Car fueled Candy bars

Day 6 – Super Autobacs and Roppongi Night Life

Strolling in the door at 7am in the morning does not lend for an awake, alert Kerry, so when the boys said they were going to Super Autobacs I was in two minds about whether  I was up for going or not but decided that it was possibly to good an opportunity to pass up. For those of you non car people Super Autobacs is like Super Cheap, but 10 million bajillion times more awesome. They stock EVERYTHING that you could ever think of to want for your car, so as you can imagine, for car people like us its like kids being in a candy store.

The Super Autobacs is located in Tokyo bay, which is pretty much on the other side of Tokyo from where we are staying, so the train ride was arduous to say the least. I was expecting big things or I was going to be disappointed (I am not afraid to admit it). While were on the train, something amazing happened, a lady came in and was ranting and raving and yelling at an empty seat, yes folks, even Tokyo there are crazys that want their wives cardigan or there cousins head band back (there are videos floating around on youtube that pertain to these references, I suggest you look them up for  hilarity) and even in Japan, the crazies seem to find us. 

We got off the train at Shinanome and shining in the distance like a oracle from Roppongi Jesus, we could see the Super Autobacs sign (cue angels singing) and our footsteps hastened in the direction of car Mecca. On entering there were isles and isles of amazing win!!! If you want a dash table, they have 10 you can choose from, off the shelf coilovers? No worries mate. A set of CR Kais in a choice of offset, you betcha. Words can not describe the awesome that this store holds, and dont even get me started on the car park!!! Amazing Amazing AMAZING!!!!

Dash Tables Galore

Dildos by the Dozen

After many hours of shopping and perusing we headed home, with a quick detour past a icecream vending machine and a Japanese Curry Restaurant staffed by a vending machine. After a short nape with it was Saturday night I decided to head into Roppongi again for a taste of some giajin love. I headed to Gas Panic again and the night went something along the lines of dancing, drinking straight out of a Champagne Bottle, More Dancing, Fire and a Teriyaki Burger from Maccas. Yeah you know, just a normal Saturday night, well actually minus the strippers... but there is always next Saturday 

Love and Dildos 

Miss K 

A wall of Rays

Look how happy Jackie Chan is 

James "Nothing to See here"

Mmmmm Delicious Curry Face

Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Tower in the Background

My new asian friends 

Toyota Auto Salon and a Trip to Shibuya

After the adventures in Roppongi everyone was feeling slightly worse for wear so decided that a day of rest was in order (Roppongi Jesus decreed it to be so) so we didn’t end up emerging from our room until about 3 in the afternoon (although I did walk to the Seven11 in my Pyjamas to get food just because I could). On my visit to Sunshine city yesterday I saw that there was a Toyota Autosalon and I thought it looked like something the boys would like so we headed over to check it. If you like anything car related (and even if you don’t) I recommend that you go over and check this place out.

The first thing that you see when you walk in the door is Gran Turismo simulators, I would like to point out that my driving in games is in no way related to the way that I drive on the street (this is code for I suck at car racing games, or games in general) and I possibly didn’t place very well and possibly crashed, but hey, what evs. There are all sorts of simulator games that you can play on around the building but my favourite would be the crash simulator. It shows you how your car will react in a crash (see being good at crashing does come in hand some days). The highlight of the Toyota Auto Salon for me was the show rooms up stairs and the little girls that go along with this to clean the car of finger prints. Think of a group of synchronised  swimmers on land and that explains these girls, As they walk up to ever car they do a little routine, swish their brushes over the cars and move on to the next one. Pretty Impressive if you ask me.

Driving the Simulator, not crashing at this point

I am a firm believer that travelling is about the people that you meet more than the things that you do, and because of this I don’t like to sit around in the hotel room and instead want to hit the pavements (and bars)*cough* and get amongst it. This is what propelled me towards Shibuya. On a tip off from Marc, I decided to go to Gas Panic in Shibuya and check out the scene. I think possibly because Gas Panic in Roppongi is so amazing I went with unrealistic expectations. The one in Shibuya is an unground smoke filled hovel filled with Nigerians who kept trying to make me go places with them, no thanks mate. The gaijin talent was not to my liking so I decided to call the night quits and head home, or so I thought.The trains in Tokyo stop running about 12.30ish but the JR Lines go until 1, and after a while of aimless wandering I found a way into the station to catch the last train. By golly, I have never seen so many people on a train in my life. It was worse than the North line in Perth in peak hour!!! (Without a word of a lie) I got into the train and the bodies just kept piling on top of me. I remarked to the young man standing in front of me how crazy it was and a friendship was born…

 View of the train Platform for the last train

Meet my new friend, 31, from Chile, living in Tokyo for 11 years, knowns Japanese, Spanish and English fluenty and is learning German (show off). I remarked to him that I was disappointed in the night life in Shibuya and he was shocked, he said that I just didn’t know where to go, and I guess he was right. I was some how convinced to get off the train at the next stop so he could show me some proper night life (I must admit that it didn’t take much convincing),and after all its just one night in Tokyo after all. We got off the train at  Takadanobaba, which is home to some of the big universities in Tokyo, we headed off down some back alley and kept going until we came across a place called Garlic Chips. Garlic Chips is a warm homely bar with spirits bottles lining the walls to the roof and wood everywhere, I guess I felt at ease being there. Having not eaten since lunch time I decided I wanted food, well the menu was only in Japanese so I asked for some chips, and what I got was some Garlic chips, not chips covered in Garlic salt, but actually slices of garlic that were turned into crisps. Needless to say I didn’t eat to many of them. The best thing about the bar was the trashy 90s sound track that was playing in the background. Spice Girls, Maccarena and yep you guessed it, Hanson (this was a request from me, I remarked that it was the only thing that was missing and when I was in the toilet he asked the bar staff to turn it on for me) How can anyone not be happy when Hanson is playing!!!! Next stop was a Mexican dart bar in Shinjuku, very brightly lit and loud with dart games on every TV, who would have known darts is a serious sport. We hung out, we chatted about life, we drank Hoegaarden and when it was time for the first train we went our separate ways. Life is what you make it and random people on the train could turn out to be amazing nights and amazing friends.

 Hoegaarden and Garlic Chips - made from Garlic

Love and Mmm Bops

Miss K

P.S Something that struck me today was a conversation I had in Gas Panic with some Japanese guys, it was really loud and I couldn’t hear what they were saying so they were writing me notes, one of the questions that I was asked was “Are you happy?” without hesitation I answered Yes. Because life is what you make it, and I have made it amazing. 

Kitteh DJ, Mellows out 

Ifuckinglovecolouring

Im good at making friends

Who knows.... Honestly

View from Sunshine City at Night 

A Place called Sunshine

Day 4 - Sunshine City

So the day was slightly overcast so I decided that I would take a walk to the Sunshine City and find me some sunshiney fun times. Sunshine City is a City within a building located in Ikebukuro. As I walked down the street towards the building all I could smell was popcorn, you know that shits got real when you smell popcorn. 

Obviously this little guy isnt happy to be in the sunshine city

Japanese love all things cute and cuddly and this has caused the inception of the kitty cafes. The concept is a room full of cats that just are hanging around doing cat things and you can go and hang out with them and have pats. Pretty sure that these cats were all drugged and overfed because they were really fat and slow and in the 45 minutes that I was there I think I saw about two cats get up and walk around. Not that I am complaining, I dont like it when they run away from me. I was going to try and steal the fluffy white Kitteh for Holly (who pointed me in the right direction for this Kitty Cafe. Thanks you Miss Schmolly) so that Suki would have a friends but they caught me. No Kittys for me :( 

Pat, Pat, Pat, SQUEEZE!!!

Back in the day the Sunshine building was the tallest building in Tokyo, it has now been surpassed by the Tokyo Sky Tree. The Sunshine sky deck still operates and to get up to the top you take a lift that goes 600 mtrs/sec. When you step into the lift, the lady shuts the door and all the lights turn off and you step into a blue light disco. The walls of the elevator are covered in the constalations and the roof is full of stars. All it needs is the dirty porn music and you have yourself a party. I stepped out of the lift to lots of smiling and nodding and was herded to the left where there was a ticket gate. For me Japan is like a game of Russian Roulette, seeing I cant read whats going on I just smile, nod and point at something and hope that I get something good. Todays lucky dip was a ticket to the observatory deck and the Aquarium. Roulette win one!!! From the Skydeck you can see out into all directions of Tokyo, sadly for me it was pretty smoggy so the full affect was hard to see but still none the less, concrete jungle ahoy. 

Welcome to my Disco

I can call my ma from up here "Hey Ma!"

The Sunshine City is made up of four buildings, the Sunshine 60 (where the skydeck is), The Prince Hotel (Hotel and shoppping complex), The World Import Mart Building (Aquarium and Planetarium) and the Bunka Kaiken Building on the far end. After my trip up the sky tower I headed over to the Worl Import Mart Building to go to the Aquarium. It is the worlds highest altitude Aquarium being on the 10th floor of the building. God damn it was packed and pretty sure I was the only Gaijin in there. I wasnt able to get close to many of the exhibits but I guess when you see one fish you have seen all the fish. I did manage to get a balla spot to watch the seals performing though. One of them blew bubbles out his nose, even I cant do that. Hmmm so does this mean a seal is more talented than I am? interesting concept. 

 Yep the seal is wearing a camels head....

And I always got into trouble for sticking things in my nose

I got my ticket for the planetarium and a bit of time to kill before I had to go in so decided to wander around the shops, I happened to stumble across a boy band taking fan photos. Its a band called Smash, apparently they are a big deal from all the screaming and squarking that was going on from the teenage girls that were hanging around. I like how the Japanese a no nonsence, they made a line, ran to sit down, got there shot, nodded and then ran off, I think they were churning out about 4 girls a minute. I guess now I know how I looked like when I met Suffa and Pressure, kinda all dazed and gushy. and you know what I am cool with that. 

This is Smash, they are big in Japan - Apparently

At 4.15 I walked back up the the Planetarium and pretended I knew what was going on when the lady was giving directions. Pro tip, if you dont know whats going on, look around and follow everyone else. We had to line up in groups of 4 and were then ushered into our seats. For those of you who havent been to a planetarium before its a giant dome screen and you lie down to watch it and the picture goes into the dome and gives you a full 3D picture, pretty cool. The only problem is that you are lying down, and there are pretty stars above you and this can make you sleepy. Clearly, ask the girls that were sitting on either side of me as a few minutes in they both were happily snoring away (maybe I will take the time to admit that I may have nodded off for a second or two) Even though I had no idea what they were saying it was still really nice to look at. I think I will head along to one at home when I get the chance cause atleast I can understand whats happening.

Planetarium Projector

I headed back to the hotel to the find the boys drinking cheap whiskey (and I mean cheap, like $12 a bottle cheap)  and getting rowdy, and it didnt take much convincing to get them to come to Roppongi  with me. For those that dont know Roppongi is the dodgy dodgy night club district. Think Northbridge but 10 times more seedy. It is filled with Nigerians that try to get you to come to their bars, American Military guys and lots and lots of drunk Japanese Business men. It is hands down my most favourite place to go out. There is a place on the main strip called Gas Panic, Its a dodgy upstairs bar thats super crowded, very loud and smokey and amazingly awesome. Thursday night is 300 Yen Night, so every drink is about $4.05, there is no cover charge and you can stay as long as you have a drink in your hand. And thats really the end of the story, what happens in Roppongi, stays in Roppongi, well except for Roppongi Jesus, he is everywhere 

After a very rowdy taxi ride home we called it quits, we didnt get arrested and we live to fight another day. Japan I love you

Love and Ground Shaking

Miss K

P.S We also went through our first Earth Quake today, strangest feeling. I thought it was Kev bumping my chair but really it was the ground shaking. I plan to use it as a pick up line next time we go out "So did you feel the earth shaking before? I can rock your world way more" then proceed for some face rape or the like. Its a guarenteed winner. Now I am to scared to use the toilet, what if there is a big quake and I am stuck on the toilet, that would be shitty (only slight pun intended) 

                                                                                    Totoro!!!!

                                                                            Your Mate, Clearly

                                                                             The Real Story 

An angry mountain, cable cars and black eggs

Day Three – Mt Fuji and Hakone

Wednesday morning, bright sun  shiney day and I wake up to Kev saying “Oh Fuck, we have no accommodation!!”  so that’s not ideal. We are heading up to Nihonmatsu on Monday and were expecting to stay at the Urban hotel in the town centre, we got an email from Emily at Powervehicles saying that the Urban had made a mistake and there was no room for us. Ahhhh Crap!!!! So instead of staying in the town centre we are now staying in Cottages that are about half an hour outside of town (but still 15 minutes to the track) and there is no Internet!!!!! OHHHHHHH GOOODDDDDDD WONT SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE KIDS!!!!! But atleast we are still going and we will have separate rooms YAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Todays pro tip, if you need to be somewhere at 9am, leaving at 8am in rush hour trains is not going to work out in your favour. We needed to get to the Hamamatsucho Bus Terminal to catch our bus to go on our tour, and man did we cut it fine, we even got a red dot on our stickers for our troubles (I think the red sticker is what happens when you be naughty….).  We finally boarded the bus and choot choot chugga chugga we were off up the mountain to visit the Goddess.

Yes Hipsters like tours as well 

Here is a bit of back story on the folk history of Mt Fuji, many many years ago there was a Man Mountain  and a Lady Mountain (Fuji) and they used to argue all the time over who was the tallest, to settle the dispute they asked Buddha to measure them and tell them once and for all who was the tallest, so Buddha being a good sport got out his measuring stick and decreed that the man mountain was the tallest, Fuji was so enraged by this that she took the stick and she beat the man mountain so hard that he broke into 8 small little pieces. Bitches be crazy yo!!! I don’t like being this tall but I guess some girls, well they love it. Clearly.  She stands 12385mtrs tall (the 5^th station is only 2305m)

Just Chilling with some angry Bitch in the background

Some other interesting facts about Fuji                                                                                                                                

• Climbing Season is from July 1^st to August 26^th
• During this time the summit is the warmest at about 5 degrees (fuck that for a joke)
• There are 10 stations and it can take about 6 hours to climb
• She was former through volcanic eruptions and is still active but hasn’t erupted since 1707

Its very rare that you get a clear view of her because she is known to be very shy, but she must have heard that we were coming and she got her bits out in preparation. We drove up to the 5^th Station which is the highest point you can go by car and the views were spectacular and you could see for miles in all directions. They even have a post box, so for you special selects (well really only my family because I don’t know anyone elses address) keep your eyes out for a genuine postcard posted from the 5^th station at Fuji. I guess one of the draw backs about being on a tour is that everything is really rushed so we only had half an hour there and by the time I got my postcards done and picked up a few souvenirs it was time to jump back onto the bus and get the heck out of Gotham.

Probably only slot sticking I will get this holiday 

Next Stop was the Hakone Rope Way, think ski cable cars and you are about on the money. You get in the little car and choo choo all the way up to the top and as you go up you get a stunning view of Lake Ashi and Fuji in the distance. We shared a car with some Americans, another Aussie and an English girl. Not Surprisingly, we (or me) were the rowdiest chaps on the tour. After alighting at the top of the rope way, I went for a ride on an Anpanman :D for those of you who don’t know Anpan is a super hero with a bread face and when people are in trouble he lets people eat his face. Kinda creepy but the Japanese lap that shit up. He is also in the Guiness book of records for having the most characters EVER in a cartoon series with about 2000 or so. Anyway I digress, at the top of the rope way is natural hot springs, the legend is that if you eat an egg boiled in the hot springs it gives you seven years of extra life. You can only buy the eggs in lots of 5 so whilst I may have high cholesterol, death cant touch me for 35 extra years. Yeahhhhh!!!!!!! In your face death!!!!!

Yo Kitteh, Im Eating your Egg

Egg that has been cooked in the Hot springs

Egg, Egg, 7 Years

Last stop of the day was a cruise around Lake Ashi, known to the Japanese as Lake Ashinoko – Lake of Reeds. It is said that there was a 9 headed Dragon that lived in the lake and used to eat little children (clearly he didn’t eat enough, those fuckers are everywhere squarking and annoying me) so a Buddist Monk came and prayed and prayed and finally the Dragon went away. There are Tori gates dotted around the lake as shrines for this. We went on a Boat called Victory for some raping and pillaging and a trip around the lake (sadly the raping and pillaging was missing though) I even got my photo taken with a Pirate (as our new friend Ben said, throw Captain Feather Sword and Harry Potter in a blender and this is the pirate you would get). Best thing about this boat was that you could get beer. Kempai to that.  

Back to Tokyo and I learnt that Asians whilst possibly awesome at making food, are shit at directions (translated Kev got us lost) but in the end we found what we were looking for, and really the photos speak for themselves… Enjoy my pretties

Tiggers just love B B Bouncing

Stitch - Sent to this earth to cause Havoc, Yep seems about right

Love and B-B-B-Bounces

Miss K

Some other cool pictures from today 

AnnPan Man

Tori Gate on Fuji

Fuji from the 5th Station

Kicks, Cans and a Crossing

Day Two Japan - The sun is shining and the weather is amazing and after a quick breakfast from the family mart we decided to head off to Harijuku to find the illusive Nike store so that I could order a pair of Nike IDs (kicks that you can design and customise yourself), I have been dreaming about the combinations of awesome that I would be able to make. But sadly this was not to be as they take 4 weeks to make and they wont ship to Australia. I did bear my teeth and threaten to go Godzilla on their arses but I think I may be loosing my charms as this didnt seem to phase them. Bitches!!!! But never fear, there are so many awesome kick shops in Japan so no doubt something balla will be adorning my feet in no time at all.

Harijuku is the tready, fashion shopping districts and one of my favourite places in Japan. So much colour and cute girls. I think I got rolled when buying a hat cause the guy slugged me heaps of tax.... But ahhh well everyone wants a Flat Brim  that says "I Love Hip Hop" because really, I do love hip hop. Pro tip whilst in Japan, stay away from the Nigerians. Dodgy bunch of things that they are.

Before I left for Japan someone suggested that I go to check out a shop called Still Diggin in Shibuya because it had awesome kicks, on googling it, I found out that they also sold spray paint. Well golly did my eyes light up when I saw this, I was wanting to get some paint to bomb our drift car. We headed into Shinjuku and walked around for about an hour trying to find the fucker. The further we got into Shibuya the more Graffitti there was so I was thinking that I had to be on the right track and finally after asking in about 3 7/11 a lovely Canadian guy asked if he could help me and looked it up on a map for me. Thank you Mr Canadian I owe you, we got around the corner to where the store was and there was a sign on the door and the only words I could recognise was 4pm, so I was hoping like hope that it meant the guy would be back at 4. I settled in for the wait and thankfully my dreams had came true, the guy rocked up before 4 and let me into the shop. I was in Can Heaven (think The Butcher Shop but 3 times bigger), the guy also stocks vinyl and some awesome kicks. Worth a trip out if you have any interest in Graffitti or DJing because the guy was super helpful. Also on the way out there, there is a London Police Paste up on one of the buildings :D

This is the London Police Paste Up!!!!

New Paint and Tips!!!!!

Shibuya is home to the busiest 4 way crossing in the WORLD and its an amazing site to see, you can get a great view from the Starbucks so I grabbed a Frappe and went and watched the Koas. The crossing is in front of the stations (which is also the busiest station in the world, with about 3 million people passing through it daily) so everyone leaving the station lines up to cross the road, and when the guy goes green its a constant stream of crossing for a minute and a half. As with everything the Japanese do, they do it with precision, if this crossing was in Australia everyone would be banging into everyone and there would be fights galore, but here everyone is orderly and you can walk across without touching anyone. I walked the crossing a few times today and to be around that many people gives you a view on how insignificant we are as humans.... 

The view from Starbucks

View from Ground Level, CRAZY!!!!!

One of my favourite stories that I have heard is about a Professor that lived back in the 1920s who had an Akita dog called Hachiko. Every morning Hachiko would walk with his owner to the station and the wait for him in the afternoon when he finished work. One day the Professor died so never turned up to the station, but Hachiko continued to go to the station every afternoon to wait for his master until he died himself 11 years later. There is a monument to Hachiko outside the Shibuya crossing and becauseI didnt find it last time so made a special effort to get to see him this time. I gave him a pat for good luck 

Hachiko Statue in Shibuya Station

This afternoon was the way I remembered Tokyo to be from last time. Cruising the streets alone listening to the hip hop and taking in the bright lights. Now its time for a shower and maybe some Roppongi Madness and tomorrow Mt Fuji and the Rope Way. Lifes Good 

Love and Loyalty 

Miss K 

P.S The Boys say Hi and send their love

Here is a collection of photos that I took today

This building was commissioned by the Government to be painted. 4 Floors of Stairwells worth

This Stencil is killa. So Simple but so effective

If I had a poodle I would totally Take it to the Bum Hospital