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Japan 2020 - car stuff.



Jason_E

ClioSport Club Member
  Elise, 530d
Since I'm deciding to get active on these forums again, I thought I'd share some images from my Pre-Lockdown Trip to Japan. Given the catagory of forum I'm posting in, I guess its best to stick to the car themed stuff I managed to cram in the two weeks we were out there.

When I say pre lockdown, the UK announced lockdown a day after we got back. The timing worked out perfect, and I'm not saying I'm a fan of the global pandemic, but the other side effect was very low numbers of toursits in Japan. This meant no queues for anything, nor were some rental cars booked up....

So I took both my Nikon D4, and my old (film) Canon AE-1 with varying success. I couldn't be bothered to carry the Nikon round for a lot of it! However there were a few trips I did take it out. Either way I'll link the hundreds of phone photos at the bottom, I've sort've collated all the "car" ones in a folder on my flickr.

First trip out on to Japanese roads was actually a week into our stay there. That weekend happend to coincide with a D1 National event at Mobara (About 1:30, 2hrs drive out of Central Tokyo). I used Toyotas Rentalcar service and just took a little Vitz (Yaris to us), its really cheap and these shops are all over Japan so I would reccomend if you're planning a trip in the future.

Obviously, that was one of only 2 days we saw rain. Even so, it was a really good event and there was interesting stuff on track and in the carpark.

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For the next "trip out" I'd arranged something special. My friend has used a particular rental company out there to have interesting cars for a day or two, so decided that I needed to a do a proper night looking around the famous car scene haunts. And what better car to do it in?

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There were many parts of this trip I had to pinch myself, but driving a Midnight Purple R34 GTR around the Tokyo Expressway at night.... That was incredible. Stopped off at an UpGarage (Chain of car parts stores, they stock used tuning parts etc), as well as an AutoBacs (Imagine if Waitrose did Halfords, and then some). The Autobacs was the "mega" store in Shinanome, which again you should try and swing by if you ever go.

I of course had to check out to Tatsumi, and Daikoku PA.

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Baring in mind, due to clashes with other plans I did this on a Tuesday night I think? The quality of car that just happens to turn up...

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Thats it for Camera photos I'm afraid. The next morning I returned the Skyline for an Integra DC5, with a mission to drive to the Fuji 5 lakes. I took the Hakone Skyline route, which was a properly entertaining mountain pass. The DC5 was a poor and abused thing, It had about 180,000miles on it! However, mechanically, it felt perfect.


Overall its the best place on earth, I've hated every single second of being home and I want to be back. And on that cheery note....



Phone photos:

Camera Photos:

Film Scans:
 
That is cooooool.

I would love to do Japan but I also don't want to irradiate myself by earring fish caught from the gently glowing waters off Fukushima... lol
 

Jason_E

ClioSport Club Member
  Elise, 530d
Awesome! Is it expensive to hire the R34??


Not that expensive! I've paid more to hire a van for 24hrs. I did the "overnight" deal where its from around 6pm to 11am the next day, looking at my statements it was like £205 after all the CDW etc. The Integra was MUCH cheaper, that was £93 for 24hrs!
 

Danith

ClioSport Club Member
  MX5 ND2/220 Trophy
I didn't manage to find the fast and furious style car meet places. Went with my wife so felt a bit tight. Did hire an NSX though with Fun2drive around Fuji. Did you not give that a blast? Where was that shopping mall with the Merc!? That's where I was trying to get to!
 

Jason_E

ClioSport Club Member
  Elise, 530d
I didn't manage to find the fast and furious style car meet places. Went with my wife so felt a bit tight. Did hire an NSX though with Fun2drive around Fuji. Did you not give that a blast? Where was that shopping mall with the Merc!? That's where I was trying to get to!
My Mrs doesnt mind thankfully, managed to squeeze quite a bit of stuff I wanted to do with Cars and old videogames.

Fun2Drive were who I was going to go to, but I like to find my own route around places. Plus Omoren were cheaper and had more choice! haha.

The place where the Merc SLS photo is, thats Daikoku Futo PA. Its a service station by Yokohama!
 

frayz

ClioSport Club Member
Very cool to see. JDM cars can so easily look pants in the UK, yet seeing a Supra with bonkers wing and some weird stickers just looks so right under the Tokyo lights.
Bucket list stuff for many a petrolhead i think :)
 

Jason_E

ClioSport Club Member
  Elise, 530d
Amazing pictures mate. We went last year and it’s the most amazing country. Absolutely loved seeing all the JDM icons in the wild.

Even saw an LFA in Harajuku! Sounds so good.
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Everyone has something interesting or fun to drive and really enjoys it, being into cars Or anything else for that matter isn’t seen as weird. It’s just celebrated. Love it.
 

Philip.

ClioSport Club Member
  VRS 245
Everyone has something interesting or fun to drive and really enjoys it, being into cars Or anything else for that matter isn’t seen as weird. It’s just celebrated. Love it.

Exactly! No one stares and laughs if you’re doing something a bit weird!
 

OneTime_

ClioSport Club Member
  '65 BMW F31 330d
Amazing! Absolute dream of mine to visit Japan and check out the car scene one day. Driving an R34 GTR would also be incredible!
 

Jason_E

ClioSport Club Member
  Elise, 530d
Great pictures. I really want to play a trip there at some point, keep saying maybe next year and then never get round to doing it!
This is what me and my Mrs have done for several years.

We finally just had a blowout and doesn’t on business class lights and a nice hotel. Was amazing!

Oh and ANA are the greatest airline of all. Google “ANA The Room”. That was the seats we had for the flight over. Ryanair won’t be the same
 

SCJM21

ClioSport Club Member
  200T
Lovely stuff mate, I think I saw your photos on Instagram and was pretty jealous, all of the non-car stuff too. Renting an R34 is just pure dream-worthy.
 

BoatNonce

ClioSport Club Member
It’s what I do for a living, even Chernobyl wasn’t actually that bad in terms of what people were exposed to off site (the residents of Pripyat on average received the equivalent of 3 CT scans) but Fukushima was really very tame in comparison even though it looked dramatic.
 

Jason_E

ClioSport Club Member
  Elise, 530d
Visiting Japan and being scared of radiation poisoning is a bit like visiting the UK and being scared of being trampled by a cow. The chance is never zero, but I wouldn’t let it stop you...
 
It’s what I do for a living, even Chernobyl wasn’t actually that bad in terms of what people were exposed to off site (the residents of Pripyat on average received the equivalent of 3 CT scans) but Fukushima was really very tame in comparison even though it looked dramatic.
Sounds like an interesting job :)

I had read they were pumping sea water into the reactor to cool it when it all went tits up, but that they had no containment and it was just flowing straight back out of the vents and into the sea while now glowing slightly... :eek: lol

We'll never know for sure, that's pretty certain!
 


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