Slevin_FD

iTrader: (26)

Hey guys. So here is what's going on. Basically half of our local car club has been discussing making a trip to Japan for awhile now, but no one is really taking any steps to make it happen. So I've stepped up to see if it's even possible. Since you guys live over there in the land of milk and honey ...... Or sushi and Sake as the case might be; I thought I'd ask you for your opinions on what to see who's shops to visit and suggestions on the logistical stuff. Ideally we'd be there for about 2 weeks maybe a little more. I figure we could get a rail pass to help with travel and I for one have to stop by RE-A and maybe R-Magic., Mazda museum ect ect Of course there has to be the Shibuya and Wangan visits as well. But anyway, If you could help point me in the right direction to get the ball rolling; I would appreciate the help.

Unreal PR

iTrader: (2)

I actually went to Tokyo this last weekend for 3 days. I went to the R Magic shop and the manager was astounded that I came from the north part of the island to see the shop. They're a really cool crew and their English isn't bad at all. Their circuit FD is beautiful in person.

I haven't got a chance to go to RE-Amemiya, though. RE-Amemiya is east of Tokyo and R-Magic is west. It's not an expensive train ride at all. The only confusing part about it is you'll have to train hop. But if you guys are staying for two weeks, I'm sure you'll see alot of what you want to.

I love Shibuya. You'll have a great time there. Roppongi is a fun spot, too. You just have to watch your pockets or you'll spend too much. If you're looking for a hotel, New Koyo is a cheap spot. It's family own and their English is good. The rooms are small and it's like a 8 minute walk from the nearest train station, but at 2800 yen(roughly $30-$35) it's definitely a good price. Besides, how often are you going to be in the room anyways?

If you still need information, I'll be willing to help as much as I can.

NoviceRotaryTech.

Can we get a rental car and go on a spirited mountain run with it?

Slevin_FD

iTrader: (26)

My short list of shops to visit would be R-Magic, Re-Amemiya, Scoot and Stillway I guess there is one or two I'm forgetting. I need to get a head count for the mazda tour since there is only one English language tour per day. The nerd in me really wants to ride on the galaxy express 999 harbor tour.

Unreal PR

iTrader: (2)

You can actually rent a R35 in Tokyo.

http://www.premium-rent.com/en/cartypes.php

I love Tokyo.

https://www.rx7club.com/far-east-forum-203/used-parts-japan-745106/

That link takes you to other links for shops around Tokyo. Those are mainly general car shops like Auto Zone, but good stops for random stuff.

Slevin_FD

iTrader: (26)

hmmm. GTR for 12 hours at $430 roughly. kinda steep, but 200MPH+ on the wangan....... And we could split the cost.

GodSquadMandrake

When you're planning this stuff out make sure to thoroughly check travel schedules. Japan is small but it can take a long time to get around. So if you want to go to the Mazda museum, it's a day trip to Hiroshima.

I can recommend a day trip to Twin Ring Motegi. They also have fireworks displays here, the Honda Collection museum, and a forest adventure park where you can hiking or zip lining in the forest. This race track is basically in the wilderness, not urban at all. If you walk there from the Motegi train station you can see historical points along the road including Horse Gate Falls which is a place where Samurai used to cross on their horses. It's a quiet and peaceful town, very different from Tokyo.
To get there is a day trip again. From Tokyo you have to take a train for 3 hours, changing stations 3 times. Eventually you'll ride the Moka Tetsudo line from Shimodate station to the last stop which is Motegi. This train is interesting because it's diesel, not electric. At Moka station they also have a steam locomotive and a little museum about the train station. If you come on Sunday you can ride the steam locomotive. There is a squirrel park in Kita-Moka (one station from Moka, also close enough to walk) where you can pay 1,000 yen to feed fat squirrels, deer, rabbits, etc. Fun for the kids.
There's also an Ebisu shrine in Kita-Moka. Ebisu is a god from old Japanese mythology. He's basically the god of beer. So when you go to the temple you can bring an offering of beer and present it at his alter. I'm not kidding you can actually bring a can of Budweiser (available at seven eleven convenience stores with 9,000 locations in Japan), crack it open and set it on the table in front of the idol. It's pretty cool. Twice per year they have a festival where all the men get really drunk and then they carry a giant alter on their shoulders using poles. They move it from one shrine house to the next, twice per year. It's really heavy and the poles are pointy so you need to be drink to do this properly.

If you have a rental car it's great because you can just drive wherever you want. There's plenty of tuner shops around or just an Autobacs is good entertainment. The food is great, Tochigi (this prefecture) is famous for it's gyouza. If you don't know what it is or you've never had it, you'll love it. This is the kind of Japanese food westerner's really like. My favorite ramen shop in Japan is in Moka. It's just a hole in the wall with an 80 year old woman but she's been learning for those 80 years so it's no competition with the chain ramen shops like Ippudo. You're probably thinking "Huh you mean the instant noodles that cost 10 cents?" No this is different. The broth is made from pork bones that are boiled for at least 12 hours, then they add miso paste which is made from soybeans. The noodles are made there, you can watch them stretch the noodles out and cut them. Combine that with a dry tasting Japanese beer, some sake, and gyouza and you'll have the time of your life. Karaoke is mandatory afterwards. Screw Shibuya and all that city life, inaka (country) life is where it's at in Japan.

This area is also fairly close to Tsukuba Circuit, my home course. You can ride the Kantetsu Joso line from Shimodate station to Sodo station in about 30 minutes for a cost of 800 yen. Then you need to either take a taxi, or walk for an hour to get to Tsukuba circuit. The taxi will cost you 2,200 yen. Tsukuba circuit has racing all day every day so don't be shy. You will see something that you like. You can check the schedule on come on the day that is your favorite theme. Like roadster day, Nissan day, Lotus Elise battle day, etc.

So either way I recommend a 2 day trip to this area of Japan. You can check out 2 famous race tracks, some history, great food, great experience. This is my ichibahn area of Japan.

I can recommend city trips, beach trips, camping, whatever your interested in it's here. They even have a nerd city called Akihabara where you can get any kind of perverted anime thing or electronics to build your own computer.

Slevin_FD

iTrader: (26)

We will have to talk about this further. Right now the plan was hit up all the tuner shops we could around tokyo for maybe a day or two. One day in parts hunting, one Day in Hiroshima, and after that I was basically drift around a find something to do.

GodSquadMandrake

Just as a warning so you don't get too disappointed, the parts hunting might not be a great idea right now. The exchange rates flipped and everything Japanese is 40% more expensive than it was before. You may have seen my thread about how the same Koyo radiator that's $300 in USA is $1,000 in Japan. So I'm not sure what the budgets of your club members look like but it's something to think about. If you really want to get down on parts, hit up the Japanese web sites. You can find lots of stuff on Rakuten, Sekimon, and Yahoo auctions JP. There are even mail forwarding websites available if they don't ship Internationally and if you don't want to deal with the language barrier they have services where they will just do everything for you at a 15% surcharge.

But if you really want to go shopping for parts UpGarage is great. The have stores all over Japan and are stacked the ceiling with JDM goodness. Last time I was at UpGarage another earthquake hit and heavy wheels and coilovers started falling off tall shelves and breaking things. The prices there are pretty good on some things too, especially wheels. You can find all of UpGarage's inventory on the Internet too.

I've never been to Hiroshima so I can't say anything about that one. I'm sure you'll find lots of great things to do if you just drift around. Just be careful where you drift too. I'd hate to see your group get into trouble. I've never traveled in a large group of Americans before but I can only imagine what would happen if a large group of Americans tried to go into some small store in Japan. How many of you are there going to be? If there's at least two people it's worth it to get an International driver's license. Mazda has rental cars for as little as 5,000 yen per day and it includes and they have navigation systems in English available. If you had at least 4 people it would probably be best to just hire a translator to follow you around. There's plenty of bi-lingual people that'll do it for a reasonable price. You can hire them off of Tokyo craigslist.

Again maybe I am corrupted because I've been here too long, but be careful about where you drift into. There is one area of Tokyo in particular that is famous for having streets crowded with foreigners. This area attracts a lot of Americans so it's real easy to find. But I don't even want to mention the name because I wouldn't recommend for anyone to go there. It's not because of the prostitues, drugs, or human trafficking that occurs there. It's because there are criminals that prey on foreigners there. You'd never know about this as an "outsider" and for the purpose of promoting tourism to Japan it's kept very quiet. But the Japanese government has been investigating a lot of crimes there. They've found that people are getting pills dropped in their drinks and waking up missing their wallet or worse. I know several people that had that happen to them. In addition some of the clubs have people on the street that speak English and will try to draw you into the club. Then once you sit down and realize the place sucks and try to leave, they hit you with a ridiculous table charge. If you cause trouble they have thugs in the back room that come out. I don't want to scare anybody but I just wanted to tell you up front. If I just said "Stay away it's bad but I can't tell you why. Just believe me because I said so." like the typical paranoid local you'd probably be more curious and go there anyway. But I'm just telling you up front because it's seriously a no good waste of time. Everybody has to go their first time to Japan, and everybody hates it and never wants to talk about it again after that.

If you do want night life there are plenty of great places to get it, just stay away from this "foreigner central" in Tokyo.

Slevin_FD

iTrader: (26)

Personally I'd love to spend a week in the Japanese countryside. Go to an onsen, visit some temples, stand under a freezing waterfall. But seriously, If I can catch some time attack, visit RE-A, R-Magic and Stillway. Do the Mazda and Nissan tours( or Honda/ Toyota) and visit the city briefly, catch a car meet on the Wangan and use the media passes for the Auto salon I'll be perfectly content car wise. But I do want at least 2 days that I can relax at a Ryokan ( think I spelled that right) . I really only want to visit the city because of Akihabara, and to ride the Himiko ( Galaxy express999 harbor tour) If I thought I could live over there I'd be all over it., but frankly I'm not sure how to even start making the moves to do that.

GodSquadMandrake

Well I think you have the right idea Slevin FD. I bet you'll have a great time.

Slevin_FD

iTrader: (26)

There is just so much to do and so little time. I could convince my more financially responsible half to spend 2 weeks in Japan. But the club guys can only really do a week. and honestly I have no idea where to look for places to go and things to do outside of the tourist stuff.

GodSquadMandrake

Do you need more ideas on stuff to do or see?

Slevin_FD

iTrader: (26)

I would like to arm myself with as much information as possible. Otherwise I'll just wind up milling around in Tokyo; just like I wasted a week in New York last year on vacation.

GodSquadMandrake

Yokohama is fun. The Mazda R&D center is here and they do tours. This is where they design rotary engines. You can also go to the Yokohama Ramen Museum, look it up. It's fantastic. An edible museum. Then there is the Landmark tower which is the tallest tower in Japan with a super fast elevator, you can see Fuji from the top. They also have an amusement park and beach in the same area. You can ride the seaside monorail line and view all of Yokohama from an air conditioned train over the sea. There are temples to visit in the same area and you can drink sake that the monk's brew there.

I don't know about the Wangan things sorry. Hmm maybe my life is too boring for you hehe.

GodSquadMandrake

If you make it out to Tochigi, same area as Twin Ring Motegi, you can also visit:
http://www.sakamotoengineering.jp/co_index.html

Slevin_FD

iTrader: (26)

I appreciate all this info. your helping out alot.

GodSquadMandrake

Some friends of mine just back from Osaka. I've never been there but everyone is saying Osaka is so much better than Tokyo and people are so friendly and nice. They said it's like a different country or something. There's even like a rivalry between Tokyo and Osaka apparently. That one would be worth it to get a train pass or something. If you could ride the Shinkansen train with that pass to Osaka it would pay for itself in the first trip. I don't know if those cards work for Shinkansen trains though, I've never even been on one because they're like $100. It would be cheaper fly most of the time, but not faster.

Slevin_FD

iTrader: (26)

I did some research and apparently you can use the rail pass on the highspeed lines. But you have to reserve it before you get to Japan ;(
http://jreast-shinkansen-reservation...ion/Guide.aspx