Month: March 2018

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Sendai Daikannon

Besides trying to meet up with friends and visiting tuning shops, I wanted to see Daikannon.

It is a huge statue that you can go up 12 floors. Spiral stairs align inside, and in the middle on each floor is a circular display of 108 Buddhist statues.

Each is suppose to represent a behavior of humans. Greed, happiness, anger… there is a statue that represents it.

I was gonna take pictures of every single one, but my cellphone ran out of memory and it was shutting down on me.

 

 

It is breath taking to see in person. No train comes close to it, so you have to get to a station and either find the tourist buses (which I didn’t) or take a taxi, which I did.

 

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Arrival in Sendai

After Gifu (R31house) and Nagoya (Toyota Automobile Museum)

I jumped on the Shinkansen from Nagoya station to Tokyo station, then from Tokyo to Sendai.

 

I stayed in a hotel on this street for 2 days.

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Meeting with Okuni and Ishii-san

I met with Okuni-san in 2016’s leopard meeting. When I told him I was gonna go around Japan, he said he would take the day off and take me out!

I never met Ishii-san, but Tanaka-san spoke about me.

So these guys took the day off!

 

After picking me up, we had lunch and then checked out the Kaiyodo Figure museum. We would drive around Shiga and they took me to Lake Biwa, where they had many leopard meetings.

Not only that, we drove to Hikone Castle and they explain to me much history about Shiga and Japan!

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Kaiyodo Figure Museum

Gachapon is very popular in Japan and they are super collectible. They are also SOOO many series to collect and they are not like the 25 or 50 cent machines here.

Okuni-san said he could meet me for the day and the Ishii-san said he would come along. I was very excited to hang with them and spend time! It worked out as the Kaiyodo Figurine Museum was here!

After he had some lunch, we came here!!!

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Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

I stayed in Hiroshma for the night. My main goal was to visit Junya and Saito. I got the last Shinkansen near midnight or 1am I believe. Once I got to Hiroshima station, I went to my hotel and did laundry (offered free washer/dryer!)

I woke up pretty early because I wanted to see the Peace Memorial park. So I took the Hirodan street car to get there.

I didn’t have all day as I was going to Osaka to try and check out a R31 Tuning shop, checkout Den Den town and then go meet Okuni and Ishii-san in Shiga for lunch.

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Dinner with Junya and Saito

I wanted to meet with Junya because he had helped me so much. When we met up, he let me drive his Leopard and also let me take pictures of his car (which is on the main site).

My battery started to die and I turned it off to save what was left for our pictures. After we ate, we walked around the grounds which was somewhat opened. Junya then dropped me off at Shin Iwakuni station so I can take the shinkansen.

 

 

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Kintai Bridge

Very famous bridge. I was on my way to meet Junya and Saito (they live in Yamaguchi) and they are good people!

I  had to stop by here and visit.

I believe it is 300yen to cross the bridge.

  • Historic
  • 5 arches
  • wood bridge

 

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Saijo Inari Shrine

In Japanese Shinto, Inari is the the Rice Goddess, so you will find shrines dedicated to her.  Her servant was the fox, so you will also many Fox statues at these shrines.

I stopped by here quickly before on my way to Hiroshima.  I’ll cover it in the train experience, but this was the local line I took.

 

I asked someone to take a picture of me and Ithought he did, but apparently not as I didn’t have a photo. I didn’t take much pictures because once I realize my laptop charger was left at home, I couldn’t dump my pictures when I needed too. So I kept pictures to a minimal until I came to the Tuning shops.