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Nov 25, 2016 12:22:03 GMT
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After driving up and down the Moto Hakone a couple of times, we decided it was time to head back to downtown Tokyo, grab a bite and probably drive over to Tatsumi... I swear, this trip was NOT focused solely on cars.  As the Moto Hakone ends at the wrong side of the mountain, we were obliged to drive it up one last time. At the top the fog was in full force, limiting visibility to only a couple metres in front of the car. Just one last stop at the Dammtrax Café.... Two cars owned by Fun2Drive, the guy in the orange shirt is one of their employees (had to take my driving test with him in the car), the other was a customer enjoying a guided tour with that Seven.
 After trying to talk for a couple of minutes (petrolhead talk a universal language luckily) they walked inside for a drink. Keys still on the car, yes...   All of a sudden we could hear the familiar sound of a flat six driving into the parking lot. Lovely Porsche, wow.  As always, the owner was a super nice guy and was happy to rev his car for us.      |
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Nov 30, 2016 12:16:29 GMT
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Nov 30, 2016 19:57:03 GMT
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Just some random non-car pics for a change. In Harajuku, one of the...uhm..."funkiest" neighbourhoods we by chance found this place for the real Otaku: Toy Sapiens. Apparently it's the flagship store for some of the most realistic (movie related) toys you'll ever see. I'm not into that sort of things, but the amount of details in them was just absurd. They were ofcourse priced accordingly, but hey...pay peanuts, get monkeys, right? www.toysapiens.jp/  Random intersection in Harajuku. The Japanese do love their umbrellas  So, with some light rain coming down we decided to cross some indoor tourist-traps off of our (imaginary, no planning whatsoever remember?) must-see list. First stop: the Mocha Cat Café @ Harajuku, situated across the Harajuku train station (and Meiji Shrine, and Yoyogi National Stadion, and very close to Takeshita Street,...). Really simple concept: put some cats in a room with a cool view, give people the opportunity to buy some drinks (for themselves) and toys (for the cats!) and let the money flow in. In all honesty, we really enjoyed it and it was nice to do something which didn't involve walking or getting wet (rain or sweat...) for a change      |
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Nov 30, 2016 22:53:49 GMT
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You took that crossing pic from the LaForet building and the street you're facing is Omote-sando dori. If you head down (well up left in that pic) you'll get to Kiddy Land which is a mad toy store. A bit further down is Oriental Bazaar where you can buy also sorts of "cultural" goods like yukatas, kimonos, teapots etc.
The ceiling of the entrance of the building across the street is pretty cool as well. The mirrors reflect the escalators at all weird angles.
Did you go to Takeshita dori, where all the goth-loli subculture started?
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You took that crossing pic from the LaForet building and the street you're facing is Omote-sando dori. If you head down (well up left in that pic) you'll get to Kiddy Land which is a mad toy store. A bit further down is Oriental Bazaar where you can buy also sorts of "cultural" goods like yukatas, kimonos, teapots etc. The ceiling of the entrance of the building across the street is pretty cool as well. The mirrors reflect the escalators at all weird angles. Did you go to Takeshita dori, where all the goth-loli subculture started? 9,5 points for mister Sciclone! The only mistake is that I took it from the building next to the Laforet, but top marks anyway!  We visited Kiddy Land, really impressive and it was very hard to contain myself from buying lots and lots of things I don't need. We must have walked through Takeshita Dori for 5 times at a minimum in the mornings, round closing time for the shops and late at night. Always something to see over there, exactly the way I imagined Japan... Both me and my friend loved the Harajuku neigbourhood: really chill place, cool shops in the streets round Takeshita Dori,... Some pictures as a proof!     And, saving the best for last, I'll leave you with a picture of this guy. Yes, built like an f'ing brickhouse, sporting pink hotpants while wearing a bunny mask and pulling a pink little trolley. This was the only moment even the Japanese people were having second looks and giggling, so props to him!  |
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One of things I don't like about Takeshita dori is those of darker decent (Not sure what nationality) trying to sell you hip-hop gear. Clearly, if I'm dressed like a normal person, not a lobotomy patient, then I must chose not to wear ridiculously oversized basketball shirts and the latest blingy brand. When I say no once, don't keep hassling me to every time I walk past the 7-11 to retrieve more money as generally, there isn't a lot of olive skinned westerners compared to natives, so you should at least recognise my face from 5 mins ago.
I know they're trying to earn a living, but I just wish they weren't so annoying about it. Plus beefy black guys hassling you in a foreign country to come to their store away from the main street is a little intimidating.
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Okay, can't say we've experienced the same thing (guess we looked even less like lobotomy patients, hurray for that  ). What we did encounter were pushy people in the Kabukicho neighbourhood: big black guys asking us whether we "were in for some fun" in their clubs... But, as you can't have more fun than looking at cars, we kindly declined...over a hundred times. |
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Dec 13, 2016 21:28:52 GMT
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Hmmm, seems like my updates are about as regular and punctual as the English trains... Starting where we left off last time, the tourist traps (no point denying it, but doesn't mean it can't be fun). Entering "Kawai Monster Café", this is the sensory overload you are in for. You could say it's just a café with some simple dishes at quite high prices, and you'd be right! But at the same time, it does look very funky and makes for some pretty odd photo opportunities posing with the dressed up waitresses. Not something you absolutely have to see when in Tokyo, but if you've got some spare time...why the hell not.
   Back outdoors into the fresh air we walked over to Shibuya Crossing once again as we had previously forgotten to have a look at the Hachiko statue. I suppose most people will be familiar with the story of the Akita dog who kept looking for owner for over 9 years at the Shibuya Station, becoming a symbol for loyalty in Japan and around the world. Clicky for the story But offcourse, not without some carspotting on the way over... we just can't help ourselves    Not retro by a long shot, but you don't get to see a Varis widebody-kitted Scooby every day. Whether that's a good or a bad thing, I'll leave that up to you... For the record, I like it....the perfect amount of "over the top"ness  So, because we really suck at planning stuff and are quite impulsive...we decided to walk back to Harajuku (where we were about an hour earlier, remember...?) to go and have a look and a feel at the Snake café. A nice big Asahi beer at a decent price and a little snake on the table. If you wanted to you could also go for the complete experience of the big snakes draped around your neck. But because we were in a hurry (read as: we had lost too much time walking from and to Harajuku all the time...  ) we didn't get to do this. At least we had received a decent beer, so could have been worse!   The next update will probably contain some cars again... After all, we haven't been at Tatsumi for a while, right?  |
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Dec 13, 2016 23:32:04 GMT
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I too have walked from Shibuya to Harajuku (near the NHK building), but now days I just use the train or Subway. A 2 min trip on the Yamanote saves about 30-40 mins of walking.. Well worth the 190Y (or nothing if you have a JR pass).
Depending on which way you travelled, did you see the mad boot/shoe shop downstairs from Denny's in NW Shibuya?
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Dec 14, 2016 21:11:52 GMT
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I too have walked from Shibuya to Harajuku (near the NHK building), but now days I just use the train or Subway. A 2 min trip on the Yamanote saves about 30-40 mins of walking.. Well worth the 190Y (or nothing if you have a JR pass). Depending on which way you travelled, did you see the mad boot/shoe shop downstairs from Denny's in NW Shibuya? The Subway would have been the easier way, faster, less sweat-inducing ( ),... but our motto was "underground, there is less to see!" so we used different walking routes each time. That idea cost me an opportunity to cuddle with snakes, but also gave us lots of random spots and cool building/shops/... to see. You win some, you lose some... Don't think we saw that shop though, unless you meant one of these two in Harajuku? Gettry Harajuku (rubbish picture, but was beneath streetlevel) Clicky Whoop-de-Doo, right across the street from Takeshita Dori  Either way, sneakers...   |
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Dec 14, 2016 21:25:31 GMT
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But, yesterday I promised some car-pics so here goes: Yes, Tatsumi once again... Not gonna make up any new excuses, but come on... who could say no to something like this to spend the evening? A bayside Blue R34 with that view in the background  Or a Mica blue Impreza break, I'd happily drive one of these with an obnoxiously loud exhaust.  Can't remember if I already posted this one, but I just like seeing it again. Completely over the top kei-car, obviously with a lot of money invested.  Can't imagine this thing being very quick with it's 660cc engine having to carry the weight of that soundsystem  |
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Dec 14, 2016 21:42:54 GMT
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sb
Part of things
Posts: 725 
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Dec 14, 2016 22:34:19 GMT
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This... Is cool as curse word! Wish people over here took so much care instead of 'ratting'. |
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Dec 15, 2016 12:21:26 GMT
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This... Is cool as curse word! Wish people over here took so much care instead of 'ratting'. Uhu, even if you're not into the style of that car, respect for the owner for having a vision for the complete car and really going for it. Even colour-matching his wheels to his favorite pair of slippers, top marks!  That night we didn't stay at Tatsumi very long (still way past midnight, but that's early compared to the other visits). If you're wondering why, no... not because we were getting bored with it (ooooh no, nope, nononono ). The reason was that we would have to get up at 5 in the morning the next day. Not because we had to catch our flights, but because I had read on another forum (Japanese Nostalgic cars, credit where it's due) about a Cars & Coffee meeting that takes place once a month...very early in the morning. Everyone knows that getting up in the middle of the night is hell, except when you get up for a car meeting. So, after jumping out of bed and rushing to the subway station (right next to our hotel, but it sounds cooler this way) we were on our way to Daikanyama, heading to the Tsutaya T-site. In short you could describe this place as very chilled out (and rather upperclass) neighbourhood, which houses the flagship store of the Tsutaya Bookstore chain: a very cool building with different stores with records, books (very large collection of car-related magazines), a coffeeshop,... The level of cars was simply mindblowing, no other way to describe them actually: ranging from Caterhams to a Ferrari Dino, from a Fiat Panda mk1 to a Nissan Silvia CSP13 or a couple of Porsche 356 pré-A's.       |
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Dec 16, 2016 12:03:32 GMT
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Dec 16, 2016 16:27:59 GMT
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Thankyou quadrifoglio this thread has some fantastic photography in it, fantastic story too. |
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Dec 16, 2016 16:54:34 GMT
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Daikanyama, heading to the Tsutaya T-site. Even on non-C&C days it has cool cars floating around, last time I was there I spotted these two First up the coolest 911 I've ever seen  And then this was parked just outside the station  I really liked Daikanyama, my kind of place  |
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Dec 16, 2016 19:29:34 GMT
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Thankyou quadrifoglio this thread has some fantastic photography in it, fantastic story too. Thank you for the kind words. I'm happy to be able to give something back to the forum for the countless hours I've spent here lurking Daikanyama, heading to the Tsutaya T-site. Even on non-C&C days it has cool cars floating around, last time I was there I spotted these two First up the coolest 911 I've ever seen And then this was parked just outside the station I really liked Daikanyama, my kind of place The owner of that 911 really nailed it: gorgeous colour, the wheels,... Love it! The W201 is an interesting one too: a Sportline (badge behind the wheel and the tell-tale interior), wheels taken from an Evo 2, enginewise possibly a 2.3-16v of 2.5-16v but it's missing the rear spoiler so probably not...but it does have foglights in the bumper so I'm guessing it's an AMG frontbumper. Have you got anymore pics of it? |
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Dec 16, 2016 20:15:05 GMT
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Hmmm, page is getting slow to load again...I wonder why I'll just make a couple of short posts to get a new page  Another shot of that green hako. Normally I like the overfender look, but I think this one would have been even cooler with it's original arches. Still, wouldn't kick it out a my garage if I found it there... Also, a nice yellow Scirocco Mk.1 in the background (more on this later on)  Even though it was still "way too early"-o'clock it was already very warm, so kudos for the guy on his bike with long trousers and long-sleeved shirt. We were actually very lucky with the weather considering we were there in the rainseason and only had rain on maybe 2 occasions. Friends of ours who went a month earlier had temperatures up to 40 degrees, combined with lots of humidity...great fun  |
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Dec 16, 2016 20:49:49 GMT
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As you can probably guess based on this pic, the monthly theme this time was Porsches. Expensive Porsches to be more precise... Can't bear to add the value of cars together, but probably more than I will earn in a lifetime Not jealous at all though, but happy for the lucky owners and thankful that they use them instead of putting them away in climate-controlled garages the gain even more value.  We also bumped into an American guy we had spoken to earlier....yes, on Tatsumi indeed. Very impressive that you guessed it on your first try... Anyway this guy, probably around 30 years old, was a true Porsche aficionado so we got some short history on a couple of cars. He was on vacation in Tokyo for a while (read as: "I bought a one-way ticket and see when I get bored over here") and ended up staying for about 5 months in the end. During this time he also helped a certain Nakai-San on the build of his second Rauh Welt Porsche... quite a nice vacation I guess His first Rauh Welt also got featured on SPeedhunters: clicky And during the trip picking up his first Rauh Welt he also brought something over for his dad... clicky A 930 Turbo tuned by Promodet, inspired by the infamous Black Bird Porsche which was one of the cars in the legendary "Mid Night Club" who raced the C1 Wangan at insane speeds. (well worth a read, altough they have ofcourse always remained a bit secretive...) ![http://speedhunters-wp-production.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/24011549/Promodet-930-Turbo-16-1200x800.jpg]()  |
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).
) would get hyped up when they see 2 Championship White EP3's: a colour that was only available in Japan for this model. The JDM-model also received a stronger gearbox with an LSD, unlike the USDM and EUDM cars 
