Mike Garrett Explores the Orient

For once I have a little time to update this blog. I have a few pictures from last week when we went with Kaori’s family to Tochigi-ken for a picnic and some late cherry blossom viewing at one of the local parks. Since it was a national holiday, the place was packed. There were vendors selling all sorts of food, and people were just generally relaxing and having a good time.

Makeshift parking lot outside the park.

Some of the late blooming cherry blossoms.

Tons of people.

This picture makes me hungry.

Kaori’s sister, Yuko and my nephew Kira, who will be one year old in July. He is recovering from heart surgery after birth so he has to use an oxygen tank for a while. You would have no idea he had heart surgery after seeing how much energy he has though.

Fish on a stick.

Salty, buttery baked potato. I guess the area is famous for these things. EVERYONE was eating them.

I wanted to join the karaoke contest but Kaori wouldn’t let me.

Squid anyone?

Kira has had enough action for the afternoon.

That’s it for now. There are a few other photos here.

I know I’m a little late, but here’s part two of our weekend in Tokyo.

Sunday had us heading back to Odaiba for the Mooneyes Street Car Nats. This is the view out the back of the Yurikamome train at Shibaura. The tracks are directly under the highway, and the structure in the distance is the Shibaura parking area, a popular gathering spot for highway racers late at night.

Passing another train on the Rainbow Bridge.

After hanging out the Mooneyes event for a while we were pretty damn hungry so we headed over to Aqua City to hit up the ramen theme park.

We ended up going with the same Hokkaido style ramen we ate the last time we were there. Nothing to get you going again like a big steaming bowl of ramen loaded with pork, eggs, and veggies.

Aqua City has a great view of the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo skyline. Next time we are there on an overnight trip I will take some night pics here.

After lunch we decided to take a walk around the “beach” area at Odaiba.

The weather was nice except for the ugly haze that hung all over the place. I guess that’s what you get with one of the biggest cities in the world.

Is it a ferry or a spaceship?

J-cops on the beat.

HUGE dog. Awesome.

Enjoying the man-made beach.

This looks like a scene from the movie “Dazed & Confused” except in Tokyo.

Fuji TV building.

While walking around, we came to the pedestrian entrance to the Rainbow Bridge. We needed to head back that direction anyway so we decided to try the long walk across the bridge.

This looks like fun.

The top deck has the highway, while the lower deck has the standard road, railroad line and pedestrian paths.

Doing some fishing under the bridge.

Some old Mopars heading back into Tokyo from the Mooneyes event.

This shot shows the grade of the bridge pretty well.

Looking towards Shibaura on the other side.

Probably not a good place for those who are afraid of heights.

Sweet van.

Halfway there!

Dinner cruise ship heading under the bridge out into Tokyo Bay.

Dusk was starting to fall as we got to the other side, making for some pretty cool looking lighting.

Back on the ground and into the concrete jungle.

Pilot boats tied up at Shibaura.

On a Sunday afternoon some parts of Tokyo look like they came out of the movie, “I am Legend”.

Part of Tokyo’s large man-made river system.

On the walk back to JR Tamachi Station, I saw this mean looking R35 parked on the street. Great color.

Just another random building in Tokyo.

After this we headed back to Akihabara where we got on the Tsukuba Express to come home. We probably walked 3 or 4 miles in total so we slept most of the way back to Tsukuba.

Another fun weekend comes to an end. The next post will be a nice change from the craziness of Tokyo.

The rest of the pics are here.

This past weekend was a busy one as we made back-to-back trips to Tokyo for the day. I decided I would transform into tourist mode and capture some non car shots for a change. I ended up shooting a ton of pictures over the weekend so I will divide this up into two posts. Anyways, let’s start with Saturday.

First up was a trip on the Tokyo Metro Ginza line from Ueno to Asakusa. Above Tokyo is a maze of railroad lines and under Tokyo is a maze of subway lines.

Cabs lined up in Asakusa.

Our destination was the Tokyo Big Sight down in the harbor area, but instead of taking the train all the way we hooked a ride on the “water bus” for a cruise down the Sumida river and into Tokyo bay.

The Asahi building. If you can’t tell by looking at their building, Asahi is one of the biggest names in Japanese beer.

Cool scene along the Sumida riverfront.

Here we are passing under one of the many bridges along the way. Most of them are low enough where they will tell you to “watch your head” as the boat passes under them. Being 6′2″ makes it even more exciting.

Even though it was a Saturday, there was plenty of commercial traffic on the river.

Another day on the job.

Ferry heading back up the river towards Asakusa.

Playing in the wake of the ferry.

Fishermen gathering under a bridge.

Hustle and bustle.

Stacked.

It was a pretty windy day, and you could tell by looking at the water.

ANA 747 on final to Haneda Airport through the haze.

Tokyo.

Cool “bow art”.

Private boats tied up near Hamarikyu Gardens.

Tokyo Maritime University ship with Fuji TV and the Rainbow Bridge in the background.

Stopped at Hinode Pier where we transferred to another boat bound for the Tokyo Big Sight.

Pretty ugly day, but there is just something I like about the Tokyo harbor area.

Coast guard ship in Odaiba. There is a pretty cool movie and TV series about the coast guard in Japan called “Umizaru” (Sea Monkeys).

High rises in Odaiba.

Another crazy looking building in Ariake.

We finally reached our destination at the Tokyo Big Sight, which is an impressive looking structure in itself.

I wanted to check out the Tokyo “Garaging Expo”, which is basically a gathering of custom garage and home companies that can build you the garage of your dreams.

Maybe some day when we are filthy rich I can come to this event and say, “OK build me that one”.

After wandering around the Garaging Expo event a little, we headed out to Shinjuku to hang out with Joey from Wrecked Magazine who was in Japan for D1 at Fuji Speedway. We had some dinner and then hit up a nearby arcade for some racing action.

By then the weather had gotten kind of cold and rainy so I didn’t bother to take any more pics. It’s OK though because we would be heading back to Odaiba on Sunday for the Mooneyes event and I would be dragging the camera along again.

Look for another update tomorrow some time. For now, you can see some of the other Tokyo pics from Saturday right here.

I was bored tonight so I took the camera out and snapped a few shots. I think these are like the first night shots I have done since I got here. Oh well.

During the day this is a pretty busy street, but at midnight not so much.

The soil lab. I wonder if those lights mean people are in there working this late?

The Tsukuba International Congress Center. Very important.

Empty pedestrian path and bridge.

I think the manga/Internet cafe is the most happenin’ place in town on a Saturday night.

HID’s look cool on long exposure shots. EVERYTHING has HID’s here, even kei cars and delivery trucks.

That’s it for now. I’m going to try to take random pics for this blog more often.

Sorry I haven’t posted anything for a while. I have been pretty busy and it’s been raining almost every day for the past week or so. Yesterday, I headed up to Utsunomiya in Tochigi Prefecture to do some shopping with Kaori, her mom and her sister. I bought a totally fashionable hat that I desperately needed (I just recovered from massive the sunburn I got at the Hyper Meeting).

When we were driving up there we passed right by Koguchi Power but I don’t think the others were in the mood to drop by. We also went right past Nissan’s huge Tochigi plant where the Z, Skyline, and R35 GT-R are made. It looks awesome and I’m hoping to for a better look soon.

The other day a stray cat wandered to the back patio of our apartment and Kaori fed it some old bread we had. Of course, it has come back every day since looking for some food. Today we picked up some actual cat food to feed it. Probably not a wise thing to do but we I guess we have a soft spot for cats.

Anyways, I will try to get some more interesting stuff to post this week. Hopefully the weather will be better.

A couple hours ago, I was sitting in the living room doing some work on the computer when I heard a faint “rumbling” sound.  A couple seconds later the apartment started shaking pretty good. Just another earthquake…

I think this one was actually the strongest I have felt since I have been here. It was centered not far from here and the magnitude was a 5.0. It wasn’t strong enough to knock anything over, but the hanging light in the living room was swinging around quite a bit. It probably lasted about 10-12 seconds in total.

The “X” on the map above shows the location of the quake. Tsukuba is located a little to the right of the “X”.  The triangles represent the amount of earth movement on the Japanese scale with 1 being the smallest and 7 being the highest. The most severe areas for this earthquake were a 4 and the Tsukuba area was a 3.

Back home, a quake would really freak people out, but here it’s just another part of the daily routine. As you probably know, Japan is one of the most quake-prone areas in the world.  When I first got here I would be startled during a quake but now I am getting used to it now. I would say on average I probably feel a quake about once or twice a week.

Ah the excitement of living in Japan….

As I wrote about the other day, I picked up a camcorder so I can start documenting racing events and other things. Today I finally got a chance to take the camera out and shoot some video around the neighborhood. The sakura are blooming pretty nice right now so I figured it would be a good time to grab some footage.

Here is what I came up with after some quick editing-

The whole thing was shot over a span of about 20-30 minutes this afternoon. I’m a newcomer to YouTube so I’m not really sure what rendering methods look best for YouTube but hopefully I will figure it out soon. You can hand me my Oscar now.

Fairly eventful day today.

There was a big VW show in Odaiba (will be on Auto Otaku soon) so Kaori and I headed down to Tokyo on the “express” to have a look and do some shopping as well. The forecast called for showers and when we woke up it was a little cloudy but we hoped it would stay dry.

As I said in the previous post, the sakura are finally starting to bloom in Tsukuba. I snapped a couple pics on the walk to the station. Here are some of the trees across from our apartment. Still kinda naked now but they should be full in about a week or so.

Some more trees near the local elementary school.

Just a short walk down this path to the station.

A nice Sunday morning in Tsukuba.

Heading down into Tsukuba station. Doesn’t look too crowded here.

Hop on the TX train which quickly fills with people. Sundays are actually pretty busy days for the Tsukuba Express as many Tsukuba people head to Tokyo for fun and many Tokyo people head to Mt. Tsukuba for hiking and and other wilderness stuff.

45 minutes later we are at Akihabara Station where we board a JR Yamanote Line train. The Yamanote line is probably Tokyo’s busiest and most well known rail line as it loops around the center of Tokyo.

After an excruciating wait of about two minutes the next train came. I probably looked like a major tetsu or train geek when I took this picture.

www.train-otaku.com?

After the quick ride down the Yamanote-sen we got off at Shimbashi where we had to change trains one last time time.

Yurikamome Shimbashi Station.

Advertisers will put their message anywhere they can in Tokyo.

Hey an alien exhibit!. That might be cool.

Inside Shimbashi Station.

Shinkansen heading for Tokyo Station on the JR line.

View from out the window of the Yurikamome. This line is probably one of the most scenic in Tokyo.

All of the Yurikamome trains are fully automated so there are no drivers. Kind of like the monorails at Disneyland although it’s not actually a monorail. I have ridden this train many times but this time I took some pics.

Crossing over the highway near Shiodome.

Kitty-chan bus.

The famous Rainbow Bridge with Odaiba visible across the water.

To elevate itself onto the bridge, the line loops over itself as seen is this Google Earth photo. Pretty cool.

Passing over some tugboats.

The rail line and standard road occupy the lower level of the bridge while the highway occupies the top. Cars drive right next to the train so you can make funny faces at people driving.

I wonder if the guy in this Stagea saw me taking a picture of him?

Kaori doesn’t seem as interested as I am.

Forrester and a chopper cruising in front of some Japanese Coast Guard ships.

Over the bridge and into the Daiba area.

Sakura in front of the Fuji TV building.

Setting up the stage for tomorrow night’s “Hey! Hey! Hey!” live TV special.

Got off the train, and while walking down to the VW show we saw this classy looking van cruising one of the parking lots.

After spending some time checking out all the dope old school VW’s it began to rain. We looked for something to do indoors. Hey, how ’bout that Alien show we saw the sign for?

I was kind of expecting some kind of sweet freak show thing with some Alien corpses or maybe even live aliens but it was actually more of a scientific educational thing. Oh well.

They did have this awesome Ewok from Star Wars though. (crappy cell phone pic)

By the time we finished at the alien thing it was raining pretty good and it was cold so we decided to head back to Akihabara.

I had been wanting to buy an HD camcorder for a while and Kaori’s dad wanted us to pick up an Ipod for him to play in his barber shop. Yodobashi Camera in Akiba is the place to go for one stop electronics shopping.

You can see just how big it is in the pic above. I didn’t take any pics inside but the place is absolutely crazy. Their prices are decent and what’s even better is their point card system which basically means you can get like 10-15% store credit on any item you purchase there.

I wanted to buy a Canon HV20 video camera and instead of some unhelpful clerk there is an actual Canon rep that helps customers with questions about the brand’s products. Even better is that you can negotiate the price! I had seen the same camera advertised a little cheaper online and we told them clerk and he came back with a small handheld calculator and knocked it down below the ‘net price. So cool. I’d like to see you do that at Best Buy.

So now I have a new toy to play with. Expect some video content as soon as I reacquaint myself with the video editing world.

By then it was getting late so we got back on the Tsukuba Express to go home.

When we got home we were tired, hungry and lazy so we ordered some Pizza Hut delivery.

It tasted good in all of its greasy brilliance and made a satisfying end to a packed day.

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I have been pretty busy but I should be updating more frequently now. Tomorrow we are heading to Tokyo so maybe I will have something interesting to post.

For now I’ll post a couple photos from this evening. I went with Kaori and her sister to Gyu Kaku, the well known yakiniku chain restaurant. If you didn’t know, Yakiniku is basically Korean style BBQ where you order various meats, veggies and other things and cook them over the grill in the center of your table. Gyu Kaku actually has locations in the United States also and I’m not sure where else. Check it out if you get the chance.

Cold beer and sizzling meat: perfect for a red-blooded American carnivore like myself.

Those strange-looking things on the left are mushrooms. They taste far better than they look in this crappy picture.

There’s Yuko grilling up some beef tongue.

Strangely though, one of my favorite things to eat there is the marinated cabbage. I took down nearly two bowls of the stuff by myself.

So that was our exciting Saturday night.  When we were driving back to Tsukuba we were following a couple EK9 Civic Type R’s that looked like they were on the way back from running on Mt. Tsukuba. I was jealous. s

The sakura trees were blooming pretty nicely in Kaori’s hometown and Tsukuba should also be in full bloom soon. I think there’s a law that if a Japanese person has a blog, they have to post sakura pictures. I guess I will do the same.

More soon.

It’s baseball time. I watched the Boston Red Sox beat the hell out of the Tokyo Giants last night in an exhibition game and the Bo Sox and Oakland A’s will play the first game of the ‘08 MLB season tomorrow night at the Tokyo Dome. The Japanese pro baseball season is getting started as well.

I was surprised to see this interesting article on Yahoo Sports about Yu Darvish, the 21 year-old half-Japanese half-Iranian pitcher for the Nippon Ham Fighters. He is the biggest thing going right now in Japanese sports. This guy is everywhere. Even if you aren’t a baseball fan I thought it provides a pretty good look at the crazy hype that surrounds athletes and celebs in Japan and how Darvish has broken the mold.

Check out the article here-