OK chaps and chappesses...it's taken a while, but for those of you that enjoyed part 1 the wait is over...welcome to:
A Weekend In Japan - Pt.2
Destination Hotwire
Thanks to Dom's tips on Tokyo transport HotWire and I were more than ready to brave the underground system on Saturday morning, a short stroll later (in the rain - David was the only person in Japan without an umbrella, even the cyclists have them up while they're riding!) and we were at Ginza station. The Tokyo tube map is designed along similar lines to the familiar London version, an icon in itself, and as a result, simple to use assuming there is one available with English names for the stations. Each station name has a number on it representing the cost of the trip from your current position to the relevant station on the map. Our journey was 160Yen (approximately 80p) - the money goes in the machine, the buttons light up related to the amount you put in and you press the one you need - simple.
An unusually empty tube...note the large amount of Bosozuku-style 'danglers' that we resisted stealing.
We went a couple of stops before changing lines and then it was a few stops on the overground and we were in Koenji - our mission was to find the Hotwire shop: purveyors of US custom apparel, parts and collectibles, most importantly the Hotwire T-shirt that David had spotted on their website before we left. Armed with a printout of their simplified online map we amazed ourselves by actually finding it. Nice.
The view from the platform of Koenji station, Koenji seemed to be a inner city suburb - it's London equivalent would be Lewisham, but without the tension.
The Hotwire shop, an Aladdin's cave of Hot Wheels and Jada cars and some super cool shirts! It's owner's appeared to live in the two or three stories above the shop. A very cool set up.
Where next?
Pleased with our success and now in possesion of the T-shirt in question and a few Hot Old's Meet (Stop: Grammar time: the apostrophe wasn't added by me, but it's on the poster, so it stays, OK?) posters we found our way back, trying our luck with a slightly different route which only added about ten minutes to our journey (sorry David! ). On the weekends the main streets of Ginza are closed to traffic so we walked down the middle of the road on the way back to hotel to decide on our plans for the rest of the day.
Halfords!
Prior to our trip HotWire and I had endeavoured to make a few contacts in Japan to help our trip go smoothly and at the last minute we'd found Takayuki of www.double-clutch.net who'd suggested that the automotive book store situated above the Autobacs store in Tokyo bay would be a good place to visit. We couldn't find a tube or train stop nearby despite our previously printed maps, but as we knew we weren't too far away we thought we'd jump in a cab (a CROWN, naturally...complete with lace seat-covers). Imagine the scene, it's a five star hotel and we hand the guy manning the concierge desk a folded up A4 piece of paper that we've carried 5000 miles and when he looks at it he finds a map to the local equivalent of Halfords! Now imagine the look on the smartly dressed (immaculate suit and tie at all times is the norm for Tokyo taxi drivers) when the concierge handed him the same scrap! ;D 1600Yen (about 8 quid) later and we're in the car park of the out-of-town motoring superstore that is SUPER AUTOBACS!
Exciting car life city indeed...check the machinery in the car park! Yes that is a Skyline estate...the 'Stagea'
This is my kind of tourism, you can keep your temples and sushi, I'm off to Autobacs ...the car park was like a car show (copyright Will Smith ) - yanks, people carriers, classics, modern J-performance favourites and a smattering of old 'Dubs were scattered around the car park and all deserved the closer inspection which we gave them.
To enter the shop you go up an escalator and then into doors just like any other shop in any other retail park in any other place in the world...but once inside you were surrounded by parts and accessories that makes even the biggest Halfords Superstore look like the motoring section in the corner of your local 24hr petrol garage. Rows of air fresheners and seat covers, racks of alloy wheels and a 'proper' selection of performance parts ranging from exhausts and coil-over kits to racing overalls, shoes and helmets. I bought a set of tacky Tokyo-taxi-spec seat covers (at a show near you this summer! ) and David couldn't resist a smiley air freshener to take home.
This isn't even close to the amount of rims they had on display...barely any retro stuff, but what a selection!
Magazine heaven
As exciting as this all this was, Takayuki had recommended this particular Autobacs because of the book (magazine) store upstairs. I felt right at home here, being a car magazine obsessive it was fantastic to see the selection on offer. We stood amazed for a while and then found our way to the classic section. Enjoy Retro Car, Nostalgic Hero - all the best titles were right there, including a few back issues and 'specials' too. David bought a selection (some of which have already found new homes in the UK ) including a 'Sunny Special' containing pages and pages of Solex'd Sunnys (Sunnies?) and Sunny trucks for inspiration. I was amazed to find a magazine for just about every model of modern domestic car there too - HiAce, Previa, Corolla all were catered for, I brought a HiAce mag home with me. In the imported section even the latest issue of Classic & Sportscar was there alongside MiniWorld at an equivalent of £10 each.
Kids getting bored while Daddy looks at the magazines? No problem at Autobacs...just sit little Haruaki in front of the hundreds of drift DVDs on offer. I didn't spot that Goodwood poster until I got home.
Kid. Candy store.
After Autobacs we grabbed a pancake from the back of the diddy-van mounted vendor (tasty!) and then headed for the supermarket just down the road for some provisions and another taste of Japanese normality. The store itself was huge (I'm guessing that a US Wal-Mart would be a suitable comparison) and we bought some drinks and snacks before heading upstairs in search of toys...I bought a model kit of a Bozuku-style Celica (stretched tyres, huge negative camber, tube train 'dangler', the full works) for under a tenner for myself and David and I brought a few pressies for folks back home before we hailed another cab for the journey back to Ginza for a spot of reading and a meal over the road at the popular Japanese version of the US restaurant chain 'Dennys' which was well priced and offered an interesting selection of American-inspired food, but with a definite Japanese twist...including Denny's chopsticks for the locals! Another great day, and Hot Old's was just around the corner.
Tune in next time for Bullet trains, awesome car shows and service station shenanigans. In the meantime enjoy a few more of Day 2's pics:
Chevy Astro and bling-rimmed Caprice/Impala, Bay window, Scooby, Alfa, BMW, Mercedes, Skyline...just another day in the Autobacs car park.
It's not retro...but I want it. Bad.
Taken from the upper level of the car park. Cool cars are coming and going all the time, did you spot the Volvo in the bottom right? There are three car park attendants - one on the way in, one at the exit and one to point at the slope for the multi-storey section just in case the drivers can't see the clear signs or well-marked spaces...totally unnecessary and totally Japanese. ;D
T25, 911, Pao. The 911 was fully roll-caged, had sorted suspension and sounded spot on as it left.
Pt. 3...coming (relatively) soon:
Do you know who took this picture? Me. ;D ;D ;D ;D
to be continued....
A Weekend In Japan - Pt.2
Destination Hotwire
Thanks to Dom's tips on Tokyo transport HotWire and I were more than ready to brave the underground system on Saturday morning, a short stroll later (in the rain - David was the only person in Japan without an umbrella, even the cyclists have them up while they're riding!) and we were at Ginza station. The Tokyo tube map is designed along similar lines to the familiar London version, an icon in itself, and as a result, simple to use assuming there is one available with English names for the stations. Each station name has a number on it representing the cost of the trip from your current position to the relevant station on the map. Our journey was 160Yen (approximately 80p) - the money goes in the machine, the buttons light up related to the amount you put in and you press the one you need - simple.
An unusually empty tube...note the large amount of Bosozuku-style 'danglers' that we resisted stealing.
We went a couple of stops before changing lines and then it was a few stops on the overground and we were in Koenji - our mission was to find the Hotwire shop: purveyors of US custom apparel, parts and collectibles, most importantly the Hotwire T-shirt that David had spotted on their website before we left. Armed with a printout of their simplified online map we amazed ourselves by actually finding it. Nice.
The view from the platform of Koenji station, Koenji seemed to be a inner city suburb - it's London equivalent would be Lewisham, but without the tension.
The Hotwire shop, an Aladdin's cave of Hot Wheels and Jada cars and some super cool shirts! It's owner's appeared to live in the two or three stories above the shop. A very cool set up.
Where next?
Pleased with our success and now in possesion of the T-shirt in question and a few Hot Old's Meet (Stop: Grammar time: the apostrophe wasn't added by me, but it's on the poster, so it stays, OK?) posters we found our way back, trying our luck with a slightly different route which only added about ten minutes to our journey (sorry David! ). On the weekends the main streets of Ginza are closed to traffic so we walked down the middle of the road on the way back to hotel to decide on our plans for the rest of the day.
Halfords!
Prior to our trip HotWire and I had endeavoured to make a few contacts in Japan to help our trip go smoothly and at the last minute we'd found Takayuki of www.double-clutch.net who'd suggested that the automotive book store situated above the Autobacs store in Tokyo bay would be a good place to visit. We couldn't find a tube or train stop nearby despite our previously printed maps, but as we knew we weren't too far away we thought we'd jump in a cab (a CROWN, naturally...complete with lace seat-covers). Imagine the scene, it's a five star hotel and we hand the guy manning the concierge desk a folded up A4 piece of paper that we've carried 5000 miles and when he looks at it he finds a map to the local equivalent of Halfords! Now imagine the look on the smartly dressed (immaculate suit and tie at all times is the norm for Tokyo taxi drivers) when the concierge handed him the same scrap! ;D 1600Yen (about 8 quid) later and we're in the car park of the out-of-town motoring superstore that is SUPER AUTOBACS!
Exciting car life city indeed...check the machinery in the car park! Yes that is a Skyline estate...the 'Stagea'
This is my kind of tourism, you can keep your temples and sushi, I'm off to Autobacs ...the car park was like a car show (copyright Will Smith ) - yanks, people carriers, classics, modern J-performance favourites and a smattering of old 'Dubs were scattered around the car park and all deserved the closer inspection which we gave them.
To enter the shop you go up an escalator and then into doors just like any other shop in any other retail park in any other place in the world...but once inside you were surrounded by parts and accessories that makes even the biggest Halfords Superstore look like the motoring section in the corner of your local 24hr petrol garage. Rows of air fresheners and seat covers, racks of alloy wheels and a 'proper' selection of performance parts ranging from exhausts and coil-over kits to racing overalls, shoes and helmets. I bought a set of tacky Tokyo-taxi-spec seat covers (at a show near you this summer! ) and David couldn't resist a smiley air freshener to take home.
This isn't even close to the amount of rims they had on display...barely any retro stuff, but what a selection!
Magazine heaven
As exciting as this all this was, Takayuki had recommended this particular Autobacs because of the book (magazine) store upstairs. I felt right at home here, being a car magazine obsessive it was fantastic to see the selection on offer. We stood amazed for a while and then found our way to the classic section. Enjoy Retro Car, Nostalgic Hero - all the best titles were right there, including a few back issues and 'specials' too. David bought a selection (some of which have already found new homes in the UK ) including a 'Sunny Special' containing pages and pages of Solex'd Sunnys (Sunnies?) and Sunny trucks for inspiration. I was amazed to find a magazine for just about every model of modern domestic car there too - HiAce, Previa, Corolla all were catered for, I brought a HiAce mag home with me. In the imported section even the latest issue of Classic & Sportscar was there alongside MiniWorld at an equivalent of £10 each.
Kids getting bored while Daddy looks at the magazines? No problem at Autobacs...just sit little Haruaki in front of the hundreds of drift DVDs on offer. I didn't spot that Goodwood poster until I got home.
Kid. Candy store.
After Autobacs we grabbed a pancake from the back of the diddy-van mounted vendor (tasty!) and then headed for the supermarket just down the road for some provisions and another taste of Japanese normality. The store itself was huge (I'm guessing that a US Wal-Mart would be a suitable comparison) and we bought some drinks and snacks before heading upstairs in search of toys...I bought a model kit of a Bozuku-style Celica (stretched tyres, huge negative camber, tube train 'dangler', the full works) for under a tenner for myself and David and I brought a few pressies for folks back home before we hailed another cab for the journey back to Ginza for a spot of reading and a meal over the road at the popular Japanese version of the US restaurant chain 'Dennys' which was well priced and offered an interesting selection of American-inspired food, but with a definite Japanese twist...including Denny's chopsticks for the locals! Another great day, and Hot Old's was just around the corner.
Tune in next time for Bullet trains, awesome car shows and service station shenanigans. In the meantime enjoy a few more of Day 2's pics:
Chevy Astro and bling-rimmed Caprice/Impala, Bay window, Scooby, Alfa, BMW, Mercedes, Skyline...just another day in the Autobacs car park.
It's not retro...but I want it. Bad.
Taken from the upper level of the car park. Cool cars are coming and going all the time, did you spot the Volvo in the bottom right? There are three car park attendants - one on the way in, one at the exit and one to point at the slope for the multi-storey section just in case the drivers can't see the clear signs or well-marked spaces...totally unnecessary and totally Japanese. ;D
T25, 911, Pao. The 911 was fully roll-caged, had sorted suspension and sounded spot on as it left.
Pt. 3...coming (relatively) soon:
Do you know who took this picture? Me. ;D ;D ;D ;D
to be continued....