My Trip to Japan! - 56K Dont Bother

[tommymoose]

Well it’s a rainy Saturday morning, and now is a good time for me to stop being lazy and make the thread about my trip to Japan. So here goes – I took a trip to Japan from May 17-30 with my friend (who is also nuts about cars and owns a WRX). Throughout the whole thing we spent 10 of the days in Tokyo and 3 in Osaka. The trip was great, I managed to check out a ton of car shops and tuners, meet a bunch of cool people at the hostel we stayed at, enjoy quite a few Asahis’, party it up in Roppongi and live off of food from 7-11. To start it off, I’m the one with the longish brown hair and my friend (Cooper) is the one with the black/dark hair. Here goes pics – Day 1 and 2 We arrive at Narita International! My first encounter with the huge number of awesome vending machines – Found this wandering around near our hostel – I wanted to take some of the posters hanging in the dealership home! Japanese girl pose! EVERYTHING has VOLKS in Japan – JDM MCDIZZLE! I forfeited and ate at the Golden Arches a few times during the trip. I just cant stand seafood. Spotted this in the first couple hours – Made it to Spoon Sports in Ogikubo and met Ichishima-san. He was a busy guy, I think they had just gotten in there first big shipment of engine dampers. He let us freely look around the facility and take pictures. Then he came up in a rush and told us to run down stairs and jump in the van, we were going to TypeOne! TypeOne seemed to be the main center for the bigger work, while Spoon was more of a machine shop/engine assembly place. TypeOne also served as the place to look and buy all the parts. Such nice cars and parts! Its got a K20 now… with USDM Hasport mounts! :-O Honda One Make Integra Championship Car – Some crazy thing in Asakusa, right near where we stayed – The Asahi building was a few blocks from our hostel! I’m going to post the other days/pics in another post.

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[machgo5go]

Typical Yankee!
Nice pictures and experiences.
Save up your frequent flyer miles now for another trip.

[Dat1BVtecN]

your freakin lucky, looked like a great and fun trip

[tommymoose]

Day 3

Made it to the Tachikawa Subaru Dealership… this place is masssssive



Number 136 of 600 Subaru STi S204’s was there –



Spotted some nice cars on the long walk there from the train –






Back to the Dealership… My friend got to testdrive a 2006 JDM STi



Subaru parts department > ******



I gotta say, Subaru represented more than any other car manufacturer in Japan. I saw more modded Imprezas, Legacys and Forrester (all in STi form) than any other car.

Awesome GT4 Sim game… if you beat 1:03 at Tsukuba, you won a free Suby T-shirt…. We both walked out with Suby T-Shirts




Then off to an awesome night/morning (you get home at around 6AM because the trains stop running at midnight) in Roppongi –



Rest of Day 3 and Day 4 and 5 we did no car stuff because we got distracted by these super-cool gals we met

Go easy on me, this is after 3 nights in a row of getting less than 3 hours of sleep. Staying out til 7AM and waking up at 11AM aint eaasayyy


Coop and his French friend –



Well, the 3-day Hiatus from car stuff because of the girls ended abruptly as we had a Shinkansen (200mph bullet train) to Osaka that we needed to catch. Osaka pics coming soon!

[capzuk]

Cool pics Would love to take a trip like that The girls are hot aswell

[theStig]

"Dom! They've got spoon motors!"

[Desired_Speeds]

Originally Posted by theStig

"Dom! They've got spoon motors!"

lol, I want 3 spoon motor!

you guys are got really lucky going to Japan this time, even got to go to Type one and was driven there by Ichishima-san

[tommymoose]

Originally Posted by Desired_Speeds

you guys are got really lucky going to Japan this time, even got to go to Type one and was driven there by Ichishima-san

Yeah, Im psyched about how it turned out. I did spend a ton of time planning it all out, figureing how to get where and whatnot. Spoon is just the tip of the iceberg though... you'll see

:COMING SOON - SignalAuto and TopSecret :

[db8sirg]

looks like you guys had a lots of fun.

[KapoleiINTEGRA]

that looks like a lot of fun, im subscribing

[d.n.d.]

more pics! more more more! plz?

this is like a little taste of heaven for me. seriously.

[Chris93Si]

Great pics, I must get to Japan sometime

[Ross]

Amazing. I always like seeing these little pilgrimages people make to JDM land. Mr. Ichisima must get a little kick out of all the kids coming to pay homage to his shop, thanks mostly to an internet discussion forum. Globalization at its finest.

[LudeEFv2.4]

I think you just planned my next vacation for me. Looks like you guys had a great time.

[tommymoose]

Originally Posted by LudeEFv2.4

I think you just planned my next vacation for me. Looks like you guys had a great time.

I have a packet that I put together for the trip with maps, pictures and directions to all the places we visited (and a bunch we didn't) that I think I'd be willing to give to people. It was enough to get 2 kids from America, with no Japanese language skills, no connections, and no car to some of the sickest tuning shops around My freind had some idea about selling them to a magazine or something for an article, but if that doesnt happen, free Japan Itineraries for everone!

[floatfisher]

nice picks bro....looks like you guys had a blast. There is nothing better than cars and pussy

[743power]

looks awesome. A trip to Japan has been on the top of my "want" list for some years now, I guess I have been intimidated by it. The k20 spoon ek is siiiccckkk. Funny to see them turning to hasport for mounts. The french girls look like supermodels, how did you meet them?

Would you mind sharing the cost of the trip, or maybe just a ballpark price? PM would be fine.

Can't wait to see the rest

[Tweakmeister]

Originally Posted by 743power

The french girls look like supermodels, how did you meet them?

Can't wait to see the rest

You're just used to living in America. Most women outside the US are hot

Sweet pics!

[tommymoose]

Originally Posted by 743power

looks awesome. A trip to Japan has been on the top of my "want" list for some years now, I guess I have been intimidated by it. The k20 spoon ek is siiiccckkk. Funny to see them turning to hasport for mounts. The french girls look like supermodels, how did you meet them?

Would you mind sharing the cost of the trip, or maybe just a ballpark price? PM would be fine.

Can't wait to see the rest

The one girl I'm with (first pic) is from Arizona, the one my freind is with is the one from France. Yep, both very good looking girls They were staying at the hostel we stayed at and we met them at the neighborhood bar. The bar is owned by the hostel, and they give you one free drink a night, so almost everyone interested in going out will hit the bar up beforehand. The one I'm with is actually coming to visit tomorrow She works partime at an airport so she gets free flights

The trip was not very expensive at all. Round trip tickets from JFK in New York, including fees, came out to around $650. We stayed at hostels the whole time which were around $18 per night. There not nearly as luxurious as hotels, but I liked them much better. Meeting everyone at them is part of the experience. Trains run you about $15 a day if you're travelling far like we did. I lived off about $10 a day for food... godbless 7-11 ramen bowls So fixed costs are around $1250 for a 12 night trip.

Once you start spending money getting into clubs in Roppongi, and getting 1200 Yen drinks though, the costs go way up ... and of course car parts....

Well I highly recommend the trip. The hostel I stayed at in Tokyo (which as great) was Khaosan Tokyo Asakusa Annex in case anyone is interested in making the trip

[tommymoose]

Woops, forgot, Day 4 we managed to get some pics –

Gangster-ass R34 Skyline GTR like whatttt –




Some big festival in Asakusa was going on. I’ll probably care what it was about in 15 years –




The parking lot at SuperAutobacs at Tokyo Bay was better than the store –










Need Seats?





JDM Gas Station y0!




Cost 6G’s or something obscene –




Tokyo Bay at Night –

[JjuuN R]

wow, awsome stuff Tommy. you gonna start doing the long distance relationship thing with your new girl!? she could probably come see you a couple times a week

very cool pictures

[spock_rocker]

as envious as i am of your trip.. posing in front of popular japanese places just makes me laugh!

[tommymoose]

Originally Posted by spock_rocker

as envious as i am of your trip.. posing in front of popular japanese places just makes me laugh!

If I all I wanted was pictures of the places I'd go to GOOGLE Images, not Japan

[Chris F]

HASport mounts.. nice! USA represent!

Sounds like a fun trip.

[Mr.Wrench]

Nice pics I love Japan was out twice even got a Spoon work suit