J. Fox/Sugapopcandy TOKYO/HONG KONG PHOTO DIARY Jan/08

[Justin Fox]

Hi all,

We got back home today and we're glad, but sad to be back. The rainy weather here didn't help (I usually love seeing sunny Sydney from the airplane on the way in) and Tokyo was so damn cool I want to go back straight away.

In any case, here are some pics from the trip (in order), we had an awesome time!

[Justin Fox]

DAY 1 SYDNEY TO HONG KONG.


We flew Cathay so we had to stop off in HK before reaching Tokyo.


Amazingly there were blue skies in HK!

[VTECMACHINE]

More!!! picsorban

[Justin Fox]

DAY 1 HONG KONG TO TOKYO.


We finally got to Tokyo, very late (near midnight). It was 7 degrees cold, really not so bad.


We were greeted by vending machines which Suga got all excited about lol. I dunked an Asahi straight away ($2 it's cheap!).


Red tabs means hot, blue tabs means cold.

[Justin Fox]

DAY 2 TOKYO - HARAJUKU/SHIBUYA.


This is the lift and view on the way down from our hotel room, we're next door to Babalouie (you can see the same building in his photos/photo thread).


The hotel had a few restaurants in it, we forked out for this awesome traditional Japanese Breakfast, too cool.


Found this cool vending machine at Shinjuku station for people in a hurry to eat.


We caught a train to Harajuku to check out all the crazy fashion (lots of it). We also caught up (actually bumped into pretty much!) Mark Pakula (kula) and Charles Kha (speedracr) from Auto Salon Magazine.


Some very cool bikes.


Harajuku had a lot of Melbourne like Stencil Culture, even some Melbourne art there.


Charles made a B-line directly to BAPE.


We headed over to Shibuya next and spent half an hour in an internet cafe where you could watch TV, DVD's, play playstation, read comics, magazines and eat and drink for free whilst you're there from their funky vending machines.


I'm going through a J-Girl book, felt a bit sticky and had many pages ripped out lol.


Blurry shot, but these massive scooters were everywhere. Many of them had after-market exhausts, very loud, low, Tron looking. I loved them!


Charles needed more of a Bape fix so we checked out the massive new one at Shibuya complete with Sneakers on a sushi train system under the floor. No pics allowed unfortunately.


We went to a BBQ which apparently has horse on the menu, shame they were out of horse tonight though, we missed out.


Charles knows how to shop!!!


Shibuya lights.


Insert your own caption.


Enough for a day, sleep early get ready for Tokyo Autosalon the next morning, back to our hotel. Some funky chandeliers in the lobby.

[MiGoreng]

Moar!

[StanTheMan]

Ohhhhh Thats Gold

ROFLMHO





Priceless

[J]

far out, japan looks cooler than i thought, was planning on going this time next year, for Tokyo AS and to check the place out, and of course visit autobacs

[Jazzle]

mmmmooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rr!!!!

[m0nty]

Awesome stuff Justin. I booked my flights for Japan last week. Any tips on the best places to go would be super cool.

[Justin Fox]

DAY 3 TOKYO AUTO SALON.


I get to flick through the latest whilst we wait for Masaki, translator for the Auto Salon boys, to come pick us up and take us to Tokyo Auto Salon (TAS).


To my surprise Masaki rocks up in a Honda Legend (the one with the tricky 4WD and massive brakes). I love it straight away. Super grunty, massive torque.


We see many cops on the way to TAS. I missed a shot of the RX-8 one, they look so hot on the roads.


Hot Soarer on the way to TAS, loved the stance and the sound.


Army choppers in the sky.


We finally get there and this is the first thing we see, a tiny little car, complete with roll cage too.


Then the inevitable happened. I see my very first R35 GT-R. We're all new to it so we all just stare at it and watch it drive past, it's a woman driver and the car has a lot of presence. It's massive in comparison to the R33 in front of it, it's more Maserati like than other cars around it, more super car.


Typical modified Merc in Japan, apparently they like to have them left hand drive as a status thing.


Cube, I dunno, funky but a little too funky.


The first Fit/Jazz we see, they're not very popular in Tokyo. Nice Work Meisters on it too, we even saw a coupe of guys walk around the entire carpark (read: massive) writing down everyones wheel and tyre sizes.


In the queue, this Japanese baby girl was staring at Mark hardcore. Definitely the first ever white person she's seen lol.


Thanks so much to the ASM boys Suga and I both got Press Passes. Only the press were allowed in from the morning until midday.

[Justin Fox]

DAY 3 TOKYO AUTO SALON CONTINUED.


Looking down into Hall 1 of 8 halls. It's already almost too much to handle. Where do we start? It's nuts.


Camera is out, can't focus, just too many hot cars.


Oh OK my 2nd R35.




And a 3rd, 4th 5th etc etc.


Oh OK my 1st new EVO.


Oh OK my 1st WRX. There were so many R35's, EVO's and WRX's I couldn't possibly snap them all. After a while they all looked the same to me so I went hunting for R32 GT-Rs instead

[m0nty]

That Evo X is hawt. I'm sold on them now. It took a while but it's a winnar!!!

[deez]

Awesome pics and photodiary! MOre!!!!

[Frogger]

Looks like you're having a fantastic time over there! LOL @ the baby girl.

[Justin Fox]

DAY 3 TOKYO AUTO SALON CONTINUED.


A real HKS Zero-R. Nice, they got rid of the custom flower wheels... not sure if I liked it, but it was cool to see it in any case.


Yes HKS Group-A car.


I studied it well. I love the ECU braket/holder.


Perhaps the most debated and touched R32 at the event, was it really a CF roof and all CF panels? Nope, perhaps real CF layered on, but it was definitely on metal, kinda lame, sad... but hey...


It had 315 wide rubber on the rear.


My fave R32 at TAS BBS stall, so nice, exactly what I wanted to do. So clean, so ready to rock.


Engine bay.


Nice Trust style rear pods which are shaped into a rear diffuser. Hmmm, might get that me thinks!!!

[Justin Fox]

DAY 3 TOKYO AUTO SALON CONTINUED.


Well prepared D1 Evo. I saw it on the TV in the hotel room the night before watching D1. It's so cool to watch D1 on TV in Japan! It's a lot like our RPM shows where Keiichi hosts the show in a studio, sitting down, talking shit.


Got Aero?


Got CF?


Had to take a pic of it.


New Mugen Fit. I liked it. The new Fit is already out in Japan, the leather luxury interior in it is nice, not decided on the styling of the exterior though. It has LED lights in the side skirts (lol) and it's pretty big too.


New Mugen S2K, no no no no no. Nice that it's subtly wider but that grill has to go.


Team Kunimitsu S2K. Ugly ass kit works well in race trim.


Fastest NA on Tsukuba had a lot of presence.


S2K with Spoon kit. I like it how exposed the front wheel is.


Type-R with very nice offset on the front.

[doofus]

welcome back!

pics are awesome! no s15?

haha

[Justin Fox]

DAY 3 TOKYO AUTO SALON CONTINUED.




Rice but in real life very nice.


Keiichi (on left) is a very short guy.


Cool Saurus logo on a white GT-R which belongs to a girl who is a Saurus customer and writer for Option Magazine.


Go the Cappuccino!


The beast (though not as beasty as the R34 version) revealed.


At the TRD stand, now this was a cool car.


The interior was well lit (show goers take note).


Rear wing went through the lexan rear window.


M goodness at the BBS stand.


Loved it as a kid, they ruined it. Yucky.


Maybe my fave car of the whole show. Subtle is king for me. After seeing all the crazy shit out there I just loved coming back to this and staring at it, dreaming that it could be mine.

[Justin Fox]

Yo cheers doofus

A few S15's were there, not too many. I decided not to take pics as I assumed everyone would. And so apart from these pics, I put the camera away and bought goodies instead!!!

[Justin Fox]

DAY 3 TOKYO AUTO SALON CARPARK.

The carpark was just as cool as inside.


It was cool to stare at these 2 for a whole to see the direct link in shape design of both cars, they are almost identical.


OH HELLO! Famous R.S. AIZAWA NA in the carpark (gawk!!!).

[Justin Fox]

DAY 3 CONTINUED.


Done with TAS (information overload) we went to visit CRYSTAL a car parts shop/workshop somewhere in whoop whoop.


2 floors of well priced goodies and upstairs is this super cool waiting room.


Wheel packages with tyres. Take off a couple of zeros and you pretty much have $AUD.


As mentioned, at TAS, the camera was put to rest and the wallet came out to play!

[supernatural]

wow!!! thanks for the pics!!! fantastic... wish i was there... how long did u and suga stay for? in japan of course

really awesome coverage...

[Justin Fox]

DAY 4 SHINJUKU


So we thought we'd check our own area out today. It was unfortunately raining today, rain + cold weather = crap but we ran into this crazy Irish themed pub called the Dubliners. Beer mmmmm.


Pub even had a real authentic old Irish man inside.


We also found a traditional temple in the middle of the city.


It was pretty, and freaky, bit of both.


We found a local sushi bar, had a massive pot of hot sake to warm up and tried our best to order sushi.


In salt water fish tanks there's a predator that comes with the rock called amantis shrimp, basically they kill your fish, it was on the menu so I had to try it (not very good at all lol).


Our sushi dude was awesome, he even massaged our tuna, which they love much more than salmon.


Typical toilet. Squatalicious!


We then found these little streets and along them these tiny little doors. Every single one of them was a pub. Some were totally whacky and all of them were tiny and could only fit about 5 or so people in each!!!


Tiny!


Mark was dared to walk into one, this one seemed like a friendly one, though the walls and ceiling on the way up were covered in red fluffy stuff, anything could have been greeting us at the top!


Luckily it was a friendly Aussie themed bar, run by an Aussie. We got ripped off, but hey, that's OK, they feed you a little, and charge you for it, they also charge your for simply sitting down. This one could fit 25 people and is the biggest bar on the street (lol). In pic from right to left, Masaki, Charles and Mark.


Mark then dared Charles to go into one called "Fuel". All the bars had closed doors so you really didn't know what was on the other side. This one was tiny, we only just fit inside, and this super freaky dude answered the door and scared the fuck out of Charles lol.


Here's the dude, sorry about the flash, shame as it was fucking dark and scary in there, so much cooler than this pic suggests. He whipped out an ice pick and went at a big block of ice for our Jack Daniels (they served nothing else). We got ripped off hard, about $20/drink. We laughed pretty hard and thought we'd better stop bar hopping for the night.


I was tempted to go to my own bar though lol.


We ended the night in the red light district (Sugas idea) and got ripped off some more. Cool little buggy thing we saw parked there.

[Justin Fox]

Only 5 nights Shaun, not enough