDM time. We landed at O'Hare in Chicago at 2:50pm 1/5/07. We landed in DC at 5:55pm EST on 1/5/07.

Japan is a blast. I saw my first Skyline in Kyoto (where we spent our first three days). It was a white R34 GTR with gold Volk's and a very very loud exhaust. RHD is so cool, and it's true the Skyline is the coolest car ever made.

Didn't get out to Yokohama to visit the Suby factory, nor did I get to hit up the STi store, but we did more than enough to make up for it.

We spent three days in Kyoto, visiting shrines and temples and such. We saw a few different ceromonies at different shrines, and did lots of touristy stuff in Kyoto. The bars were pretty lame in Kyoto, though we found a few that were alright.

My favorite thing, at that point, was the simple fact that drink machines were EVERYWHERE. Not only were they everywhere, but in the same machine where you could buy orange juice or apple juice, you can also buy beer. No ID, no special button sequence, nothing. Insert 400 yen, push button for beer. You could also buy HOT drinks out of the vending machines. Like hot coffee, in a can, from a vending machine. It snowed one day, so we all bought coffee from the machine to keep our hands warm.

In the glorious mass of vending machines, it took me 25 minutes and nearly a mile and a half of aimlessly walking around downtown Kyoto to find a machine that sold plain water. Almost every machine has a "fitness" type water that has some crazy flavoring, or crack, or whatever in it. That sucked.

BUT, the convenience stores over there are SO much better than in the USA. All of the bread and sandwiches and everything is delivered fresh every morning. The first night, we ate at a place called Lawsons. It's a convenience store, and we ate there because it was late when we finally got settled at the hotel. I had some kind of meatloaf, gravy, and spaghetti, and despite how it sounds, it was awesome. They also have crazy burgers that are really bitchin. Oh, and the coke there tastes better, by a LOT.

After Kyoto, we spent a day in Hakone, which is a little town near the base of Mt. Fuji. It was a resort, and it was awesome. They made us this amazing dinner that had all kinds of cool sushi, meat, soup, veggies, everything. It was awesome. Then we hit up the natural hot springs. Despite the odd feeling of showering outside, naked, in -2C weather, it was awesome. Some of the other local fellows in the bath were definately meat gazin at us, and that was the only real weird part. Then Debbie and I got our massages. Holy shit, was that painful. I had parts of me cracking, that I didn't know could be cracked. My toes were cracked so loudly, there was an echo. When it was all over, it was oddly satisfying. I slept like a baby that night.

The following day, we hopped on the bullet train back to Tokyo. Spent the afternoon futzing around, looking touristy, and ate at a place that seemed almost too good to be true. 1300 yen for WAY more than 1300 yen worth of Sushi and meat.

For the rest of the trip, Debbie and I split off from the rest of our group and all hung out at night. We wandered aimlessly around the red-light district looking for a way out, which was interesting. We also hung out with our two friends (another couple) that came with us on the trip, and their friend who lived just outside of Yokohama. We went to dinner and it was relaxing having him order for us, since my Japanese is passable for a 2nd grader, and my friends is about 7th grade level. Somehow we ended up eating raw horse, which is apparently isn't a big deal over there.

We went to Akihabra, aka "Electric town" the next night with our Japanese friend. He's an animator for Konami, and was showing us the games he's worked on. I ended up buying a PSP because the exchange rate worked in my favor, and I got a color that the USA will likely never see. It's Blue. Released 12/21/06, not destined for US shores. It's totally awesome and I got a 4 gig memory card. He did a good bit of the animation for the Metal Gear series, and a few other games. That's right, JDM PSP for WAY less than the US model (I paid 19,700 yen, which worked out to be like 166 bucks that day). Plus it's blue. Take that all you suckers who got Black models.

Our other friend that came with us on the trip is also a game programmer. He wrote the entire Multiplayer setup for Soldier of Fortune, and is the creator of the "Scientist Hunt" mod for Halo. He was also the head programmer for the game Prey. Between the two of them, I learned more about games than I ever really wanted to know.

We did a bunch of other cool stuff, lots of sight seeing and night life stuff, which was fun. Crazy toy stores, and lots of cool car watching. We came back with more than one suitcase full of goodies, and I took just about 690 pictures and video clips.

One of my favorite parts was on the last day, when we went to the Tsukgi Fish Market, the largest market in the world and saw them auctioning off the wholesale fish to be shipped overseas or sold right outside the auction house. Something like 8, 180kg tuna sold in 2.5 minutes, just like that. I've got it on video. This repeats every day from 5:00am to 8:00am. At 8:30, after standing in line for an hour and a half, Debbie and I got into the closest Sushi joint to the market. Not 100 meters from where they bought the fish, THAT MORNING. We had the best of the best sushi. Melt in your mouth Tuna and, mmm was it good. Just knowing that the fish your eating was actually swimming in the ocean a few hours ago, makes it that much better.

I'll post some select pics when I get a chance to go through them and resize them.

It is definately good to be back home though!

[Yukonart]

Holy crap, Phil! That's awesome!!!!

[Legacy777]

Very cool Phil! Reminds me of my trips.

The drink machines...hahaha....yeah they are freaking everywhere......it's almost a game after a while trying all the different shit that's in there.

Lawson's are pretty cool. The ones you saw...where they all blue? Where I went in Kagoshima....they have a brown Lawson's on the volcano....which is supposed to be a big thing.
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... P_5711.JPG

I'd like to see Tokyo and the northern part of Japan....the next time around.

[BAC5.2]

Yes, they were ALL blue. The only brown ones were the "Natural Lawsons" which were organic.

The coke in Japan tastes MUCH better than in the US.

I've never seen more Subaru's in my life! I thought we had lots of modded Suby's in the US, but holy crap are they EVERYWHERE over there.

[Legacy777]

Yeah I remember the coke tasting different. I think they use real sugar, or some other type of sweetner. I really didn't drink much because there was so much other stuff to try

[93forestpearl]

I wanna go!! Too bad I don't know a lick of japanese.

[rallysam]

Cool Phil!

Dude, I love cars outside the USA. I love the Skylines, and I love the turbo GC Imprezas. I love how everything is smaller and lighter than the average US car. Then there's the stuff that you've never even heard of.

Here's random shots I've taken around Europe:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/catapultsa ... 34/detail/

The first page and a half are WRC, but then it gets into random shots of stuff around my neighborhood in London and on travel. Now get your pictures up!

[rallysam]

PS - I love travelling in general, too. That's what your post reminds me of. It's so mind opening to see how people live differently, and to try to figure out how to work their soda machines and bathrooms!