Heading out to Japan in a week.

"DutchieDC2R" (dutchiedc2r) 09/19/2016 at 17:30 • Filed to: None

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Dudes and dudettes,

how are ya’ll doing on this beautiful monday evening/morning/night?

I’m doing just fine. I’ve got a little bit of a nutcracker for you guys and gals. I’m heading out to Japan in about a week (6days and some hours to be exact). I already have a detailed schedule of what I’ll be doing the 2 weeks I’m there (car-related and non car-related). I’ve also e-mailed our resident Jap friend and fellow Opponaut Flavien but have not yet discussed the trip in detail with him.

My question for you guys is relatively simple: What are some things that I really NEED to do, according to you? I know there’s Google, but I’d rather have a detailed answer from you guys.

I’m sharing/Would like this post shared to LaLD, so here’s some extra info:

I’m visiting a couple of DieCast companies/museums/stores, including Ebbro, Tamiya and others. I’d love to put a mark of LaLD overthere somehow. I really have no idea how I’m gonna do that, but I’ll absolutely try and somehow do an activity/make some pictures exclusively for/by LaLD.

Thank you!

EL_ULY > DutchieDC2R 09/19/2016 at 17:32

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radness dude have fun!!!!

Berang > DutchieDC2R 09/19/2016 at 17:49

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I only had very limited time in Tokyo (spent most of my time in Japan in Okinawa with a friend), but simply walking through Shinjuku and then roughly following the railway through Harajuku, etc. was a pretty nice evening.

There’s lots of shops around, if you like electronics or cameras, or books/manga, you’ll find it in this general area.

Tokyo station has the Tomica shop, but I was honestly underwhelmed by it.

StudyStudyStudy > DutchieDC2R 09/19/2016 at 18:51

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Akihabara is pretty much something somewhere to stop by, even if you aren’t into anime or to me the cringeworthy maid cafe’s (just can’t feel comfortable with so much artificial concern), the tech is pretty sweet, when I was there small laptops were all the rage, what we know as chrome books and such but quite a few years before. The time I went before that it turns out the stuff they were selling would later be revealed to be pokemon, pretty interesting to see some things and guess what will be big in the future.

If you can manage to squeeze in one of the main temples in tokyo it really is a must see, I remember seeing a man sweeping what seems like a half mile stretch with a bamboo broom and he had found zen in his work, his steps were metered his brush stroke was perfect he had two rows of fallen leaves the entire stretch of that road. They also had a festival which I forget if it was because it was near christmas or just a weekend, but the street food was amazing.

I heard it is fairly difficult with all the transfers and such, but getting to one of the japanese circuits would be a dream of mine Tsukuba, Fuji etc etc. I would love to actually see it in person, when I was there they had a “thanks day” put on by honda where they brought out cars and stuff, but with my limited japanese I knew getting out there would have been difficult. I did get a chance to go up one of the famous mountain passes which I swear was the backdrop for initial D with the lake and the hotel at the top a truly amazing memory.

The bullet train is really fascinating if you have never been on a high speed train, standing at the station and watching one blitz by was awesome, the lady on the tour in front of me almost fell over backwards and fell towards me where I caught her as it blew by at 200mph.

Getting out to the izakaya (appetizers, small dishes, beers) would be great especially with a guide to help you order, I adore japanese food and some of their preparations are delicious.

If you know someone who goes to the fish markets that is also pretty awesome. We bought a bowl of rice and wandered around and bought freshly prepared sashimi from vendors throughout the market at a smaller one, we even got to try whale which was interesting given the whole hubbub about it at the time.

Overall brush up on your japanese, and look up mannerisms. I hate to generalize, but they are overall a very polite country, and it reminded me how much I take for granted having lived in the states, queuing up for lines in straight lines, standing off to the side on the escalator if you are not walking up. Also don’t be offended if you try to talk to someone in english and they try to walk away from you, I was taught that for some people it is a type of shame that they cannot hold a conversation in english and they are trying to extradite out of the situation.

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > DutchieDC2R 09/19/2016 at 20:23

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The town I stayed in, the supermarket was like a small department store. I bought myself a gt86 and a mario kart die cast

Danger > DutchieDC2R 09/19/2016 at 21:17

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Some tourist highlights from memory:

Go to Nara and feed a deer. Walk around Tokyo drinking and eating. Get into the mountains if you can. See the Golden Shrine.

Danger > Danger 09/19/2016 at 21:19

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There’s so much and it is hard to go wrong. Shinjuku/Harajuku. Is baseball in season? The huge fish markets are cool.

DutchieDC2R > Danger 09/19/2016 at 21:35

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No idea about baseball, but I did have all the other things on my schedule, except for the deer thing. That sounds cool.

Danger > DutchieDC2R 09/20/2016 at 01:25

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara_Park