Yesterday Neil, Collin and I headed to the Spring Festival of LX’s event at the El Toro Marine Base since Vortech Superchargers had a booth and some cars on display. I wasn’t planning on spending too much time there because I had some other errands to run but overall the event seemed like it was pretty good. Even though there were a lot of pretty stock cars, those that were modified were actually pretty nice.
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As promised, the final post for the #kgasia2012 trip.
With a little over two days left on this amazing journey, we figured we’d check out one last sight before calling it and relaxing for the remainder of our time there. The Tsukiji Fish Market was something we’d all wanted to check out after seeing clips on what seems like every food or travel related television show. Although our timing sucked and we ended up making to the market later than we wanted, we were still about to roam around and see how the operation was run. In between all of the walking, we stopped at one of the many sushi restaurants to grab what we figured would be the freshest sushi we’d ever have. We browsed the menu, made our selections and impatiently waited. Everything was… incredible!
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The posts are almost over, I promise!
With that said, now that the whole gang was finally back together in Tokyo, we figured we’d play tourist and go cruise around. Warren, Rachel, Tim, Matt, Max, Reggie, Kim and myself left our hotel in Shibuya and made our way to Harajuku to grab some lunch and do a little shopping. On the way there, we ran across a group of attractive young ladies that were doing some sort of photoshoot in the middle of the road. We checked it out for a second and made our way to a local ramen house, put in our orders and got to it. Up next, we hit up Kiddie Land, a horrible, horrible place to go if you’re with those of the female kind. It was cool to check out all of the stuff inside but after about twenty minutes we all realized Kim and Rachel still had about four hours of shopping left to do in there.
The guys figured we’d go outside to kill some time and the same girls that we saw earlier came walking by. Feeling motivated, we decided to put on a little impromptu photoshoot in the middle of the street… entertainment ensued. Some of the images are below, some will forever be kept to ourselves… for our own sake. Anyways, spending the day roaming the streets of Japan with good friends is something that I will always remember. Hopefully there will be many more trips like this in the future, until then enjoy the pictures.
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After spending an amazing three days in Kyoto, Miyajima and Hiroshima, we made our final shinkansen journey back to Tokyo. With Kim finally arriving after spending an extra week in Vietnam with her parents, the Fatlace boys finally free and Warren, Rachel and I back in Tokyo, it was time to have a little fun!
Since we took the last train out of Hiroshima and ended getting back to our hotel in Tokyo pretty late, I figured I’d let Warren and Rachel sleep in while I took the Narita Express to pick Kim up. On the way to the airport, I got a text from my love, Tim Mar saying that they’d be heading to Chiba to visit RWB / RAUH-Welt Begriff. The pressure was on… how to pick Kim up at Narita, head back to the hotel so she could shower and rest after a long flight and make it all the way back to Chiba in time to see the RWB facility.
I get to Narita, jump off the train and pretty much sprint through the terminal to find Kim. I grabbed the bags, pick up our new Narita Express tickets and practically push her back on to the train. Fast forward thirty minutes and we’re passing Chiba, home to RWB… too bad we have another half an hour to go to our first destination. We make it back to Shibuya, bolt off the train and head for the hotel. By this time I’m already getting texts from both Warren and Tim telling me that they’re already on their way and that they weren’t sure how long they’d be staying. Uhhh, now how to figure out a way to rush Kim without her killing me.
A quick shower, change and she’s ready to go. Now already over an hour behind the rest of the group, we’re flying through the stations and en route to Chiba and the RWB facility. Finally reaching the station where we’d be getting off, we head downstairs to the taxi line and jump in the first available one. I try and explain where we need to go along with showing our drive the address on my phone and we get nothing. He has absolutely no idea what I’m saying and the address on my phone is only complicating things… three seconds later my door opens and we jump out. Let’s try this again. We jump in another cab and try to explain where we need to go again and end up with the same result, an open door and us exiting through it. Now scrambling, I put in a call to Mark Arcenal who was already at RWB with everyone else to get my some directions. After a quick exchange we give it one more shot and finally end up getting directions after Nakai-san picks up the line and tells our driver where to go. Finally!
A quick ten or so minute drive, sun setting and the realization of getting any decent pictures dwindling with every red light we get caught. I see it! I point! The driver pulls off and we’re there! The first automotive related thing that’s excited me in probably ten years. We’re finally here and it’s pretty damn amazing.
As soon as I jump out, camera in hand, I get to shooting. I want to capture as much as I can with the little bit of sun light that was left and still have a little time to take it all in. If you’re into cars, there’s a very good chance you’ve either heard of RWB or seen something that’s been produced by the man himself.
Alright, enough rambling… look at the pictures and enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them. If you ever have the chance to visit this place, you’ll agree that it’s pretty damn awesome. It’s been a long time since I’ve been excited about something car related and this place had me pretty giddy. A huge thanks to Mark and Tim for making this happen and also to Nakai-san for letting us come down and check it out!
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After a short stop in Miyajima for the Itsukashima Shrine, we headed back to Hiroshima to visit the A-Bomb Dome and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Again having done some research of places to visit, these two were the main reasons why we headed down to Hiroshima. After reading about the sites and talking to some friends about it, we knew we wanted to stop by and take them in first hand.
First up, the A-Bomb Dome, one of the last standing buildings left after the atomic bomb was detonated. Originally built in 1915 as the Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall, the A-Bomb Dome is something that completely wowed me. Standing in front of the dome and having the chance to walk around left me feeling pretty strange. It’s difficult not to be overwhelmed when you sit back and think of what happened here on august 6th, 1945 and think of the sheer destruction that happened in an instant.
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After finishing up with our schedule stops in Kyoto, we once again jumped on the shinkansen and headed for Hiroshima. We checked into our hotel and crashed out for the night in anticipation for an early morning to be spent in Miyajima and then back in Hiroshima.
With alarms set nice and early, we woke up and took the subway and then ferry out to Miyajima Island, home of the Itsukashima Shrine. After a five to ten minute ferry ride, we exited and made our way towards the shrine. Within that short time frame, I managed to lower my body temperature what seemed like forty degrees because I was freezing… to the point where my head was aching and I was in desperate need of something to warm me up. After some scrambling, I made my way to a random vending machine and picked up a can of hot chocolate… not to drink but to hold up to my ears. Yup, that happened… and it saved my life!
After thawing out, we were lucky enough to get to the shrine while the tide was still pretty low, almost low enough to walk up to it. After a few minutes had passed, we realized that the water was much higher than it was only a few minutes prior so we hurried in a few more pictures and get to higher land. We took some more pictures, did a little shopping and sprinted back to the ferry so we wouldn’t lose too much time making it back to Hiroshima.
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After visiting the Fushimi Inari Shrine, we decided to take the short trip over to the Kiyomizudera Temple. Again having seen images online, the temple’s size was something we all definitely underestimated.
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