Godzilla’s head and Shinjuku
After settling things at our place in Iidabashi area, we went to Shinjuku. I wanted to show Jacob Godzilla’s head!
As my son is goofy, I loved how he had fun there.
Author: Roger
Hakone and Skywalk
While I made a post of this, pretty detailed on the F31club main page, I’ll kind of put it here.
I work up to find out that Mr. Tamai was going to be picking me up. He showed up an hour early, luckily, I just took a shower and had to pack quickly.
I didn’t know how far Hakone was or how mountainous it was. So it was really twisty!
He put on Eurobeat (he says is driving music) and 80s Madonna (he says his co-pilot! LOL).
After passing some coastal cities, we started to head into the mountains.
After we got to the Hotel, we had snacks.
After the snacks, there was a presentation from Mr. Kanazawa of Carshop Friend. He talked about his influence, friends and history on how he got started with Carshop Friend.
Then we had dinner.
During this time, I went out and took pictures and met with Iwashima-san, the official photographer!
I came back in and took pictures with Ogino, Fujii and Kuze-san before I left for Mishima.
I had to go stop to Mishima, which was 30mins away. Tamai-san offered to take me there. My aunts lives there and they’ve been holding a lot of my leopard and Estima stuff.
After some touge driving back to the hotel, I was tried, but had to pack some stuff. Traditional Japanese resort. Raised floor for sleeping.
The next day we packed up and headed for the Skywalk bridge. I had so much to stuff to pack. LOL. Kuze-san drove me there.
Tamai-san! Thank you so much!!!
Mishima Skywalk
Water Light Public Plaza
Walking around downtown Walnut Creek, I came up on this spot. I never seen it before, but I enjoy these things.
It is an open plaza for people to sit and eat/drink/smoke. The massive art piece on the wall has water sprouting at the base.
16th Avenue Tiled Steps and Grandview Park
One of the places I like to take people that visit is this spot. On a clear day, it is gorgeous.
In recent years, it has gotten super busy as now it is on everyone’s radar! Can’t blame them though.
As you can see from the map above, just a few more steps, you get to go to Grandview park. It is windy at times, but it does have a good 360 view of the nearby neighborhoods!
Yokohama and Daikoku Futo
Since I made an error in Saitama and took the last train in the wrong direction. Then walked at 1am and finally got a hotel to sleep for a few hours.
I hit Tokyo Station, changed clothes and headed to Yokohama. I visited a few shops there.
One shop, I really connected with the President and we talked a lot. Thank you Asakusa-san
Afterwards, I went to the Nissan Heritage Museum and they were under renovation… I headed back to the station. Got a foot massage. Then Yousuke-san contacted me saying he would pick me up at Yokohama station.
Afterwards, I told him my stuff is at Tokyo station. While there, he told me we are going to meet up with a few people by the place I was staying.
I took some of these pictures outside of Tokyo Station.
After this, we met other friends at a Family mart near where I was staying.
We then moved to a food spot, but many of us were talking outside instead of getting food.
We then drove to Daikoku Futo and hung out there til 4am!!!
Ogawara, Yokota and Sano-san took me back to my spot and I only slept for 3 hours before Tamai-san would pick me up to take me to Hakone!
West Tokyo and Saitama
After Sendai, I got back to Tokyo and headed to West Tokyo or Nishi Tokyo area. I wanted to see some of the Tuning shops before going to Saitama to hang with Yamashima, Taguchi and Suenaga-san.
I got off at Kamishakujii Station and rented a bike. The bike was 100 Yen ($1) for 4 hours! It started raining, but it didn’t stop me.
It was a long bike ride as I went 4 miles one way, then back and another few miles to reach Spoon Sports and Type One. But the bike ride was fun and great.
I then jumped on the train and eventually reached where Suenaga-san lived.
I’ve covered it on the main site, but this is more about the people.
Suenaga-san picked me up. The Hiruma-san stopped by. Then Taguchi-san came and then Yamashima-san. We hung out for a few hours and talked shop and culture stuff.
Place du Trocadero
This place is busy during the day time. It is also one of the best views of the Eiffel Tower. Tour buses drop people off here, vendors are everywhere.
2 Museums are pretty much the entrance of the place.
Someone said go in the morning for the best view and less crowd. Best tip ever!!!
L’Aerosol street art museum
I love street art. Graffiti is something I enjoy.
When I saw this, I really wanted to check it out. While obviously not as huge as the other museums, there were some really great political and counter culture stuff.
Additionally, you can purchase items here and use them outside… like you can paint and leave your mark there!
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.
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.
