Category Archives: Travel

We’ve been winging everything, pretty much, and last night we decided to go to Osaka (with no plans!). We got up early and caught the Shinkansen with our JR passes.

Hang Rings! We had to make many train transfers after catching the bullet train, and it got a little overwhelming, but hopping on one of the much older trains out in the burbs was fun.

First stop; Osaka Aquarium. Check out this arapaima! I had a book on these jurassic fishes back in 2000 when I had a predator only tank. They used to get a LOT bigger than this once upon a time but even so, they’re still one of the largest freshwater fish in the world. Was great to see a few of them today, such an amazing fish.

Dolphins! Great to see them swim and play from behind the glass as opposed to from above.

What we were really here for. A live whale shark in a tank?! For real? Yes for real! The largest fish in the world, but this guy was still pretty small (yet still very impressive!).

Luckily for us we got there on feeding time! Feeding fish is one of the most fun parts of owning fish in aquariums, and it was awesome to watch the diver hand feed the whale shark.

A sunfish! The heaviest bony fish in the world. Another first for me, never seen one of these either in real life, so awesome to watch it’s dorsal fins move.

The big tank (ok, the HUGE tank) had a couple of big hammerheads in it too. Again, never seen one in real life. This aquarium just kept on delivering!

This turtle was pretty big too.

Tank full of Japanese spider crabs.

This seal was literally just chilling, smiling, squinting, and floating still like a buoy.

At the end there was a large tank full of rays and sharks that you could touch. Another new experience knocked off the list!

We then caught a shuttle boat from Osaka Aquarium to Universal Studios.

Boating across the port of Osaka, unfortunately with the Backstreet Boys playing from the speakers on top deck (might have had something to do with all the staff running the boat being female? Driver and all).

UNIVERSAL!

Shrek! Oh noes!

As soon as we got in, the boys were mobbed by young Japanese girls who wanted to take their picture with the group!

Matty was pretty popular with the girls. Maybe they thought he was Macklemore? Or perhaps Prince Harry?!

We had to be back at the station to catch the last train back at 7PM so rides were out of the question as the queues were all 90 minutes long. Instead the guys just kept walking around getting mobbed by girls who wanted to take their photos with them!

At Jurassic Park.

Back to the Future! We couldn’t get on the ride, but we did buy some goodies in the theme store.

The spinning Universal globe came alive at night.

We had to rush back to the train, and grabbed a quick bite in the station to eat on the train. The 3hr ride to Osaka was great, the 3hr ride back home just destroyed us.

Tired, and sore (we’ve been doing a lot of walking!) it was great to finally be back at home in Shinjuku. Now for some rest. Tomorrow Alexi takes us on an epic tour of Japan’s workshops and car parts stores!

Day 5 kicked off with a shoot in my tiny hotel room in Shinjuku with the absolutely gorgeous Coco Komatsu. What a gal! She’s 100% Japanese but speaks amazing English. She’s hilarious, smart, sharp, crazy cute and sexy all at the same time! Won’t be working on the photos whilst I’m here in Japan, but will do as soon as I land back in Sydney!

By the time our shoot was done, everyone was starving so we hit the road to get some lunch. The boys were gawking hard at something…

Turns out it was Stephen’s Mum’s car, only done right!

Coco joined us for lunch, and the boys just fell in love with her. She’s such a bright light!

Matty, such a gentleman, offered to carry Coco’s heavy bag.

Coco took us to an awesome Okonomiyaki restaurant. I’ve never in my life had such great Japanese Pancakes!

Not so sure about these ray fins though!

Car Spotting: Beast mode enabled!

Matty’s been amazing at choosing the worst drinks from the drink machines, daily.

2000GT. We then headed off to Toyota Mega Web in located in Tokyo’s waterfront entertainment suburb of Odaiba (which was a little tricky to get to my train, but hey, we got there thanks to Chris’ amazing sense of direction).

We made a B Line for the History Garage and it didn’t disappoint! Toy cars, books (we scored some HyperREVS!), a cafe, amazing classics of all makes and eras.

Spotted this rare Split-window Corvette. Delicious.

This old dude was working in a garage behind glass. I asked the store cashier if we could go inside, and after asking the old dude inside if it was OK if we all came in, we got the thumbs up!

The smell of grease was soooooo good. What a job this guy has, restoring amazing bikes and cars. The whole place had such a Zen vibe.

Hey Matty!

For around $30K you could buy this beast. I absolutely love it! Japanese G-Wagon!

Little pocket rocket.

TRD are making some amazing things for the 86, like these venetians! SO cool.

And check the little wings on the side near the side mirrors, fresh!

Could not resist this pet store in the mall which joins the History Garage to the more modern stuff.

Nyaw puppy!

The ferris wheel outside is one of the world’s largest. We didn’t get to go on it though, maybe next time!

What I was really in Odaiba for. The massive Gundam. I was emotional. I’ve been into Gundam since I was a little kid. My first robot toy was a steel Gundam figurine (I still have it too! Such a hoarder!).

WE WIN! For dinner we smashed a shitload of sushi at Sea King. Loved this place. The sushi train is so long, and when you order sushi with the touch pad it gets delivered to you on a super fast bullet train above the main sushi track. Amazeballs!

Back at Shinjuku Station West exit, feet are dead, was a great day out!

The team were pretty dead this morning. Only Robbie, Krysti and myself were on chat, and the rest of the boys were dead dead. We downed some greasy chicken skewers from the 7/11 downstairs from the hotel in an attempt to cure our (quite bad) hangovers.

Nike Crew. Robbie, Krysti and I checked out the Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art again whilst the boys were asleep. We had a good long sit down in front of the Sunflowers painting by Van Gogh. The silence was soothing. Soon after that the boys were finally ready (it was 3PM lol!) and we hit the road for Harajuku.

Acquired Taste Shinjuku.

Harajuku comes alive on weekends, check out the slow stream of people in this shot. Madness!

Supreme. So many great stores, but we were just so flat today after the massive night we had last night. The crew persisted though, and bought quite a few goodies, but we’ve decided that we have to return during a quiet week day.

Undefeated. So much more shopping to do but just too hangry! We ate, then decided to check out the activities surrounding the park.

We got to see a few of the awesome rockabillies (crazy breakdancing Elvis subculture!) do their thing, they’re so so so awesome!

Acquired Taste Harajuku.

Finally spotted an E30 from the overpass at Harajuku.

Everyday Tokyo. Rad line-up at these lights.

When in Harajuku one must drop into Kiddy Land. 5 floors of toys (lots of small things on the first floor which make for great gifts).

Car Spotting: Clean EVO 6.

The whole crew is sporting newly bought kicks! We spent some time in the Nike shop, but again, we were just SO dead. We decided to bail and rest up at the hotel for a couple of hours before going out for a late dinner.

We failed to get a table for 8 at a fair few restaurants which were all pretty packed out despite it being 10PM, but eventually we stumbled upon Rokkasen and we went for the all-you-can-eat Yakiniku.

The Matsuzaka Galbi was next level.

Matsuzaka Sirloin.

Ox Tongue.

Fugu (balloon fish), prawns, scallops and crab.

Hey Krysti! Tokyo Day 3. First stop, Shibuya and the infamous Shibuya Crossing.

The crew in the middle of the crossing. Wish I had my fish-eye lens to capture this moment!

MOS Burger. Had to be done!

Japanese music producer and DJ Nigo’s Bape shop is always worth a visit.

Nyaw puddy! Loved this guys markings!

Car Spotting: EVO right at home in it’s natural habitat.

Still so much love for these huge scooters.

Car Spotting: Lexus on Watanabes.

No Music No Life! Tower Records is awesome.

Later that night we hit the Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho. This is the trippy as fuck entrance on the way down to the show.

One must eat Robot Chips at the Robot Show.

The girl on the drums was mad. It’s the best show on the planet. Our faces were so sore from smiling so hard. Words can’t describe… you just have to go and see it for yourself!!!

Pretty sure all the boys are truly, deeply in love with Japanese girls now.

Robbie, Robot and Angelo.

Stephen, Robot and Matty.

Sexy, loud, live, WILD!

The show was sincerely epic and had us shaking our heads in disbelief at how awesome Japan is. When it was over we were ushered out a backdoor which spat us out on the seedy streets of Kabukicho.

We then hit up the Golden Gai.

The Golden Gai is composed of a network of super narrow alley ways, connected by even narrower passageways which are just about wide enough for a single person to pass through.

Over 200 tiny little bars (most only fitting 5 people at the one time) are squeezed into this area!

Amazingly we found a bar that could fit all 8 of us! We bought a bottle of this stuff, conversations flowed, we laughed, hard, we got emotional, we were getting wasted!

No Beer No Life!

Yew!

Some bars go up! Lots of them were just too full and small to accommodate our large group.

We tried to squeeze in to this bar earlier, but failed, when we walked past it the second time the lady at the bar managed to find 2 more chairs and invited us in!

Our contribution!

Krysti’s drawing of our bar tender Sue, who was amazing!

Chris. Fading… We never left this bar. Robbie even got to play music from his iPhone.

This game was evil. If you put a sword in and the monkey’s head blew off you had to have a shot.

Krysti, outside having a chuck.

This random guy blew in and I was pretty quick to remove his tie.

Loose!

What a night! We’re totally feeling it this morning. Heads are split. We’re all in awe though. Just when you think Japan can’t possibly get any better, she does, in such a beautifully generous, magical way.

We all opted to pay for the buffet brekkie every morning. Makes such a massive difference IMHO, one of my fave things about going overseas and such a great way to start the day. Matty came down in his slippers and the lady at the entrance made a huge cross with her arms and said NO SLIPPERS! Bahaha.

Stacks on! After brekkie we went for a little scroll around the block. First we saw a car stacking system, then we saw this bike stacking system.

Nyaw puddy!

Next up we went to check out the Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art which is pretty much directly across the road from our hotel. One of the Sunflowers by Van Gogh is there, which to be honest was pretty mind blowing in real life. We couldn’t take photos of it though, but the main reason we went up there was to enjoy the view from the 42nd floor anyways!

Straight after that we hit the department stores which surround Shinjuku Station. The toy section at Bic Camera was wild!

So many toy vending machines! The perfect place to get rid of all those damn coins (as it’s so much easier to just break notes every time when paying for goods haha).

Gotta love fat rubber! Loved these fat wheeled bikes.

We then spotted a bunch of Japanese men testing out the massage chairs. All of them were completely KNOCKED OUT!

We thought we’d follow suit and boom, man we were stuck there for at least half an hour! They’re amazing. I must have one!

When in Tokyo one must visit Tokyu Hands! We went to check out the one in Takashimaya Department Store.

But first, food. The top floors of the main department stores in Asia usually have great restaurants and too right, Takashimaya had 4 floors of food at the very top. I hunted down a Tonkatsu restaurant and found Katsukura Shinjukutakashimayaten on the 14th floor. Was a new experience for the boys, which was awesome. Grinding your own toasted sesame seeds in a special textured bowl gives off such a nice aroma, you then add either spicy or sweet sauce and dip your pork in it. SO GOOD. Also the best Miso Soup I’ve had in years!

I went for the Kurobota (which is the “wagyu” type of pork loin). Man it blew me away as expected. SO SOFT! SO GOOD!

The staff were so accommodating, we were super satisfied and it was only $30/head all up!

Boys in the smoking room, lots of Tokyo is now no smoking, something new since my last trip in 2008.

Stickers! After our meal we checked out Takashimaya (which had a great Ikebana exhibition on, again no photos) and Tokyu Hands; 8 floors of eye popping and mind boggling goodness!

You can find everything at Tokyu hands, this device is to help you piss more easily into a bottle whilst driving.

We checked out the HUGE Kinokuniya too, and after that we thought we’d make our way back to the hotel for an afternoon kip, but not before dropping into Krispy Kreme for some special Halloween donuts!

Cute, right?!

Chris landed earlier this morning and he activated his JR pass at Shinjuku Station which was all hustle and bustle in the afternoon. We just chilled and did some people watching whilst the sun set.

On route back to the hotel from Shinjuku Station.

Couldn’t pass up a packet of JPS’ just for the cool packaging!

Senna!

We rested up for a little bit, then Alexi of Nori Yaro picked us up in his van and took us to Tatsumi Parking Area, located along the Wangan.

Such a cute little car park, and it’s got everything you need. Vending machines serving hot food, drinks and toilets too.

Alexi waxing lyrical (and wearing a Zen Graff shirt!). The guy’s a celebrity, being pulled over by fan boys all night (he’s an absolute champ, that’s why!).

Alexi and Dino from Speedhunters.

Dino meeting a fan who’s come all the way from Seattle.

Dino’s ride for the night.

Koenigsegg! The first car that caught our attention and made our panties drop.

The second car made us come.

Acquired Taste Dance Crew. The boys were in heaven.

The vibe was just so great. True car enthusiasts meeting up and just appreciating each others rides.

Tatsumi Parking Area is basically a rest stop and the locals have a loop they use to go on quick runs, so it’s a transient space with cars constantly coming through and downshifting on the way in and launching it on the way out. Aural delights are beyond words.

We got there pretty early, but more and more cars just kept on coming, by midnight it was pretty packed out.

Diversity was amazing too, with everything from Kei cars to Euro Exotics.

There were so many hot cars there I failed to take photos of other cars which were already a notch above the quality of cars we see at meets back home.

This tiny Japanese girl with huge heels rocked up in this Abflug kitted 430.

My heart skipped more than a few beats. She could be my Queen.

This car would probably get laughed at in Sydney, but here it’s appreciated, and yes we were appreciating it! It’s mad and I’m so glad that there’s all types of people and styles out here. Even if you’re not into it, you’re just happy someone else is!

So wide, so low. So yesterday, so now. I loved this thing.

Alexi plays translator so well. In the middle is Daisuke Hasegawa. D1GP driver, and he’ll be driving the BenSopra GT-R engine powered 380SX at World Time Attack Challenge this year. Guy on the left is Tomokazu Hirota. He was famous for being the only guy to drive a Toyota Verossa in D1GP, but now he’s currently in a Lexus GS350. He showed up in his personal GS350.

Daisuke Hasegawa x Acquired Taste.

Slammed R32 was slammed.

Loved this loud little Lotus.

Another RWB Porker.

The Police rocked up and basically got everyone who wasn’t in a proper parking spot (it was getting pretty damn full in there) to move on. From there we decided to hit the Wangan on route to Daikoku Futo.

We’ve seen this countless times on videos, now in real life.

Can’t believe that I’ve been perving on photos from this place since the early 2000’s and Ive never been before. All thanks to Alexi for taking us tonight, much gratitude for the man.

Straight into it! Where does one start?! It’s all just been so overwhelming.

Jizz.

Multiple orgasms.

Urgh…

Lone Bozo tonight. Hope to spot more of them another time.

The boys had a rad time trying to communicate with this guy, who was literally 1cm off the ground, static!

Loved this.

Alpina goodness.

The 2 RWB cars dropped in too.

DTM!

Alexi spotted this car, and felt it’s aura. He had to chat to the owner, an older Japanese man who had a real Bunta vibe about him. He asked, very nicely whether we could see the engine. When asked how much power the car makes the owner said “1000HP”. We were in awe. The night ended very soon after, we were elated. We came so many times. It was 3am and Alexi was taking us back home via the Wangan, then we felt a sonic boom as this very GT-R flew past us faster than our minds could compute. We were in shock, even Alexi was in awe saying that he’d never seen a car go past so fast on the Wangan. Icing on the cake! What a night, we’re done and would be happy if nothing else happened this trip! It was just all too much!

Yesterday I booked a cab for 4.30AM to get me to the International Airport for a flight at 7AM. I was having dinner at my sister’s place last night, and she pointed out that if I was going to be catching a plane to QLD first, then on to TOKYO (cheap flights with Jetstar), then surely I’ll be leaving from Domestic instead of International, which would mean that I wouldn’t have to be at the airport so early!

I LOLed and re-booked the cab for 5AM (still early), and changed the destination to Domestic, not International. I’d only gotten to bed a few hours ago, and I had nightmares of being chased around Sydney Boys High School by some obsessed Sydney Girl, but it’s 4AM. I’m up. I’m psyched. Let’s Go Tokyo!

I got to the airport early. Downed a McDonalds Sausage & Egg McMuffin meal (it’s tradition!) and soon we were off!

Goodbye Sydney!

We got to the Gold Coast without too much pain.

Chris was there to greet us with this sign haha.

After a quick stop it was goodbye Gold Coast!

All new 787. We booked September the 11th thinking the flight would be completely empty. It was but they had cancelled a flight the night before so our plane was literally PACKED. Was a pretty painful flight to be honest! We’re all exhausted!

The best thing about the new plane, these touch activated windows which tint your glass! Very nice.

Landed at Narita!

Straight to the vending machines! And 7-11! We’ve just checked in to our cute little hotel in Shinjuku. It’s almost midnight here but we’re had to duck out for a rummage!

Ebi Filet-O from McDonalds!

Shinjuku’s a lot grungier than I remembered.

Lots of texture.

Was fun watching the boys get hammered by Nigerians!

Aw yeah. Booked tickets to Japan! This September. I’m excited!

Bags packed, have been looking forward to this much deserved break for a while now. Matt picked me up from Zen and on route we were discussing where we were going to stay. A jetty, a cinema room… it all sounded way too familiar, turns out it was the house next door to the amazing place I stayed at last year.

The house on the left is the one I stayed at last year, we were staying in the one on the right, also such a great house.

Was so awesome to be back here. Such an amazing place.

We were all together to celebrate Jing’s B’day, which we did last year at The Entrance, this year we were treated to an amazing strawberry and watermelon B’day cake by Black Star Pastry!

The B’day boy. Couldn’t get over Jing’s new hairstyle for at least the first 20 minutes, haha.

We hit the grog pretty late last night, coffee and breakfast set us right in no time.

Jing’s Audi Allroad (I love it!).

Such a nice place to be inside. A short drive to Pelican to hire some boats for the day.

Pelicans at Pelican!

Unfortunately we failed to get a house boat, so we had to settle for 2 dinghy’s instead.

We collectively caught a lot of Brim (I only managed to catch one), but none of them were of legal size, still great fun though!

Winnie made a killer spag bol for dinner. So so good.

And she also made pizza! Home made bases and all!

Late afternoon chills on the jetty.

Cards by night.

We had a late checkout and ended up making the most of it, the boys ended up taking the house supplied dinghy and canoes for a fish on the river.

So cute. Ethan upset that his Dad was rowing back to Vietnam!