Daioni's life in (really) rural japan - photo thread

[Blitz]

This one pretty much speaks for itself.

The extremes of japanese beer.

 

I'm definitely a convert.

This year I'm adding to the beer intake with some local moonshine - 1.8l of 'white liquor', 1kg of rock sugar, 2kg of local 'plums' + 3 months brewing = delicious

I grabbed one of those mini asahi 6 packs before I got on the plane at Narita to come home. Should probably crack them open - its been 6 months

[DaiOni]

Kirin Ichiban > Asahi

You should get pics of the 1 litre kegs of Kirin that you can buy... Those things are AWESOME!!!!

Asahi is my fav - though many people find it very very bland/without distinctive taste. I think it is the ultimate 'dry' beer - so easy to drink, and great with food (not filling). It's kind of a 'soft drink beer' - sort of in the style of american beers (but something they fail miserably at).

Second favourite would be suntory malts (particlarly, on tap), closely followed by kirin original. Sapporo is another very nice brew.

One thing to be very careful of is happoshu (what I like to call 'fake beer'). This is something that was created to get around a beer tax. Basically, traditionally brewed beer attracts a certain tax, so they created a 'chemical beer' - unbrewed, 'beer flavoured' water (essentially).

It's identifiable in two ways - it never has beer written on the can (hard to spot if you can't read katakana), and it is significantly cheaper than real beer (for example, 180yen compared to 280yen).

Why avoid it? Well, it doesn't really taste like beer (some people wouldn't notice the difference I guess - so let's just say, it tastes like a bad beer!), and worse - it provides a killer hangover (way out of proportion to the amount you drink). AVOID!

more pics later tonight

[SKY031]

Nice mullet......

are there any bogans in Japan?

[DaiOni]

are there any bogans in Japan?

absolutely.

[(B1) MR_fanny]

since were on the topic of beer....i picked this up when i was with mates in milan italy eating dinner in a so-called jap restaurant that was run by chinese:D:D when they whipped this out we were like woahh!!....im takin this home:D:D it comes with a handle for obvious reasons. 2L of goodness....cant wait till i hit japan in the next 2 weeks....woot!!

it sits on my desk for memories:D:D

[DaiOni]

I will endeavour to get a few pics of the mountain runs (scary stuff - tyre marks, crumpled guard rails, huge drops...), but here's a pic of one of the roads that takes you around the coastline. There is something like 270km of road around the coast - and it would make for a sensational tarmac rally.

I love this corner - but it's nearly got me into trouble a couple of times...

[DaiOni]

another car pic...

The second car I bought in japan - a 90 mx5 (roadster in japan, miata in the US). Being a JDM version, it had an extra (IIRC) 10kw over oz versions. Also had factory bilsteins (rock hard), lsd, momo wheel. No mods. Had 150k km on the dial, but still ran sweet as. Cost me bugger all too (about A$3k using the current exchange rate).

I can't rate this car highly enough! I'm priviledged with my current line-up, but I still miss this car so much! Perfect for the twisty, tight roads (fun in the snow, too).

Yeah, they don't have much power - but that's not what they are about - they are a 100% fun machine (when set-up in the same way as the oz 'clubman' spec). If you are thinking about buying a cheap beater/runabout/daily driver - take advantage of the 15yr rule while it's still around - get one of these!

[DaiOni]

Just a scenery pic:

Taken from a big rock in the ocean (apparently "one of the three biggest rocks in japan"). I like to climb/walk it as often as I can - it's good exercise

You can see the typical scenery - rugged hills climbing straight out of the sea, rice fields jammed in wherever they can fit, strange outcroppings and clear water, nice driving roads...

[DaiOni]

taken at a village festival

umm... this one's hard to explain. At first I thought it was some sort of magic act, then maybe a comedy act, then it turned out he was a bit of a con man selling some sort of 'snake oil' (he miraculously cured his 'wound').

In hindsight, I think it might have been a combination of all three

[DaiOni]

oh, btw, take a close look at the background of the mx5 pic. This was before downstairs was converted into a fishing tackle shop. My late landlord was a huuuge astroboy fan - that room used to contain an astroboy library (literally 10,000s of astoboy manga). What you can see is a rather large (and beautiful) statue that he had custom made.

[DaiOni]

In japan, everything is decided by janken ('rock, paper, scissors'). I think it's in the constitution...

That's me in the pic (in the funky banana suit). Janken-ing with a very, very pretty young japanese woman She really took a shine to mr banana (pity I'm married...).

Anyway, to the story...

Every year (at yet another festival) this town holds a street race. Teams of three have to run 100m with a wooden chariot-thingy (a long pole with a seat underneath it - two carriers run with the passenger along for the ride). It's kind of what you might imagine samurais used to be carried around in by their pet peasents. At the end of the 100m the passenger gets in - lucky me last year - carried by two very sore gaijin girls We run back 50m, I get out, have to find a sour plum hidden in a mound of flour (no hands allowed), then sprint the last 50m. Prizes are awarded on speed, costume and 'performance'.

Now this is the interesting bit - the town gives each team 20,000 yen ($255) for 'costume money' (which we of course, spend as little as possible). Being gaijin (and great performers!) we usually win something extra...

In this pic, I am janken-ing to decide 2nd place. As you can see, I won ("good old rock..."). Prize = A$640!

Gotta love japan!

[Rezz]

Jeezuz Brian! Tops pics!!!

I wish I could take shots like yours with my camera...

[DaiOni]

Jeezuz Brian! Tops pics!!!

 

I wish I could take shots like yours with my camera...

most are taken with a sony f717, some are from a nikon f60 slr. I finally gave into the wife's demands and got a keitai too - so expect a few pics from that (only 1.3mp but the pics aren't too bad).

next pic...

demon drummer

Culturally, the island is very famous for onidaiko/ondeko (demon drumming, also a clue as to why I chose my username). You'll find it at every festival here - it's a very integral part of the local culture. Some days they will drum from house to house, offering their blessings and receiving the goodwill of the home owners (ie: alcohol). By evening they are blasted, but the performances don't seem to falter at all.

[DaiOni]

and now a different kind of demon...

At any temple you will find these guys (or similar) inside the gate house.

[DaiOni]

here's another thing you won't see every day...

womens' sumo, on a floating ring:

Great festival! the boys get a go too, of course. I haven't done this myself, as I'm actually retired from the sumo ring. I'm no big boy* but we entered a couple of gaijin teams in a local amateur event (standard style ring - which is bloody painful). Didn' win a single bout in the regular comp, but did okay in a later 'tekken tag' style comp (win as many bouts as you can in succession) - was probably the most physically demanding thing I have ever done.

So why did I retire from such a 'promising' sumo career? A week later the pain still hadn't gone away and I ended up having to go to hospital! Luckily no permanent or serious damage

I have pics of that too, but I know for sure you guys don't want to see my arse hanging out of a sumo belt

* Thanks to japan, I've now nudged into the 'overweight' section of the BMI. Within my first 6 months here I put on an extra 10kg! It's gone up and down like a yo-yo since (more up than down).

Japanese food is good

[DaiOni]

random car pic #1

This is one of my fav local cars. Nothing special - just an s14, but I love the way a car that would (usually) be so well looked after in oz, is just someone's 'beater' here.

note the different rims, roll cage... someone's been playing in the mountains methinks...

[DaiOni]

just another scenery shot:

typical combination of wonderful nature, intrusive concrete, and more bloody overhead wires!

Little spots like this are also good fishing spots - all that concrete does come in handy (easy on the backside). The fishing is supposed to be very good, but I've never had any luck (I think I have to talk with the locals a bit more). Interestingly, the fish on offer are very similar to what I'm used to (NSW central coast) - bream, snapper, kingfish, yellowtail, and so on. I once went on a glass-bottom boat here and saw some of the biggest bream I've ever seen - wish I knew what bait they like here!

[Parag0n]

very nice pictures, keep them up

[Polski]

Those pics are fantastic!!

I want to go live in Japan for a year or two, and this is making me want to go sooner !!

[DaiOni]

sorry for the bad quality for this one (I took a digital pic of a photo from the slr):

???

One day I'm just rambling along on the pushbike - enjoying the weather, getting some exercise, exploring backstreets and so on...

In amongst a grove of trees I spot three run down jidohanbaiki (vending machines). This is pretty typical, so I don't pay much attention to them... then something catches my eye and I nearly fall off my bike...

"do you wanna get high?"

umm... okay!

however, no amount of bashing, thumping, pushing, etc, will make the machine accept my 100yen coins or 1000yen notes

It's not every day you find a vending machine that sells magic mushrooms*

There were several varieties on offer. What's more, the machine also offered panties! (not the famous 'used schoolgirl' variety though - at least not as far as I could tell).

Hopefully the machines are still there - I'll go back soon and take a few digital pics

I've seen egg vending machines, machines that sell an amazing variety of alcohol, all sorts of porn vending machines... but the magic mushroom machine is by far my favorite yet.

* 'Mushies' were actually legal in japan until recently