SL Plaza
SL stands for Steam Locomotive. There is a full size replica at this location, hence the name.
Shimbashi district is busy!!!
Category: Japan
WLS train experience
For this trip, I really wanted to experience a few different lines. I was planning to use the Shonan Monorail (which looks awesome), to get near Enoshima Island, but Satoshi-san drove us instead.
Thursday
- Haneda airport to Tenkubashi station (Tokyo Monorail)
- Tenkubashi station to Keikyu Kamata station (Keikyu Airport line)
- Keikyu_Kamata station to Tobe Station (Keikyu line)
- Tobe station to Takashimacho station (walk)
- Takashimacho station to Shin Yokohama station (Blue line subway)
- Shin-Yokohama to Tokyo station (Shinkansen)
- Tokyo station to Akihabara station (JR Yamanote line)
- Akihabara station to Yashio station (Tsukuba Express)
- Yashio station to Minami-Nagareyama Station (Tsukuba Express)
- Minami-Nagareyama Station to Kita-Asaka station (JR Musashino Line)
- Kita-Asaka station to Asakadai station (walk)
- Asakadai station to Kawagoe station (Tobu Tojo line)
- Kawagoe station to Musashi-Takahagi station (Kawagoe line)
- Musashi-Takahagi station to Ikebukuro station (Kawagoe line to Tobu Tojo line)
- Ikebukuro station to Shinagawa station (Yamanote line)
- Shinagawa station to Yokohama station (Keikyu line)
Haneda airport to Tenkubashi station
Tenkubashi station to Keikyu-Kamata station
Keikyu-Kamata station to Tobe station
Tobe station in relation to Yokohama station.
I checked in, then went to Takashimacho station (subway station)
Takashimacho station to Shin Yokohama (Blue Line subway)
Shin-Yokohama station to Tokyo station (Shinkansen)
Tokyo station to Akihabara station (Yamanote line)
Akihabara to Yashio station (Tsukuba Express)
Yashio station to Kawagoe station
Break down:
Yashio station to Minami-Nagareyama station (Tsukuba Express)
Minami-Nagareyama station to Kita Asaka station (JR Musashino line)
Kita Asaka station to Asakadai station (walk)
Asakadai station to Kawagoe station (Tobu Tojo line)
Kawagoe station to Musashi-Takahagi station (Kawagoe line)
After my meet up, I took the last train home.
Kawagoe station to Ikebukuro station
Ikebukuro station to Shinagawa station (Yamanote line)
Shinagawa station to Yokohama station (Keikyu line)
Friday
- Shin Yokohama station to Tokyo Station (Shinkansen)
- Tokyo Station to Minami-Urawa station (Keihintohoku line)
- Minami-Urawa station to Yoshikawa station (Musashino line)
- Then reverse course
- Shin Yokoham station to Mitsuzawa-Shimocho station (Blue line)
- Mitsuzawa-Shimocho station to Yokohama station (Blue line)
- Enoshima monorail (did not take)
- Shinagawa station to Shinjuku station (Yamanote line)
- Shinjuku station to Tokyo station (Marunochi line)
- Tokyo station to Okayam Station (Sunrise Seto night train)
Shin Yokohama statoin to Tokyo Station via Shinkansen
Tokyo Station to Minami-Urawa station via Keihintohoku line.
Then from Minami-Urawa station to Yoshikawa station via Musashino line.
To get back to Shin Yokohama, I went in reverse.
At Shin Yokohama station, I went to Refresh 60 via Blue line
After my visit, I went to Yokohama station.
My plan was to experience the Enoshima monorail, but Satoshi-san picked me up and we drove to Enoshima Island. Satoshi-san then drove me to Shinagawa station so I could go to Shinjuku station. I used the Yamanote line.
After my dinner with Original JDM guy, I left Shinjuku station for Tokyo station via Marunochi line.
Since our dinner over ran the time, I was ony have a few minute to get to Platform 9 with a few items. My luggage was in storage and I don’t think I would have made it!
This was my Sunrise Seto experience which is the last night train in Japan. I would be getting off at Okayama in the morning.
I had enough time to buy an eki ben and set up. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a shower card.
The trip was overnight.
Saturday
- Okayama station to Shin Kobe station (Shinkansen)
- Shin Kobe station to Sannomiya station (Subway Seihan-Yamate line)
- Sannomiya station to Shin Nagata station (Tokaido Sanyo line)
- Then reverse
- Shin Kobe station to Kyoto station (shinkansen)
- Kyoto station to Fushimi Inari station (JR Nara line)
- Kyoto station to Tokyo station (Shinkansen)
- Tokyo station to Mishima station (Shinkansen)
- Mishima station to Fuji station (Tokaido main line
Now was the back track. I was suppose to be in Fujinomiya by the end of the day, which is in Shizuoka. I unfortunately left my luggage at Tokyo Station, so I would eventually overshoot Shizuoka and go directly to Tokyo AND THEN BACK TO SHIZUOKA!!!
Anyways, time to head back that way.
I took the Shinkansen from Okayama station to Shin-Kobe station.
At Shin Kobe Station, I wanted to see Gigantor statue, so I I had to go to Sannomiya Station via Subway Seihan-Yamate line
I then had to jump trains. Sannomiya station bottom (where subway is) and head outside on top, to get on the JR Tokaido Sanyo main line.
then reverse steps.
Shin-Kobe station to Kyoto station via Shinkansen
Kyoto station is huge, so I explored Escalator mountain.
Not only that, Kyoto station is one of my favorite because of Escalator Mountain!
After that, I had to visit the Fushimi Inari shrine, this is the famous Torii Gates. You have to take the JR Nara line (D) to get there.
I bought a few things around Kyoto station and waited for the Shinkansen as I was heading to Tokyo.
Once there I had to change really quick and get on the Shinkansen again to Mishima station and then go to Fuji station from there.
Sunday
- Fujinomiya station to Fuji station (Minobu line)
- Fuji station to Mishima station (Tokaido line)
- Mishima station to Shin Yokohama station (Shinkansen)
After the meeting, Okuni-san dropped me off at fujinomiya station.
Then Fuji station to Mishima station via Tokaido main line
I met with my aunt there, to get a few things. Then I jumped on the bullet train for Shin Yokohama station
Tokyo Tower
Another Tall structure to check out in Tokyo!!! After Reiyukai shakaden hall, we go to Tokyo Tower.
I asked Jacob if he wanted to go up and he said wanted to. So we paid for our tickets and went up .
It was kinda cool to hear this tidbit of “urban legend”. I guess this baseball was found during the remodeling.
Reiyukai Shakaden Hall
Reiyukai Shakaden Hall is this space ship looking temple. It is a branch of Japanese Buddhism (from what I understand). Besides a prayer hall, there are a few amenities and even free Japanese lessons.
I was hoping to check this out, but unfortunately they were closed. This might have been due to the holidays that were happening at the time, Oban Festival and Mountain Day.
Nonetheless, I took pictures of Jacob infront of it.
On the back side, there was drums and music going on. This was also part of the festival. We checked it out, but did not want to intrude.
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.
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
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.
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.
