NISMO Festival 2008

Saturday 29th November was going to be another wedding ring window shopping day but a miracule happened on this day - we found a shop where Emi found an engagment ring we both liked, a wedding ring we both liked and... I found a ring I liked! The previous week I hadn't seen anything that floated my boat so we were both surprise I found something. So we ordered them and would go to collect them after they had been made.

Sunday we went to Fuji Speedway for the NISMO festival. NISMO is Nissan Motorsport, Nissan's official motorsport division and this year was celebrating 50 years since Nissan's first competitive event. There were many historical Nissan racing cars: IMSA winning sports prototype, British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) winning Primera, R390 which came 2nd, 3rd and 4th at LeMans in the late 90's and several GTR and 350Z Japanese Grand Touring Championship (JGTC) racing cars including the 2008 winning car. Even his royal highness Carlos Ghosn, Nissan/Renault CEO came along to make a speech.

Again I took lots of pictures, many of them poor (including perfect focus of a fence post when trying to catch a GTR JGTC car!) and also purchased something a little different. They were selling off all the NISMO 2008 merchandice but also used/broken racing car parts. There was quite a choice of 350Z JGTC front wings, broken GTR plastic windscreens etc but I was interested in the used wheels. I always wanted to make a motorsport themed coffee table using an F1 wheel as the base with a glass pane on top but F1 wheel go for £100 or more. This place were selling JGTC wheels for £50 to be picked up after the event of £25 quid if you took them there and then. So after spending £25 I had a pleasant 15min walk to the car with a 18x13" wheel. At 9kg it is light for a wheel that size but still 9kg of difficult-to-carry-wheel so i was pretty tired and my arms were aching for days!

Pictures, pictures, pictures

Saturday 22nd November Emi and I headed off to Tokyo to do some serious window shopping - we went looking for engagement and wedding rings! I had no idea what I liked so wanted to look at various examples to make sure that I chose something for me that I liked and matched with Emi's rings. Obviously Emi's engagement and wedding rings had to match each other also. We looked at 3 or 4 shops, spending so long in one with Emi chatting that I nearly fell asleep standing up!

Afterwards it was late so we looked for somewhere to have dinner. Wondering around the back streets of Ginza we stumbled upon an italian style resturant and decided to give it a go. Well it was an inspired choice, the food was really really nice, we were very pleased we had found it.

Sunday we picked up Emi's mother and went to Miyagase lake to do some picture taking. We walked around different parts of the main vistor area taking various pictures, all the while learning about using my still relatively new camera. I'm quite pleased with the results but still need lots of practice!

Quiet weekend for Stuart...

Saturday 15th November Emi went to her friends wedding so I was on my tod. I didn't do very much, the only thing of note was playing on my PC so not very exciting!
Sunday wasn't much more interesting I'm afraid - walked around Uniglo (clothes shop), Virgin and Emi bought a wedding magazine. However the magazine was about 2" thick so was very heavy so I had to carry it home as Emi couldn't!

Autumn Leaves

Saturday 8th November Emi desided she would change her hair. She went to a salon to have a "digital perm". I still don't understand exactly what it means but it took several hours to do it. It did look nice but only lasted for a few days or a week maximum before it lost it's perminess (if that is a word).

Sunday we went to Lake Kawaguchi. At autumn time when the leaves change colour the Japanese head out to the country side in droves to look at all the pretty trees. One thing I like about Japanese culture is there almost child-like wonder and excitment about nature such as autumn leaves or having parties in spring when the cherry blossum comes out. I found when I returned to Japan after my last visit that I had a much greater appriciation of nature than before, many a time on the way home from work in the UK I would look up at the beautiful sunsets like I hadn't previously. Sorry for my digression!

The weather was grotty and the traffic predictably bad (on the way home at least) but the trees were beautiful and the food we ate in a resturant at lunchtime was very nice.

I hope you like the pictures.

Where is the Music?

Saturday 1st November Emi was out with her friends but I had an awesome evening. There was a festival called "Where Is The Music? 2008" of WISM for short. Playing were Jamie Cullum with Soil and "Pimp" Sessions (Japanese "Death Jazz" group), Medeski Martin & Wood (from NYC) and Cyro Baptista & Branquet of the Spirits (Brazil and NY).
Jamie and the Pimps were up first. Good atmosphere,good songs, very enjoyable. Only complaint was that they had the volume turned up to 11, a Germany girl and Swiss lad I got chatting with outside didn't appreciate it.
Next up was Cyro and his group. For the first 3rd of their session Cryo's mic wasn't working and the Japanese crew didn't seem to be doing much about it, much to the anoyance of the group. The music was fairly good up to that point. Then they changed Cyro's mic over and suddenly the whole thing came alive. It was definately the best musical experience of my live, it was absolutely unbelievable. It was almost like some sort of drug free high.
To finish were the final group. I felt really sorry for them because they were obviously extremely good but felt like a masive comedown after Cryo's and his crew. Very enjoyable.
So in summary I"m so glad I stumbled upon this concert by accident, if I had known what it was like before but wasn't able to go I would have moved heaven and earth to be there.
Sunday was quite relaxing, I didn't make any notes. However I woke up at 2am in the morning to watch the last F1 race of the year in Brazil. If you didn't see it, you really missed out on the most heart stopping race ever - hollywood couldn't have come up with a better script. And best of all Lewis Hamilton became the youngest every World Champion, he has plenty of years to beat Schumacher's record if he chooses to and has the right fortune.

Afternoon Tea...

No not the Japanese cafe and shop chain but "proper like".
October 25th Emi woke up deciding that she wanted to eat lunch at a fancy hotel in Tokyo. Well by the time she sorted her clothes, face, hair and decided where she wanted to go it was too late so instead we went for afternoon tea.
The place we visited was the Westin Hotel at Ebisu in Tokyo. Dark marbles was everywhere in the reception area as was a number of brides in big dresses and smartly dressed wedding guests - it is come to have western style wedding events in big fancy hotels. Feely a little under dressed we went in the elevator to the lounge and ordered some Earl Grey tea, a cake and sat overlooking Tokyo. We atmosphere in the louge was very nice although a little smokey, we really enjoyed are little treat to ourselves.
On the way home I discovered a Jamie Cullum concert in Ebisu and popped into HMV in Shinjuku to purchase some CDs.
On the Sunday we visited Emi's mothers and didn't really do much else, we were tired from travelling on the Saturday. According to my notes I made a really nice dinner consisting of Spaghetti, beef mince, mushroom soup, red peppers and spinich. Unfortunately I can't tell you any more as I can't remember, I'm writing this one month later! However it must have been good if I wrote it donw so give it a try!

Engaged!

Sunday 19th October I asked Emi's parent if Emi and I could marry.

They said yes so we are now officially engaged!

I had asked Emi when we went to Kamakochi back in August but couldn't write anything until it was all official.

Basically we picked up Emi's parents and went to a Shabu shabu resturant in Ebina. We discussed various things - Emi's father being a bit of a joker made comments about my lack of hair as usual!

Afterwards we took them home and had some pictures taken to remember the day, it was very important after all!

Dolifuto!

One of Emis old colleage friends is getting married soon. Emi and her friends want to make a memory book/poster/thing so wanted to get some pictures of their colleage. Therefore on Saturday 11th October Emi and I went to her old colleage and met up with one of her friends to take some pictures. It was interesting wandering around and seeing where Emi had been when she was younger - life before Stuart! Afterwards we went to a resturant for a bite to eat and then headed back home so I could catch the end of F1 qualifying!

Sunday I met up with Hirakawa-san and Kohei-san. I knew them both from my previous stay in Japan and both are into drifting. We met up at a service station on the Tomei expressway and with 6 or 8 other cars headed off to Nikko circuit. This is a drifting and racing track in Tochigi prefecture about 25km from Nikko itself. I got out the 200m lense and spent a lot of the day tacking pictures from various locations, experiementing with the camera setting and trying to improve my technique. The things I have learn are A) I can't hold a camera steady when panning and B) most of the time the shutter speed setting was wrong, I kept it open too long. Anyway I hope you enjoy a small selection of my photos.

First pics with new camera!

Saturday 4th October Emi and I went to visit her mother. We had borrowed some beding from her for when my friends came and also she wanted us to do some shopping for her. After that was done we thought we would try out my new camera so headed off for Enoshima.

From Sagamihara to Enoshima ended up taking two hours, I could have cycled faster! And when we got there it was rammed and there was nowhere to park. In the end we found an icecream shop that gave you 1 hours free parking so I got a waffle cone with Strawberry cheesecake and choclate icecream and then wandered around to find some good picture spots.

As we were near the Enoshima train line we thought about taking some pics near there. My, there are so many train geeks in Japan, turned out 4 or 5 people were hanging around to take pictures of the trains! Any took some pictures and experimented with the settings, it was interesting. Afterwards we headed off.

Sunday was just a bit of shopping and relaxing

Visit from a few friends part2

Wednesday 24th September was visit Tokyo day.
We started by going to the Imperial Palace gardens in the centre of Tokyo. I've tried to visit here before but everything they have been closed so it was nice for me to see them.
Afterwards we grabed a sandwich from a sandwich restaurant on the corner across from the enterance and then went on to Harajuku. Here was looked at the Meiji temple and was disapointed not to see any strangely dressed Japanese teanagers!
Next we went to Shinbyu to get some pictures of the famous road crossing to is shown at least once in any western film that is shot in Japan (Fast and the furious Tokyo Drift, Lost in Translation etc). After this we raced to Yokohama to get to the top of the Landmark tower before the sun started to set. We got there about 10 minutes before and watched the sun setting over the mountains with Mt. Fuji just visable, very beautiful. I always used to wonder the facination with Mt.Fuji but have climbed it, driven past it and seen it from many view points including a sunset it does have a magical quality about it.
To finish off we headed into Yokohama China Town for some dinner and then headed home.
Thursday 25th Del headed off to visit his mistery woman friend in Australia and Colin and Jenny travelled to Kyoto and Nara to arrive back in Hon-Atsugi late Saturday.
Saturday Emi and I did a lot of window shopping although Emi did manage to find something to buy. However it was to prove an expensive trip for me as on the Sunday I bought a pair of trainers and a Digital SLR!
Monday was Colin and Jenny's last full day in Japan and we had planned to go to Tokyo Disney. As luck would have it it rained all day, even worse than Fuji-Q! The strange thing was the rain was heavy all day and it was a weekday so we expected it to be quite quiet but actually it was heaving. It has put me off ever going again, I can't imagine how bad it must be on a sunny weekend. We all had a good time although we were soaked through most of the day.
On the Tuesday I went to work as usual while Colin and Jenny went back to the UK.
It was really good to be able to show some of my friends a taste of Japan.
Living out here can feel very lonely at times without the company of your friends so you really appriciate it went you can spend time with some of them.
Sorry there are no pictures with this issue. I was planning to post a picture of sunset from Yokohama but my camera's memory stick has been corrupted for some reason :-(

Visit from a few friends part1

On Thursday 19th September 3 friends from the UK arrived in Japan: Del, Colin and Jenny. It wasn't a good start - Del missed his plane having only left East London 2 hours before his flight was due to take off and the Heathrow train was delayed for 30 minutes, Silly boy! Luckly for him BA have 2 flights to Japan per day so he got the next flight in 2 hours, all other carriers dirrect to Japan have only one flight per day, Luckly boy!
They all arrived safely albeit a little late and due to not following the detailed direction and map to my apartment. After a bit of a rest we went to the local Okanomiyaki restaurant.
Friday we headed off to Fuji-Q Highland. I've meanted this in previous report, it is a theme park at the base of Mt.Fuji and has beautiful views on a nice day. Unfortunately for us at about 1pm it started raining so they closed all the big rides, boo! We did manage to get in one big ride before the rain and kept ourselves amused on the other rides. We traveled by a rental Nissan Skyline 250GT and with exception for the very Japanese AT gearbox it was an awesome car, should give Merc and BMW a good run for their money when Nissan introduces Infinity to West Europe.
Saturday 20th was a highlight of their trip for me as we went to watch Sumo. We arrived at about 1:30pm and it wasn't so busy as early in the day it is the small fry. By late afternoon it was very busy and there was a really good atmosphere. There were many matches and some of them were a bit boring or over too quick. However some were really gripping and exciting, particularly when the crowd got excited. I am were glad I finally got to experience this - last time I was in Japan my first atempt I was ill so couldn't go and second time all the tickets had sold out.
Afterwards we walked to Asakusa, then got various metro trains to Shinjuku and ate in a restaurant on the 8th floor of Odakyu department store. Was a little expensive and portions were small but to taste was awesome - one of the best steaks I've had. After that is was back to Hon-Atsugi and onto a little karaoke. Planned to go for only a hour or 2 but ended up staying for 3 hours. The problem always is people are initially shy but as you get into it it is great fun and you don't want to leave!
Sunday we got up very late and headed into Machida, nothing particularly interesting.

Still there...

Monday evening I met up with a bunch of mate's in a pub at Liverpool St. when they finished work. After lots of banter we then headed off to the local chinese for some grub. It was great to see the guys after so long.

Tuesday I met up with some more friends - Mary and Ruth Hand plus their husbands and their new children. Mary had one child when I went to Japan the first time but I had seen either Mary of Ruth before I went back to Japan. Now the child tally between them is 3! Things change fast.

Wednesday I returned to Northampton, had a bit of a read in the hotel and then went to The Mail Coach in town with a few friends. I had my usual there - Goat's cheese and roaster red pepper hamburger, yum yum! - and washed that down with some good old room temperature English beer.

Thursday I went to the Carpenters Arm's in Cranfield for lunch, meeting up with a few guys from work and also Mike who retired from work the year before. Again it was good to meet up with people that hadn't seen in a long time. In the afternoon I went over to my mate Nick's and made a nuisance of myself at his house. I also got a ride in his E30 M3 BMW than had a 2.5 engine, Bilstein dampers and Eibach anti-roll bars fit since my last ride. It was pretty close to my personal perfection, the ride and handling from the passenger seat was much improved. Also in the afternoon we headed over to my house and opened the garage - behold there was my AE86 Toyota Levin in all it glory. There doesn't appear to be any problem with rust and other than a bit of dust it looks even better than I remember it. I know it is sad but I gave it a kiss before I left - don't tell Emi!

Friday I spent the morning in work and was filled in the various things going on while I'm on the other side of the world and then was off to Heathrow to return to the second best country in the world. Met up with Mum at the airport, had a little bit of food and then the usual tearful farewell as I disappeared through security.

The flight itself was not the most pleasant as I had to travel economy for the first time in about 4 years - it is amazing what a different premium economy makes and business is just incredible by comparison (I have been spoilt in the past haven't I!) Also was also stuck with the same films, I was so desperate that I even managed to sit though 20 minutes of Speedracer. At least the food was tasty and I got loads of sleep.

Back in Japan I headed home to see Emi's big grin as I entered the apartment. I might have left my favorite country in the world but now I was with my favorite person in the world!

The Greatest country in world!

On Thursday 4th August I flew to the greatest country in the world: so Great that the word is used in the name and so important it is in the centre of nearly every world map - that's right I returned to Great Britain, land of the free and home of the brave...

I had a pleasant flight with ANA in premium ecconomy. The food was good but the movie selection pretty poor. However the highlight was watching the Japanese film "Half a Confession" (Japanese title "Han-ochi"). A respected police officer arrives at a police station and says he has murdered his wife, however he has only confessed having killed her 3 days earlier. He will not say why and the police try to cover up the story from the media. As the film progresses you learn little by little what happened, bringings a tear to the eye. One word of advice - make sure English subtitles are on!

Landed at Heathrow, headed off to work in cab to collect a pool car and then raced back down the M1 to Mum's. I was greated with a big smile, big hug, big kiss, big mug of tea and big plate of bangers and mash with gravy - good to be back!

Friday Mum, Bill (the man in mother's life) and I traveled to Gloucester in preparation for my cousins wedding. Note much to note other than the Premier Inn having a nice pub next door that did good food - rather than the usual dive they usually have in the vacinity.

Then Saturday afternoon we headed of to Cranham church all suited up. It is beautiful church to have a wedding in but unfortunately the sun gods weren't shinning down on us as it rained all day, as it had for the 2 or 3 days before!

The reception was in a marque in a neirbours field which would have been a big problem if it were not for the excellent preparation of everyone involved - gravel and matting had been put down. The glass of champagne upon getting undercover was gladly welcomed. After chatting with the extended family it was time for food. All I will say is it was probably the best wedding food I am every likely to taste, it was absolutely spot on. Onto the speeches - amusing without being vulga - and then disco time! I needed the prerequist 2 or 3 beers before I started tapping my right foot to the beat but after being forced on to the dance floor I did my (drunken) thing and sang along at the top of my voice.

Sunday morning I woke up feely rather good, I hadn't gone silly the night before despite the free beer. Just as well as at my age (28) hangover come all too easy. Over to Auntie Sylvia and Uncle Keiths and then on to a lovely pub in the middle of nowhere - litterally surrounded by fields and only accessed by 3 or 4 miles of rough country lanes. Good grub and company and then it was time for travel back to london.

"You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

Saturday 30th August Emi was heading off to visit her mother.

Before she left we went to Salvatorie's pizzoria in Hon-Atsugi, one of a chain of resturants in Japan. Salvatorie grew up in Japan the son of an Italian father and Japanese mother. Unlike most pizza resturants/take away place in Japan he speciallises in Italian style pizza rather than your usual Pizza Hut/Dominos American style with lots of strong flavoured toppings. I do love a good Pizza Hut but it was nice to have something a littl more subtly flavoured. (Note: picture taken from the website!)

After Emi left I spend a few too many hours stealing cars, getting into gang shootouts and doing a bank job with a guy known as Packie (no, not in the rasist nick name for someone from Pakistan but short for an Irish chap called Patrick) - Yes I was playing Grand Theft Auto 4 again.

In the evening we rented The Italian Job, I thought it would be interesting film to watch as a climpse into UK culture.

Sunday morning was appartment tidy up time which I never enjoy but this was followed up with a reward for my trouble. I love ramen (noodles in soup) and Emi had discovered there was a ramen resturant just across the road from Hon-Atsugi station i.e. about 2 minutes walk from our apparetment! We headed off there for lunch and oy was it tasty! I recommend anyone visiting Japan to give it a try, particularly in one of the small ramen-only resturants rather than a normal type resturant.

In the afternoon we went shopping for some item required when my friends would come to visit - extra knifes and forks, extra set of bedding and a few other bits and pieces.

Photography day

Emi's mother is really into her photography. She knew I had a sporty car so she wanted to take some pictures of it. (BTW Emi's mothers name is Yoko-san or just Yoko in English, I'll use this from now on as it is easier to type. Emi's mother - If you are reading this I hope you are not offended!)
On Saturday 23rd August Emi and I headed off to Yoko-san's appartment, loaded up the car with photography equipment and mother and headed off. Yoko-san's had already done some research and had found an interesting spot for the pictures so we headed off there.
Problem no.1 was that it involved heading down a dirt track and it had rained heavily the night before. This meant that my newly washed car arrived at the scene with muddy wheels! However I was careful enough that the bodywork was still clean.
We spent the next 2 or 3 hours with Emi, Yoko-san and I taking pictures of the car from various places, angles and cameras. I was really enjoyable and I think it has re-ignited the small photography bug I inherited from my father but have never done anothing with, we will see. After the photo session we dropped Yoko-san and her equipment off and then headed home.
In the evening Emi and I went to Toho Cinema in Ebina to watch the new Batman film. People have being going on about how great it is and it will win lots of Oscars. I think the story is very good but the film editing is very poor and there are some superfluous scenes that could have been deleted. So it was good but could have been even better.
Sunday was nothing particularly interesting, just went to the new Mega Donkihote store in Hon-Atsugi and watched the F1 race in the evening.

Summer holiday part 3 - Friday-Monday

Friday through Sunday Emi and I went to Kamakochi. This is a place in the "Japanese Alps" in Nagano that is very popular for walkers and mountain climbers in the Summer.

We travelled there by 2 or 3 trains and finally a coach on the Friday.

After arriving we walked along the river that runs through the centre of the area. We started at the visitors centre, south down the river to the end of the area and then back again to find our hotel. On the Saturday walked up to the north part and then on the Sunday we walked back to the visitors centre and travelled home.

It was a really nice place to visit as you can see from the pictures. The views are nice as is the atmosphere. It feels very nice to be surrounded by nature when most of the time you live in a concrete jungle.

We had missjudged how long the walking would take so we ended up finishing early on Sunday so desided to travel Matsumoto and have a look around before getting the train home. The main attraction of Matusmoto is the castle that you can see in the pictures. You can travel up the castle and there is mini museum inside. However don't go on a busy day as it gets crowded inside very easily - the stairs are so narrow and steep that it takes people a long time to go up and down.

On the Monday we just relaxed to prepare for the return to work on Tuesday. Only thing I can remember doing is polishing my work shoes!

Summer holiday part 2 - Monday-Thursday

Monday Emi was meeting one of her friends and left me with a task - to retrieve her bicycle from work. So I walked for 20 minutes in the baking sun to her work place and then spent to next 20 minutes looking for her bike as there were hundreds. In the end it was parked where I had started looking only first time around I missed it! I rode it home and then though I'd give it a little TLC.
I rode to the local bike shop to use their pump to put some air in the tyres, I put some lube on the chain and bearing areas and cleaned the frame up with WD40 to stop it going rusty. I then decided as it was a nice day that i'd go for a ride. From Hon-Atsugi I rode past my work and on to Up-Garage (used car parts shop), then up the 129 and across to Aiko-Ishida to visit Part-Off (another car parts place) and then back to Hon-Atsugi. The bike was much better for the lube and air and I got a little fitter - the ride was about 15-20km in the end.
Tuesday started off with a visit to Autobacks in Hon-Atsugi with Emi. I was after some car wax and couldn't finger out what all the different products did on my own. After about 45 minutes we bought one and headed on to a hand car wash place in Aiko-Ishida.
Put 500 Yen in the machine and I had a jetwash for 12 minutes, managed to get it very clean. Afterwards wiped all the water off, used some special windscreen cleaner and fitted some new wipers. Then once we got home Emi cleaned the Leather seats with some special wipes, I cleaned the plastic interior parts with some more wipes and then used some AC cleaner spray. At the end of the day I was quite satisfied with the interior - very clean looking, feeling and smelling - but not so happy with the exterior - found 10 stone chips on the windscreen and plenty on the body.
In the evening Emi threw some onion, cheese, potatoe and eggplant together to make a wonderful dinner.
Wednesday Emi and I went to Yunesan in Hakone, a water park with a different. Most water parks have many water slide and a big swiming pool. This place had lots of little pools each with a different theme. Some where just hot water and you sat surrounded by rocks, one the water had Japanese green tea in it, another had some red wine (and lots of red colouring) in the water etc. The strangest and nicest part was "Doctor Fish". Basically you put your feet in a pool and these little fish nibble on your feet eating dead or injured skin. Initial it feels very strange but after a while it feels very nice!
Thursday was a bit of a lazy day as we where going on a trip Friday-Sunday. However when I wasn't relaxing I was waxing the car. It reminded me why I never waxed me previous car, it is such a ball-ache. 2 hours of sweat and struggle and what had I achieved? I could now clearly see 7 years of paint damage, marks, stone chips and scratches. What a reward!

Summer holiday part 1 - Friday-Sunday

My summer shutdown started on Friday 8th August, Emi's started on the Saturday.
My Friday was spent mostly driving/running around the streets of Liberty City stealling cars, killing drug dealers and I shot a bent Lawer out of a 3rd floor window with a shotgun - I played lots of Grand Theft Auto!
Satruday I met up with Emi, she had spent to Friday night with her mother. When she got to the station she called me and told me to be careful of the rain - looked out the wind and there was no rain. Picked up the unbrella, openned the door and it started to rain. I got half way to the station and it became the heaviest rain I've ever seen, let alone walked in. The umbrella was useless as the splashing on the ground was getting me wet so I ran to the station. Apartment to station only took about 1 minute but I was soaked through!
As the rain was so hard we went to MyLord department store to a resturant. Half way through our lunch there was a power cut that lasted about 20 minutes.
After lunch we headed off to Virgin where I bought 3 CDs and then pottered about the rest of the day.
In the evening we watched Laurence of Arabia. It was rather interesting but we didn't realise it was more than 3.5 hours long so we got to bed later than planned!
Sunday we headed off to Asakusa. There is an area that sells plastic food and I wanted to buy some for my brother as he is a chief. While there I also bought some Japanese drum sticks for my car buddy Nick. We spent ages walking around looking at plastic food so we spent most of Sunday wandering the streets of Asakusa.

Hanabi at Hon-Atsugi!

Hanabi is Japanese for fireworks festival.
Every year every major town or city in Japan has a fireworks festival and on Saturday 2nd August it was the turn of Hon-Atsugi.
We didn't visit much during the day, basically a number fo the streets were closed and there were plenty of stalls selling the usual tat and unhealth but tasty food. There were also 2 or 3 places where there was live music - some of it sounded pretty good, some of it was truely dire!

In the evening we headed off to the side of Sagami River where the fireworks were to take place. We had reserved out place earlier in the day - the Japanese are like the Germans - and we grabbed some food on the way. The fireworks were very pretty but as you can see for some of the pictures we had some problems. Unfortunately were we near to the main thoroughfare and people were walking along this the whole time except when the stopped to watch the fireworks of course. The Japanese Police that were patrolling this were as expected a total waste of space, shouting into there loud speakers which no one could hear and doing little else. A number of people were shouting agressively for people to get out of the way, even Emi joined in!

Afterwards we headed home and the police of some reason directed everyone away from the main 15m wide enterance/exit south down the river. When we got there there were thousands of people climbed up the river bank to pass though a 5m gap in the security fence, this was the exit the police had directed us to. To say I was pissed of would be an understatement, I wanted to swing at one fo the police men!

On the Sunday Emi headed off to see her mother so I spent some time playing Grand Theft Auto on PS3. In the afternoon I met up with Jamie to watch "The Happening". Don't bother to watch this film - a good story but the end of the film and the acting, particularly by Makr Walberk was very poor. Also some of the characters were very strange without adding anything to the story line.

Into Top Gear

During the week I had discovered a websote where I could download the recent series of Top Gear. Therefore on Saturday 26th I downloaded the whole of the latest series. Those of you that say that is illegal, I am still paying my TV licence while in Japan so I feel I have the right to download it, I have paid for it!
As Emi was out I basically watched some Top Gear, some Peep Show DVDs and got my hair cut, nothing too exciting.
On Sunday I met up with Emi for some lunch and went into Tokyo. Unfortunately my notes of that weekend are rubbish so I can't remember exactly what we did other than we visited Yodabashi Camera in Shinjuku.
In the evening we rented the DVD "The Brave One", it is rather good.

BBQ by the river

Saturday 19th July Emi and I joined one of Emi's friends Yuki and her palls for a BBQ by a river. I can't remember exactly where it was but it is about half way from where I live to Mt.Fuji.



As you can see from the pictures the view was was good. Also the Japanese were like the Borg - they just set everything up without more than a few words said ebtween them. Also they were very good at preparing the food and getting it all cooked, much better than us Brits!
It was a really nice day in the sun.
The funiest part was when another Nissan guy came over the speak to me. He worked on the GTR engine and had driven a GTR for the first time earlier in the week. He was also very drunk. The conversaion went like this:
"You know GTR"
"Yes"
"It has best acceleration, it has best...cornering, it is the best car in the world"
"Really?"
"have to driven one?"
"No"
"It has the best acceleration...cornering, it is the best in the world"
"Realy?"
"have you driven one"...
Sunday Emi was visiting her mother again so I met up with Jamie and went to Yokohama.
In the Red Brick building (I believe it was an amour store used in WW2) there are various shops and resturants. One of the resturants is a Burger chain whose other 3 resterants are in Santa Cruz (USA), and 2 in Hawai. The choice was very good - you could pick different bread/rolls and cheese plus get extras like bacon - and the taste was very good also. I'm not sure if it was better than MOS Burger but it was very good. Only way to tell would be with a Burger-off!
In the evening I was on my own so rented Death Proof from Tsutaya. Strange film, not realy sure if I like it or not. It might be one of those that had hidden elements to get behind, maybe a second viewing is required.

Hotest day of the year so far

Saturday (12th) was not too interesting. B asically Emi and I popped into Machida and i ended up buying a couple of CDs from HMV.
On the Sunday we went to Emi mother's apartment in the car. On the way we stopped of to eat some Ramen, it was rather good. Emi's grandmother was visiting so she came down to say hello to me. I tried my best Japanese and made a slight faupas - to show my command of the Japanese language I used a little informal Japanese which apparently was rather rude!
Afterwards Emi and I headed off to Konami Sportcentre in Ebina where we should get a Nissan discount. Emi was OK but I wasn't bcause although I had my Nissan pass with me I aparently needed Japanese national insurance number. This made me very mad and I was going to kick up a stink about them being racist but they let me have a trial membership for the day so I calmed down. Having not swam in ages I only managed 1/2 a mile in two goes rather than my old mile non-stop, I was absolutely exhausted.
Sunday was also one of the hotest days of the year so far, it was somewhere in the 40s (in new money, over 100 in old).

Hard and low

Saturday 5th July was car tuning time.
I met up with Hirakawa-san and headed off for some tasty Ramen at his favourite ramen shop.
After that it was off to his parents house to fit some bits.
I had bought a NISMO suspension kit for my Nissan Silvia but had desided to fit it. The standard suspension is rather good but the NISMO kit lowered the car so it would look better!
It was very hot and humid, I can't imagine how much body mass I lost in sweat. After about 2 hours it was all fitted and the car looked good.
Initial impresions are that it is way to firm for driving in the UK, the buffer clearance is not enough at the front and the rear rebound damping is too much - sorry for the techy talk.
In the evening I met up with Jamie and went to watch Indian Jones film. I wont spoil it for those that haven't seen it but it had some good bits and bad bits but I am glad I watched it.
After the film Jamie and I met up with Mark and wne to MacArther's Garage for a few drinks.

Sunday Emi was at her mothers.
I decided I would ride to the nearest gym that gave me a discount for working at Nissan. I checked it on the map, hopped onto EMi's bike and off I went. After about 45 minutes I could see NTC (Nissan Technical Centre) which was in the next city so I knew I had missed it!
Instead I headed off to QB at Akio-Ishida.
This is a marverlous hair salon. Turn up, put 1000 Yen in a machine, take a ticket and wait in the queue. When it is your turn sit in the seat, tell them how you want your hair - in my case "3 milli kudasai (3 mm please) - and in 5 minutes my hair was cut. When they had finished they put a funny tube on your head and vrooooom. They fuuny tube is a vacuum cleaner that removed all the cur hair! In the end it took 10 minutes, very stereotypical Japanese efficiency.
In the even i met up with some guys over form the UK for food at Outbacks in Ebina. because of this I missed the British GP but I did get to watch it a few weeks later. Hamilton was lucky but then again Ferrari were playing "my first F1 race" and making all sorts of mistakes from bad strategy to a poorly setup car for Massa.

GT5 completed!!!

On Saturday Emi headed off to her mothers appartment again. I ended up spending more hours than someone should playing video games continuously and managed to complete GT5. To be honest I was quite disapointed - I bought the Ferrari F1 car, started a race and went straight off the track! The handling is rubbish with slow steering (which cannot be adjusted) and large delays to steering. F1 cars are meant to have quick steering and quick responses but this was the total opersite.

Sunday Emi went to meet up with one of her college friends and I was on my tod again. Just as well to be honest because I felt rough most of they day and didn't get up to much. In the afternoon when Emi had returned we went to Ina Cafe for a snack that ended up being dinner and a nice desert. In the evening I met up with Mark Anderson from work who had arrived in Japan for a 2 week business trip.

One even in the week I saw the moon behind the clouds and thought it would make a good picture. Once again my 5 quid mini-tripod work wonders.

The sound of music? I don't think so...

Nothing much happened this weekend.
On the Saturday (21nd) Emi went to meet her mother and I was left to my own devices. I sent a lot of time playing GT5 as I wanted to complete the game so I could go onto playing the new Grand Theft Auto game.
In the afternoon a paid a visit to Autobacs and made a couple of purchases:
*Wheel spacers - have decided that I couldn't justify spending 1000 quid on a new set of wheels and tyres I wanted to still do something with the standard wheels. Nissan's tend to have very large tyre to body clearances and have the wheel set too far into the body - great for a country where people fit snow chains everytime is snows (Japan) but doesn't do much for the look of the car. I bought a set of 4 5mm wheels spacers to push the wheels further out to improve tings a little. The fronts now look about right but the rears are still set too far in but 5mm is the furthest you can go.
*The car makes many funny noises because Nissan spent all its budget on the drivetrain and suspension, leaving little for PQ (Perceived Quality - nice sounding doors when they close, sunvisros that don't make a loud banging noise etc) and NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness). As such the gearbox whines all the time - not that the gearbox has a problem, journalists mentioned this on vehicles when it was launched - and above 60km/h there is lots of road noise from the rear. Therefore I've bought some sound deadening material to reduce the noise although as I write this I still haven't fitted it!

Sunday there was not much to report either. Emi went to her mothers appartment and the only note I've made for the day was the French GP which was a disaster for Lewis Hamilton and again makes you wonder if Ferrari are running the FIA with a damaged car not being called into the pits to be repaired.

More driving - this time the weather was dry - Pt2

As you can see from the pictures and desciptions I headed back to Izu/Hakone area on Saturday 14th June. This Barry Connolly was along for the ride and the weather was much nicer than the last time! Highlights:

*Caught up a Ruff CTR - highly modified Porsche 911 - on the Izu Skyline. The main problem was that I couldn't overtake him because eveythime the otherside of the road was clear he would drive down the middle of the road so I couldn't get past! What a plonker...

*Sorted out the ticket system on the Izu Skline. Rather than paying 900Yen, travelling to the end and then returning only to get a right telling off for not having left the road (because I would have to pay another 900Yen) I only paid to get to the first stop but traveled the full length of the road. I then came off at the first stop, re-entered the Skyline again and exited at the start point. I didn't get told off because I had the right ticket and ended up only paying 300Yen so saved myself 3 quid!

*Got to the 5th station t Fuji and it was very cloudy. Barry and I walked over the the shops and as we returned to the car saw there was a clear view of the top of Fuji. We ran back and tried to take loads of pictures before the cloud covered it up again. I thing the picture look rather good, don't you?

Having left the Ashinoko Skyline there is a narrow winding road that leads back to Route 138. We were behind a Series 1 Lotus Espirt with overfuelled Dellorto carbs who was himself behind some slow moving people carrier. After a couple of corners the MPV pulled over and the Espirt started going a little faster. As the corners were slow and tight I though it was a safe place to practice some power oversteer - basically getting into the corner, giving it full throttle, wait for the turbo boost to rise, the rear wheels start to loose grip and come around. This was great fun but it seemed to scare the Espirt who was in front who within a few corners put on his wanring lights and pulled over to let me past. Now I could drive quicker and powerslide and left him behind until you caught up some people cruising on motorbikes and had to slow down.

Saturday afternoon to Sunday was the LeMans 24hr race in France. Luckily SPEED on the US had full coverage for the full 24 hrs and I managed to get in about 8 hours. It was really interesting to watch, particularly the last 2 hrs as the Audi, then Peugeot, then Audi again were going fastest. Audi won the race in the end making every LeMans victory this century an Audi victory (Bentley have won once but they are owned by Audi).

More driving - this time the weather was dry!!!

Saturday 14th June.
A picture says a thousand words:
Hakone (Toyo Tyres) Turnpike










Pretty view from Izu Skyline - looks like Monte Carlo!









New Nissan GTR on Izu Skyline










R31 Nissan Skyline









Ashinoko Skyline









Ashinoko Lake, Hakone









Mt.Fuji from Fuji 5th Station Car Park












Fuji Speedway enterance