27 replies to this topic

[Sciclone]

Well not just now... we flew back in to Brisbane this morning.

We spent the week before last (15-21st) at Shiga Kogen. While the forecast looked bleak when we got there (no new snow and rain the day before), it turned into an awesome time.

Monday we went out and were super-psyched like you always are when its your first day back out. We hired a couple of K2 Illusions from the rental place at the Olympic hotel -Ichinose, and while being a 155cm (I'm only 173cm, so I find I usually ride around a 152) it was actually quite good. The conditions were not so nice though, with there being a crust on the surface of the snow, but it got better during the day. I was surprised at how little my brother and I were falling over. We're not what you'd call pros but with only a year between innings this time, we jumped straight back on.

Monday night saw a good dumping of snow, with about 30cm showing on the roof across from our room at the Sunroute Ichinose. This made Tuesday awesome!!!

Snowboarding fresh powder has its own challenges, and it tires you out quicker if you have to walk... fortunately with all lifts open, we traversed from Ichinose family to Takamagahara to Higashidate without much effort. The extra length of the hire board came in handy with the powder, making it easier to float.

Wednesday was a right off, unfortunately, with the family going to see the monkeys in the Jigokudani National park. These things are awesome, and well worth the walk. The buses make it fairly easy to get to, and if you aren't sure which stop or bus to change to, the drivers will usually tell you in broken english. Wednesday night saw more powder falling, with the roof across as well as the cars showing nearly a foot of snow.

Thursday was a ball. With that much new powder, you didn't care about falling. There was one problem which saw the shut down of the quad lift on the right side of Ichinose Family. This meant traversing through the no-man's land in between Ichinose family and Takamagahara, which is inhibited by the most evil of villains, ski schoolers. They hunt in packs, and they seemed to follow us everywhere that day, because nary a run went by when we didn't have to skirt around them.

I lost my brother for about 1 1/2 hrs, so that forced me to have a breather (I don't like snowboarding solo, if you or the other person gets hurt, how will you know?). When we eventually found each other again, we headed toward the back side of Higashitate, and down Hoppo-Bundaira. Awesome run that one with nice wide areas, so the chances of having to stop when your are flying down are less. We also went up the side of Giant, and that thing is nuts. We did a few runs on the other side of the hill, before we got to Hasuike and got the gondola/ropeway thingy back across to Takamagahara. We hadn't eaten since breakfast and were startin to make mistakes/fall over, but we were having such an awesome time that we stayed out til the lifts stopped running around 4.40ish.

Friday started off as a let down. The gale force wind the previous night had blown off all the lovely soft powder, and all that was left was hard packed stuff that slowed you down and that you couldn't turn in. It was still horrible and windy, with a lot of lifts being closed, and when it started raining, it looked like that would be the end to our ski trip. We went back to the hotel and after having a shower and a beer, we spent about an hour relaxing in our room, before we noticed some lovely white stuff falling!! We waited for there to be a centimetre or so on the roof across, before we strapped up and headed out again. Fortunately the rain had actually soften things up, and the wind had dropped so most lifts were now running.

We were glad we went back out, because after getting across to Takamagahara, we caught the bus across to Hasuike (to get some money out) then found a back entrance to Giant behind a hotel. We spent the afternoon absolutely shredding. It was awesome. Coming down Hoppo-Bundaira run my brother and I were paralleling each other, and doing it at a great rate of knots. Then we went to turn before I my board hit a few lumps and sent my beanie and goggles flying... Didn't hurt too badly, but had a little headache.

We headed across to Takamagahara via Nishidate, and did some smaller runs there before heading back to Ichinose family. We again kept going til the lifts stopped running. We were now suitably wrecked, so took our boards back to the rental shop and headed for the hotel, a little despondent that it would be our last time out.

We woke up on Saturday to see about 40cms of new powder on the roof across from us... BUMMER... if we hadn't been getting the bus back to Nagano, my brother and I would probably have loved to head out again (I know it would have meant hiring the boards for the morning as well as another lift pass, but it would have been awesome fun.

I have to say, maybe its just where we were staying at Ichinose, but I feel that the people at Furano are more friendly than in Shiga Kogen. I think it could be because we were staying at a hotel that seems to attract more westerners, but the cafe staff weren't as nice.

Hotel Opinions for others:
While I don't have other hotels to go off, the accomodation at the Hotel Sunroute - Ichinose is sufficient.

The manager is friendly, but if you do get him to give you a lift to the bus station, then be warned that he should probably own a WRX/LanEvo instead of a Spacia, because this old dude is a rally driver..

If possible, bring your cornflakes. I love good food, but the food (breakfast or dinner) from the Cafe/Restaurant at the Sunroute is on par with the Station Resort, Jindabyne... The food quality isn't that good and neither is the range.

Vending Machines are only on the lobby floor (level 3) and there is no hot coffee cans in the machines. The gift shop has the usually range of local jams etc, and has some good little buys if you like china/pottery.

The location of the hotel is not the best, with it being second from the end of hotels in Ichinose. This means a hike up the hill to the lifts every morning. (Either Diamond or Family). This means that it's also uphill to any of the decent restaurants, so it can't be hard getting motivated to go out for dinner, if its windy and you are tired.

Tips/Opinions for SK.

While a truly hard-core skier/snowboarder wouldn't find much challenge at SK, if you ski/snowboard for fun, then its well worth it. The range of areas allow you to get practice in various conditions. My brother and I like technical courses with turns and such, and found that a lot of the green runs offered this, where quite a few of the black runs where straight down the mountain affairs. There is a green run from the top of Takamagahara down the back to the Higashitate gondola that has quite a few hairpins and goes back underneath itself, just before the gondola, which is quite fun at speed (provided there aren't masses of ski schoolers around).

What this place really needs is a 7-11/AMPM/Sunkus etc, as the Yamazaki conbini doesn't really have the range or a proper convenience store.

Food:
Go to the "Ethic Beer House". Its the Nepalese curry place just down the way from the right side of Ichinose family. (Hotel Japan Shiga). For 2500Y for 2 person banquet set, you can mung out on tandoori and curry til your are stuffed to the gills. The home made naan bread is massive, and for this price you get 2 big quarters of tandoori chicken, 2 chicken tikka, 2 sheh kebabs, 2 curries and 2 naan bread. If you are still hungry after eating this, then you are an inhuman eating machine. (We went here twice)

Takamagahara hotel has a decent pizza place if you are looking for something to fuel you up for the rest of the afternoon. Its just over the road from the main lift area. Also, try the Asahi prime blue in the machine. Its hard to find anywhere else, and is a good beer.

If you are off to see the monkeys, there is also a restaurant (Crystal Terrace) on the side of the Shiga Kogen Roman museum. They do a really good wood fired pizza, if you get hungry after walking through the forest.

There is also a bar in the Chalet Shiga, that boasts hosting the Austrian Olympic team. This place offers the four local beers (Porter, Pale Ale, Indian Pale Ale, and DPA) in a taster set. Its only 800Y for 4 pots/half pints of beere, so it can be a cheap drink. Also the girl working in the bar is cute.

So there you have it. We had an awesome trip (hell, any trip to Japan for snow is awesome, when you live in a stinking hot country), but if I do it again, I will probably stay somewhere else besides the Sunroute, simply for the better location. I would also span it over a period longer than 4 slope days, as we didn't get to try anywhere near all the runs.

[Hotaka Scott]

Thanks for sharing.

Picts??

[stemik]

Good information there. Going to Ichinose this weekend. Will try one of those pizzas.

[thursday]

wow, a lot of good stuff. PICS????

[Sciclone]

I'll set up a folder or something somewhere... We had 3 cameras on us, so we took a few between us. My brother got about 200 shots of the monkeys alone. Also a few nice sunset over the mountains pics, but that was only on my little point and shoot, so it won't be the best quality.

[SJ-Pete]

Interesting report Sciclone, glad you enjoyed it up there.

Quote:

I'll set up a folder or something somewhere

Here's a good place:

http://www.snowjapan.com/e/insider/photo_gallery.php

[Sciclone]

Try this on for size... I haven't uploaded that many yet, but I'll do more tomorrow (I don't go back to work til Wednesday)

http://www.snowjapan.com/e/insider/photo_section.php?userid=Sciclone&userGallery=250

[Hotaka Scott]

Much better now.

Looking forward to tomorrow's edition.

[Sciclone]

Ok, all my pictures should be in there now... well not all of them.. Just the ones that I thought people would be interested in. I have more pictures of the monkey, terrain etc, but not all turned out that well. Then again, its only a little Canon point n shoot, not a 5D...

[@tokyo]

Good stuff Sciclone

[TubbyBeaverinho]

Nice TR

Isn't the Asahi Blue a Happo Shu?

[Sciclone]

Thanks peeps. I like writing so trip reports aren't a problem. I didn't put in the Tokyo part of our trip though as I don't think that's of interest to most people here.

[2pints,mate]

Of interest!

[Sciclone]

If its of enough interest to people, I'll put it up.... I've already blogged it, so remembering stuff wont be hard.

[thursday]

Yes. Do it.

[hothead]

Good report cheers!

[Sciclone]

Fine...

Saturday 21st.

After clearing the sleep from our eyes, we woke up to find about 45-50cm of fresh powder sitting on the roof across from us (After being only 1cm at 1.30 the afternoon before). Unfortunately it was also the day we were to head back for a week of sightseeing in Tokyo. We started packing our stuff, before heading downstairs for a light breakfast. The cafeteria was abuzz, as the reports of fresh pow circled. It seemed that there was a few others in the same situation as us though, so they knew the pain of leaving on a good day. Others were just plain lucky, as after the week in SK, they were heading to either Nozawa O or Hakuba.

We finished breakfast and headed back upstairs to finish packing. Why is it you can fit everything in when you leave your home country, but it seems to expand in volume at the snow? We got a vacuum from the lobby to suck out as much air from the vacuum bags as possible, and even then, stuffing all the coats, pants and boots in was hard going. We finally completed it, and after checking out, they gave us a little gift from the gift box... either a paper crane, or a badge pin of an okoje (Stoat).

The manager was also running people back and forth to the bus stop at the top of Ichinose in he rally-bred Spacia. This saved us time, as it took 15 mins to drag the bags down hill, it would have been killer going the other way. We boarded the bus after about 20 mins waiting, and made the descent through Yudanaka, Nakano, Apple City and finally on to Nagano.

After the previous Sundays mess rushing for trains and buses (and getting the correct tickets), we decided to take it easy and not rush for any trains that were leaving in 10mins. We didn't have to worry though, as after getting the tickets from the desk (rather than the confusing machines) we had about 15mins to get down one level and on to the waiting shinkansen.

Maybe it was because it was going downhill, but this time it felt faster, with there not as much time between Nagano and Ueda as the previous journey. We decided to do as the romans and have a snooze, with the wake up being from a screaming kid whose ears were popping.

After getting to the station, our next challenge was to find our hotel (Center Hotel, Nihombashi). I knew it was on one of the streets that came from the side of the station (I GoogleEarthed it a few times before we left), but couldn't remember which one. I asked one of the bus attendants, who gave me directions to Otemachi subway... Anyhow after deciding to just walk down Yaesu-dori, which I thought was the correct street, we found a map that actually had the hotel listed on it. This did a bit to salve my mum and sister, as they aren't as free flowing as I am, and quickly get whingy/naggy when I don't know the specifics (They could have looked it up and wrote down the directions themselves....). They still whinged when we had to walk a few blocks away from the map (I think they fear getting lost or something), but I had spotted the hotel sign, and after taking the luggage I was carrying into the lobby, came back to get them.

We were all hungry, with my mum and brother having not eaten since the light breakfast at the snow hotel, so after checking in and taking our luggage to our rooms, we headed downstairs to the restaurant next to the hotel.

Our next challenge was understanding the menu... I can read katakana and hiragana, and a few kanji, but this thing was all in kanji, and pictures on the menu were too small to be descriptive... We decided to just point at a picture and ask the guy what it was. He actually spoke ok english (we could understand him easy enough, but he was nervous about speaking), and after telling us it was chicken, we ordered it with a pint to wash down our thirst (lugging bags up and down stairs and overpasses gets a sweat up).

We also ventured up the street to Lawson Station (a conbini we hadn't seen in Tokyo last time), and found they had a fairly decent beer and chu-hi range, as well as decent ice creams. I got a fudge brownie one, and a Kirin Zero to try. The ice cream was excellent, but the zero carbs beer = zero taste and strength (it was only about 3%). Doesn't matter as there were other things to try during the week. My brother tried the Asahi ginger beer, which tasted like beer with ginger added later. Wasn't terrible, but didn't really feel the need to get it again.

After wondering back to the hotel, I plugged in my laptop, we watched a few shows that we couldn't understand and went to bed.

Sunday was a bit of a moot day. We had a late start, and didn't really do anything worth noting, besides going over a friend's unit for dinner. Did find out though, that he only pays 1600Y for a chiropractor, which over here would cost nearly $100.

Monday (23rd) we woke up to the piter-pater of rain. This would definately spoil our plans to go to the zoo, so after heading to Mos Burger for a chilli burger breakfast, we decided to go to Akihabara instead. Maybe its just me, but both times I've been to Akihabara, I've been both over and under-whelmed. You are overwhelmed by the amount of shops, and the range of stuff they have, but also underwhelmed, because the stuff that you can get the same isn't much difference in price. I would have liked to find a 2nd hand phone shop, but that didn't happen, so after taking my mum and sister to the Sega arcade to play some claw/UFO games, we were all a bit bored, so decided to check out Shinjuku.

Talk about a labyrinth! After getting off at the maranouchi line station, and after following some corridors, we found some more corridors, then some more. After all this walking my sister (who has only been recently diagnosed with Type1 diabetes) was feeling pretty low in sugar, so we surfaced and headed back towards Keio department store. We were only looking for somewhere cheap to eat, but the lady directed us to the 8th Floor. What we found were overpriced restaurants (the food is cheaper at Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara), so we chose the cheapest place that had food that we wanted, and ate. We found out why they were the cheapest (although still being expensive). The food quality was rubbish, with my brother saying the unagi tasted like mercury.

We ate up and went downstairs. After pottering around the 7th floor (Mum saw something she wanted to look at) we headed downstairs. What we should have done was gone to the B1 and B2 floors, because the food was much cheaper and they had microwaves so you could heat it up!

We got out of Keio (which was another mission in itself), but we must have been on the wrong side of the station because we couldn't see anything interesting to look at. My sister wanted to go to Harajuku, while my brother and I wanted to check out Uniqlo at Shibuya, so we hopped on the metro F line, but accidently got on an express train, which took us to Shibuya. We sort of remembered the way to Uniqlo (its near the Parco building) so we headed there, but after not really seeing much we fancied, headed up the road. Under the Denny's nearby, there is an awesome boot shop. Always had a thing for chicks in knee high/gogo boots, so seeing some of these boots, knee high with spikes and flames and platforms, and envisioning chicks in them, was a nice time.

We started walking up the road and kept on walking past Shibuya AX and through some backstreets, til eventually we saw Yoyogi stadium. We had made it to Harajuku anyway, so we went and checked out UT. Shirts in a can has to be one of the greatest ideas ever, however, for any of the designs that I wanted, I couldn't find them in a large. My brother who is built like a whippet/greyhound, found the goings a bit easier and ended up stocking up on more T-shirts that we never get in Oz. We started to head for Takeshita-dori, but as it was getting dark and my mum hadn't been wearing comfortable boots, she just wanted to head back to the hotel and get off her feet. My sister was forlorn, so we promised her we'd be back to Harajuku another day for more clothes shopping.

[muikabochi]

Thanks for sharing that Sciclone.

[Jynxx]

Great travel report! Impressed you can read some Japanese.
WoW, a full day with lots of walking.

[Sciclone]

Tuesday 24th

Tuesday had a cold wind blowing, but at least it wasn't raining, so after a quick breakfast, we headed to Ueno Zoo.

After walking through the southern end of Ueno Park, with its bums, temple and cats, we found the entrance to the zoo. At 600Y, its probably the cheapest way to spend eleventy billion hours.

After going through the gates we had a few was to go, and after the labyrinthian effort in Shinjuku the day before, we decided to just stick to the right and follow it around. First up there are some pheasants and stuff, and although not quite as cool as the birds of prey, some of the colours and characteristics of these birds are awesome. It was at this time that my camera batteries decided to die. But at least my brother had his SLR and had lent our sister his point n shoot.

Next we had an otter tank and we had arrived just at feeding time. Unfortunately, the tank was crowded with other visitors, so we looked at some of the birds of prey until they cleared off. The otters are fairly acrobatic, with one swimming through the tunnel to the box in the front, grabbing three fish in its mouth and swimming back through the tunnel to the others (he shared the fish).

In the birds of prey area, they had some cool hawks and eagles and owls, but not my favourite, the peregrine falcon. Anything that dive bombs prey at terminal velocity is pretty cool in my books, though some owls have super sight.

Next we saw gibbons, lions, tigers and lowland gorillas (these things are massive) before we stopped for a snack. We then looked at the penguins, sea lions, polar bears, Hokkaido black bears, Malaysian sun bears, before stopping for lunch. After having a bite to eat, we ventured further (does this ever end) to the macaques, colobus monkeys, bison, prairie dogs, capybaras, tapirs, llamas.... We come to the end... of the East section! There was still more to go!

After crossing the foot bridge (too cheap to take the monorail), we found the childrens zoo area, which has petting areas for rabbits, hamsters, chicks, mice, then outside, they can feed the goats, sheep chickens and pigs. Good option for little kids, but make sure you come at the right time though because its only on at 1.30 (I think... could be later/earlier. Check the guide when you go.

We also saw plenty of other cool animals (too many to continue listing), so I'd wholeheartedly recommend it. Be warned though, all up it took us about 7 hrs to get through it all, so plan a full day for it.

We headed back to the Yaesu Mall, as my brother had had a hankering for gyouza since we got to Japan, and in the mall there was a place that had one medals for theirs. If you are ever over the Nihombashi side of things, check out the Gyouza place in the east end of the mall (Just go down the stairs from Yaesu-dori). Probably the best gyouza I've had... it even beat the gyouza we had the first night we came to Japan last year. If you have the money, get the 380Y Bronze medal pork gyouza, 390Y Silver medal pork and beef gyouza or the Gold medal winning gyouza at a bit extra per plate... very nice stuff.

Wednesday 25th.

Its a conspiracy I tells ya. We checked the Up Garage website to get directions, and its a good thing we did. Most of the stores around the Tokyo and in nearby suburbs of Chiba, Yokahama and Saitama are all closed for stocktake.

We decided to go to the Nissan Gallery in Ginza, just my brother and me, followed by a walk to Shinonome to the Super Autobacs. No sooner than we get out of Ginza line A5 exit, that we see a sign on the Nissan Gallery.. "Closed 25/2 for renovations". Dagnammit!!! Well fortunately we'd checked the Super Autobacs site as well and they didn't mention any stocktakes or refurbishments today, so we started walking. Maps can be decieving, as we must have walked at least 5km before we made it there. Past LaLa Port and some of the bayside industrial, commercial and residential areas, past Justco and a giant pool hall/indoor batting centre, til we finally saw the signs behind the bus depot and infront of the Wangan.

For an ex-mechanic and car nut like myself, and my brother (still a car nut, by slightly less so), this place was fierce. Even before we got inside, the car park was filled with various done up exotics (well they are exotic because we don't get them in Australia). There was also an MX5/Roadster/Miata with a front end conversion to look like a TVR Ceberus. Upon walking upstairs and inside, I was blown away by it. Sometimes the outside of a building doesn't tell the whole story. At Super Autobacs - Shinonome, the store area is upstairs while downstairs has about 30 immaculately clean mechanics bays.. Must have some good apprentices .. Upstairs though, the floor is packed with rows upon rows of things. After a brief look at the car audio (not much interest as I'm over most doof-doof, and the cd players and navi's aren't any good to me in Oz), we came to the performance parts... Walls lined with HKS exhausts for the new GTR, brake pads and disc/caliper kits from Endless, air filters from Blitz, Trust/GReddy, HKS and Apexi, and various ECU's, boost controllers, racing helmets/suits/boots, racing wheel bosses.. This place was heaven a dream. It is just as well that I don't live here, or I'd be permanently broke buying stuff for my car/s (I would live further out and have a garage...) We kept walking through and found stuff for euro tuning, race seats upon race seats, Wheels from Works, Rays and other high end brands, as well rows of stuff for vans/people movers, interior parts, cleaning goods and more. To look around it took us 1.5hrs before we'd had enough window shopping.

Fortunately, we were next door to the bus depot, as neither me or my brother felt like walking all the way back to Nihombashi. After waiting about 20mins for the correct bus, it was 200Y and we were on our way. Although it took about 45 mins, we again got to see some places that most tourists don't get to see.

When we arrived back at Yaesu, we headed downstairs to the mall, and went to the sushi place. This also was the first time we had sushi since arriving, and while not the best I've ever had, was fresh and good quality, and not having eaten since breakfast and it being 4.30, we were starving.

Not much else to report, as we ate a light dinner before heading to bed earlyish.

Thursday 26th.

Harajuku today. Having promised my sister we'd go clothes shopping in Harajuku, we did that. I had gotten up early and gone to the coin laundry around the corner. Wearing boardshorts in Tokyo in winter at 6am, I got some funny looks... The rest had gotten up early and this being Tokyo/Japan, when we arrived at Meiji-Jingumae at 9.20, nothing was open yet. After walking down towards Oriental Bazaar (which is closed on Thursdays ) we headed back to a coffee shop. After it went 10 things tended to liven up slightly, so we headed to Kiddy Land to buy presents for my nieces.

Kiddly Land for those of you that don't know is 6 stories of cute. The basement level has Pokemon, some R/C stuff, lego and other things, but the rest of the floors are filled with Hello Kitty, Sanrio characters, Miffy, Snoopy/Peanuts, Studio Ghibli and other series/characters that seemed to be created for the sole purpose of being cute... I tell you after being in there too long, you get a pink overload, and have to go find some fighting robots or something more manly, because following girls around with them going "OOhh that sooo cute" every 5 seconds gets on your nerves. The seem to have less baby stuff than last year as well, as we got presents for my (then) 2 week old niece, but couldn't find anything for a friend thats expecting this month.

After finishing that off, we walked across the overpass near Dior, Chanel and Ralph Lauren. This overpass gives you a good opportunity to get some "down the avenue" shots of Omote-Sando dori, both up to the hills, and the other way looking towards Yoyogi.

We followed the backstreets poking in and out of shops before starting to feel peckish again, so we stopped in at a Cafe. We then made our way up Takeshita-dori. Again for people not in the know, Takeshita-dori seems to have everything thats at the edge of fashion. This is where you find your punk clothing, goth-loli costumes, as well as chicks shoe shops, chicks clothes and accessories shop, and a few guys shops interspersed. Because we had been here last year, my brother and I headed for Jeans Mate, where you can find some Jap only brands, and some shirts with crazy japlish. Being guys, we only needed about 10mins to go through the whole store, find what we want and buy it. Me being a husky built fellow, there was some stuff that would not fit me and other stuff that I'd look like a retard in if I wore back home, so I only got a shirt and long sleeve fleece shirt...

This left us with a problem. Takeshita-dori may only be 200m long at best, with hundreds of little cramped stores crammed together, often with basement levels, it made find mum and Whitney (my sis) a pain. We did a lap up and down, before we retired to the only bench we could find... in front of a lingerie shop . Here we did some people watching, with all manner of pretty girls, school girls, freaks that looked like someone needed to smack some sense into them (I hate facial piercings and streched earlobes, no matter who its on), and just plain try hards that look like they suffer from Loser back home problems... After getting our dose of eye candy for the day, we got up to do another lap before spotting mum and my sis walking out of a shop nearby.

By this time, both mum and Whitney were done, and I was starting to be in pain (my 2yo Etnies had finally started to wear through the innner foot bed), so we headed back towards the metro station to go back to Nihombashi. Funny how 5 hours can go like that, because we got back to Otemachi about 5ish, we had a look at some of the shops in Tokyo train station (we had to get it back to Otemachi, and the corridors from there through Tokyo station to the Yaesu exit side seem to go on forever. We went to the Sushi place in the mall for dinner, and followed that with a crepe or sweets from Daimaru.

Stopping back past the Lawsons Station, we grabbed a couple of beers and headed for the hotel. Funny how walking everywhere when you do a sedintary desk job tires you out...

Friday 27th.

We decided that after the day spent clothes shopping yesterday, Dean and I would do something slightly less emasculating today. After a breakfast at MOS burger, Dean and I made a start again for the Nissan Gallery. This time no signs saying closed, just the magnificent sight of the new GT-R in blood red... like the blood of your opponents as you slaughter them mercilessly.. MWAHAHA... We walked in and started taking pictures, before the ladies lowered the spinning platform it was on and let us sit inside... Oh damn... I love my 32 GT-R and personally like its shape the best, but I'll never pass up the chance to sit in a new beastly car that worth over 5 years pay for me. We had a look around there before walking around the corner to the Gallery Headquarters, where we got to see the new 370Z/Fairlady (very nice, wouldn't pass it up except its an auto), the new Cube as well as Serenas, Cimas, Fuga's and Presidents.... Not a bad way to blow 9800000Y, but for that price I could buy 3 370z's or one GT-R with 2000000Y of mods.

We next got on the metro and headed to Shibuya. Our next destination was Up Garage in Machida, but as I had learnt that it would be a 50min train ride, we grabbed some food from the basement level of Tokyu in Shibuya.

We finally arrived at Minami-Machida, and came to a stop... I'd written down what train to take to get there, but not the directions to the shop!! We had to ask the girl at the Granberry Plaza information desk, who although not having the net, got her superior to send through a short direction thing and we were on our way.

After walking for 5 mins (and my legs starting to ache) we were under the R292? and at the car park. Its a bit hard to miss Up Garages (their a chain) because they have bright yellow signs. We walked into the carpark and seeing a selection of new and old euro and jap cars in various amounts of modification, we were wondering what to expect. If the Super Autobacs is the king of car places, then Up Garage would have to be his mentally deranged brother. At UG, you can find the walls/racks littered with various used performance parts for cars. Coil over suspension and exhausts hung from the walls. Stock turbos and other parts were found in jumble bins. I had to get photos for my car nut mates, but we again spent 1.5hr looking through all the various things. I eventually bought a suspension spanner for my car, but if I had pre-ordered parts from other stores, I'm sure I could have maxed out my credit card in no time flat. Walking out side, we saw the other parts of Up Garage... the tyres and wheels. Rims that car fans pay a mint for in Australia were sitting out in the rain (it was still raining/windy) like common stuff, and tyres much the same.

Before we left UG, we got direction to the near-by Bee-Racing. This workshop does the tuning for the yellow R324 D1 drift car, so we thought while we're in the area.... Before we go there though, I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't imagining things. Next door to Bee-R is Monster Performance running out of a Suzuki dealership. For anyone who has ever play Gran Turismo 2-4, you will know the Pike's Peak Escudo... this is the place/guy that owns and pilots this weapon. Unfortunately it wasn't there on the day, or I would have totally flipped out.

Inside Bee-R though, I took a couple of pics of cars sitting in their garage, as well as in the parking lot. In Australia, most members of the public wouldn't be allowed to just walk in to a mechanics workshop, especially without steel cap boots, but Japanese workshops seem a bit easier going. I got to take pictures of Tezuka's D1 car, as well as see them dyno tuning a Serena. After that I had enough excitement for one day, so we headed back to the station and the long train back to Shibuya.

Dean had tried to contact Mum a few times to see if she wanted to meet up in Harajuku or Shibuya for dinner, but Mum being herself, doesn't hear her mobile (try not having it buried at the bottom of a handbag with crap muffling it might help), so after walking around Shibuya for a while and getting frustrated, we head back to Otemachi. This time though we decided to look around the Maranouchi side of Tokyo Station. We'd been here nearly 6 days and not venture over here. After walking through another endless corridor, we came up at a swanky plaza. I'm sure would have tried charging for the air in this place, because when you have womens accessories for 30000Y, and a pair of mens shoes for 50000Y (what self respecting dude would pay that for a pair of shoes?), it makes you feel like a poor country bumpkin. After stealing some air, we headed around and back over to the Yaesu side, and sat down for some gyouza again, before find mum and my sister. We headed back to the hotel, and mum came back bearing a bottle of Drambuie she had picked up for cheap, so we mellowed out and drank that, before heading back to our room and falling asleep watching music shows.

Saturday 28th.

Wahhhhh. Our last day in Japan. This always makes me sad, and having to go back to a job you hate and a stinking hot climate is never a good motivation.

After everyone else slept in, we headed for Jonathan's for some breakfast. It wasn't too bad for a chain restaurant. I had a BLT with the best bacon I had since arriving here (The only other stuff I had was at the dodgy cafeteria at our hotel in the snow). We checked out of our hotel, while leaving our bags in the foyer, and headed towards Tateshimaya department store, a couple of blocks away. Here we picked up some toys and stuff, but had a look around before heading to Daimaru for a last look at their food court. We headed to the station at after lunch and upon catching a train to Nippori, we caught the Skyliner to Terminal 2.

Not much else to report after this. Couple of hours whittled away shopping/window shopping duty free and uneventful flight with JAL (always good to fly with from my experience) til we arrived back home in Brisbane the next morning.

PS> Sorry if this is too long for everyone. I like writing, and reminiscing over the good times we had in Japan, I seem to just flow freely... with verbal diahorrea.