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Merli's Japan Pics :)


Merli
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Okay guys... I've finally gotten around to putting a few photos of Japan up that I took in January 2003.

First up, This is me disembarking the plane into Narita airport :)

japan001.jpg

My hotel room in Tokyo!!! VERY VERY cramped, and this is quite a large room by Tokyo standards :)

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japan003.jpg

McDonalds is RAMPANT in Japan. They actually call it "Macudonarudo Hanbaagaa" or "Macu" for short.. A McDonalds Value Meal isn't such good "value" in Japan, with a regular Value Meal costing around AUD$9-10

maccas.jpg

Speaking of value, check out this rockmelon!!! 10,000 Yen is about AUD$125.. That's right... AUD$125 for a ROCKMELON!!!

rockmelon.jpg

Fresh fruit in Japan is very expensive and a luxury, and is a common gift when visiting friends at their house. Everytime you goto someone else's house to visit, it's polite to bring a gift :) I wouldn't mind if people brought me takoyaki all the time ;) These are little egg and flour balls with a piece of octopus in the middle that just melt in your mouth... SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD :)

They're the little balls on the left of this photo:

tako.jpg

Everything is really convenient in Japan. Their JR rail system is extremely efficient to cope with the population, and lack of space for everyone to have a car. Another efficiency invention is vending machines. There are vending machines on just about EVERY street, and sometimes there are "Vending Corners" like this:

vending.jpg

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The other mode of transport ;)

bicycles.jpg

With the cost of living so high in Tokyo, it's not surprising to see people homeless and living on the street. I didn't even notice this was someone's "house" until it was pointed out to me!

homeless.jpg

That guy probably wasted away all his money on Pachinko and pr0n ;)NO GAIJIN!!!

nogaijin.jpg

There are many many perverts in Japan, with all the grabbing of women's asses and tits on the train, taking upskirt photos on escalators, and downright weirdos like this guy. He's about 40 years old, and he's wearing a school girl's outfit........ No, I'm not kidding.

pervert.jpg

Here's Akihabara, the electronics suburb. It's really weird... I first went there during the day, and it looked just like any other shopping district you'd see, except a lot more crowded. Then I went back at night to buy some goodies, and the whole place was lit up in neons so much so, that it still looked like it was daytime... I didn't have a proper camera to capture that feel sorry :)

This is what you see when you first exit the JR Station.

akihabara1.jpg

This is the main street of Akihabara... All the shops you can see, all the way to the end are electronics stores. Camera, Computers, Video Games, Pr0n, Gadgets, Spy Camera shops, Military-type stores, etc etc :)

akihabara2.jpg

We went to a very very nice high-end Japanese restaurant, and had to make our own wasabi :) This is what REAL wasabi looks like... You grate it on a board covered in shark scales and it magically turns into this hot wasabi paste :)

wasabi1.jpg

wasabi2.jpg

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I don't want to put them all on this page, because it would take forever for dialup users to load the page :)

But here's the next part... I visited Hiroshima and Kyoto as well, so there are about 8 Mb (out of 1.2 Gb that I took) of pics I've picked to show you guys :)

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Where are the cars???? Well Japan isn't quite the modified car heaven you might think it is :) There aren't Skyline GTRs on every street corner and Drift FD3Ss in every driveway... In fact, I'd venture to say there there were more modified cars in Sydney than there were in Japan. Difference being that the Japanese have taste and don't **** up the cars like our bling bling brigade :)

Here are a couple of cars I saw on the street:

fd3s.jpg

fd3s2.jpg

gtr.jpg

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And some VIP cars :)

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I won't include many photos of Tokyo Autosalon, because I'm sure the others will post a lot of pics from this year. Here are just a few:

tas.jpg

cwest.jpg

nagata.jpg

topsecret01.jpg

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I visited the Top Secret Workshop in Chiba, and took a few pics :)

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topsecret03.jpg

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And I also visited JUN Auto Mechanics in Saitama which was an absolute ADVENTURE to get to... EVERY SINGLE CAR in the JUN workshop is worked off it's tits... It's amazing to see so many cars being worked on to such an extreme in one place!!

jun04.jpg

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This is a brand new R34 GTR shell, being held for a customer in Dubai. They get problems with corrosion in Dubai, so the owner ordered a spare shell just in case :eek:

jun03.jpg

Before the big crash:

jun01.jpg

jun02.jpg

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Thanks Merli.... Look forward to more pics in the future.... As much as I love our beloved Jap Imports there is alot more to Japan than the cars which you have given a nice balance between :)

OH ABSOLUTELY!!! I'm sooooooooo glad you posted that, you've just made my day :) :) :)

I went to Japan armed with a hotel room booking in Chiba for 2 weeks, and a JR Railpass.

After spending 2 days at TAS, 1 day heading out to UpGarage, Crystal and Top Secret and another long, useless day going all the way out to Saitama to visit JUN, I was sooooooooo sick of cars and I wanted to go exploring and see what else this AWESOME country had to offer me.

I loved how everything was so different, I loved how the culture was so pure and unadulterated by America in some aspects, but EXTREMELY influenced in others... I loved the people, everyone was so friendly and no egos... We came across some kids practicing breakdancing in a part of a JR station and we were seperated by a big pane of glass and they saw us taking photos of them and put on a big act for us and hammed it up for the camera...

So after spending those 4 days on car stuff, I bought a backpack, left my friends in Tokyo, and hopped on the Shinkansen and came back a week later. I went to Hiroshima, Kyoto and Nagano... There was still so much more I wanted to see, but didn't have enough time..

It was the first time I had ever gone travelling by myself, and I felt that I had grown soooooooo much in that week and learn't so much about myself... It was so great!

Here are two videos of the breakdancers... In the second one, pay close attention to his nose ;)

http://www.andrewho.com/misc/japan/breakdance1.mpg

http://www.andrewho.com/misc/japan/breakdance2.mpg

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the sign with the pornos on it .. why aren't foreigners allowed??  :D

Hehe... The japanese on the sign says "From this point on, no foreigners allowed"...

The stuff on display there was all mainstream censored porn... All the porn that I saw was all censored... How useless is that?

I think they kept the scat, bondage and bestiality videos upstairs and I guess they don't want foreigners knowing all their sick fetishes :Oops: :Oops: :Oops:

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well 20mins later the pics finished loading :) bloody dial up

but good to see things other than cars woulda thought after watchin some HPI that you would see a GTR on every corner :D

I have heaps more pics to put up, but I don't want to do it on this page... It'll load slow enough for dial-up users as it is :)

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Merli great pics! :D

It's nice to have a fresh perspective on Japan. One of the downsides of being a resident, is that the longer you live here the more you become used to the culture. Things stop standing out, cease to become as different and strange as they once were...

Still, even after five years I've got a lot to learn and I know I'll never become bored of living here! :)

I look forward to the continuation!

Dave

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Merli great pics! :D

It's nice to have a fresh perspective on Japan. One of the downsides of being a resident, is that the longer you live here the more you become used to the culture. Things stop standing out, cease to become as different and strange as they once were...

Still, even after five years I've got a lot to learn and I know I'll never become bored of living here! :)

I look forward to the continuation!

Dave

Thanks Dave :)

5 YEARS!!! Was it you who went to Japan on a holiday and decided to stay there so went job hunting for the rest of his "holiday"?? I wish I had the balls to do that when I was there... I came back to Sydney and instantly started Japanese lessons with the aim of moving there after I got a good working knowledge of japanese going...

That was a year ago, and I think I know more than enough japanese to get around now, but I'm having second thoughts of moving there and just dropping my IT career.

Japan is so enchanting though... I just love it!

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>Merli: Great stuff mate, you've taken some of the heat off me! You too Dave, why not put up more pics?

Great thread.

Oh, and I feel the same way as Dave, 3.5 years for me here in the Kansai area, and as a resident I definately overlook alot of the wierd, wacky and cool stuff... it's just in my face every day!

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Thanks Dave ;)

5 YEARS!!! Was it you who went to Japan on a holiday and decided to stay there so went job hunting for the rest of his "holiday"??

Yep, that was me! :) Lot of the people thought I was crazy for doing that, hell even I though I was crazy. Toughest decision I ever made - I had a good job in England at the time (IT) and had just been promoted. But, I wanted to stay in Japan, and I knew if I went home there'd be too many people trying to talk me out of moving to here. I would have probably never returned, except on vacation.

Dived in head first is what I did, and I have no regrets. Still, it would have nice to have been prepared a little. I often look back on my Uni days I wish I'd spend 3 years learning Japanese instead of Environmental science :)

Since photography is a hobby of mine I've got god knows how many GB of pics of Japan...when I get more time I'll start to upload some to share...

Merli if you really want to come and live in Japan I'd say go for it!!!! Don't worry about your IT career - IT jobs will still be in Aus should you decide to return home... Even now, if I wanted to return to England I could at any time - it wouldn't take long to pick things up again and living in Japan is bound to look good on a resume. Not that I have any intention of going back to Merry old England! ;)

Dave

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