Life in Japan - Pictures galore !! Arcades, Temples, Rainy days, etc

Nice pictures Tatsujin, you got a good seikatsu there!

 

Some nice pictures there Tatsujin. The place were you live looks more "Inaka" than were I live Hahahaha. Well, maybe not but there does seem to be a lack of anything bar apartments.

Yakumo

 

Oh yes..I foun..err..my wife found a nice place to life. the nature is growing around, but the "big dirty city" is next to us too^^

but the main reason of choosing that location is my short way to my work. it takes me just 20 min. by the bus or about 8 by bycicle, which is quite short for a japanese tsûkin! :lol:

 

Last night or should I say this morning around 3am I decided to take a walk around the unknown areas of Chofu, the town where I live (not the one in Tokyo). Chofu is famous for ancient buildings and samurai tales etc. Anyway, I took a walk up this mountain where I had never been before. It was pitch black until I reached the end of the trail. I could see some lights ahead so I thought maybe there was some construction going on. I was very surprised to see a really creepy old looking shrine !! The lights made things look even more creepy due to the low light. I took a few pictures with my phone but thanks to only having 1 battery bar left the flash wouldn't work so I had to make do with normal and night vision shots. Anyway, take a look at these pictures and tell me if you think this place is as creepy as hell. Remember I was the only one there in the dark in the middle of nowhere !! I felt chills down my spine as I was taking these shots. I wanted to get more but thought it would be better to leave.




Oh and here's a picture of the sunrise over the see I took last week.



Yakumo

 

Yakumo, stop messing round now and adopt me damn it!

 

no problem as long as you pay me shit loads of cash

Yakumo

 

A few more pictures from today's travels. First up is a very nice set of cute toilet doors :lol: found in Sega World


Next up is yet another temple shot. I hate new year in Japan. Too much messing about with temples ! At least this one looks nice.


And here's the view from infront of that temple pictured above. As you can see it's actually quite a fair bit above the sea level.


Yakumo

 

Yakumo: the nightvision pictures of the little shrine makes me dream and think of old, and perhaps ancient ninja, and Japanese martial arts tales. And I wish I could sit there and meditate

 

Now things like this shrine would be areas that I'd be most interested in visiting if/when I ever get to Japan! Excellent pictures Yakumo...they really convey a great sense of mood and atmosphere for some reason.

 

No pictures from the huge snowfall ?

 

nah, that's miles away from here. Where I live there is no snow now. The place that's covered in snow is way up at the top of Japan.

Yakumo

 

I love those temple pics you keep taking. Japanese temples are so beautiful, more more morrrre please (^_^)

Oh and if your at another temple anytime soon could you get me a omamori as my mum nicked the last one you sent to me hehe.

 

will do mate. Actually I can give you the old one from the car if you want that. looks nice and clean (^v^)

Yakumo

 

Yeah ill have your old one from your car, is there any good luck left in it or has it all been used up by you doing initial D powerslides at night (^_^)

 

hahaha, well I haven't scratched the side yet so there must still be power in it. I love my new little box car. So tinny yet so big if you know what I mean. I'm thinking of changing the gear ratio though. It takes off like a dart but from 3rd to 4th gear takes too long for my liking and 4th to 5th could do with a little adjustment as well.

Yakumo

 

I got another train all to myself today for 3 whole stops !! It was quite spooky to be honest.



Yakumo

 

Few new pictures taken tonight at around 10pm

Shimonoseki port next to the aquarium


Shimonoseki Tower - better known as the big nob :lol: Believe it or not but I actually got really close to the tower, pulled out the phone, pressed the shutter button and off went all the lights !! Can you believe that? Just like out of a movie or something.


Yakumo

 

Tonight I went to eat Yaki Tori which basically translates to grilled chicken. Japanese say that the best Yaki Tori restaurants are the dirtiest ones. This sounded really stupid when I first heard this years ago. I though, who wants to eat in a shit hole but it actually turns out to have some truth. So don't be alarmed by the "shittyness" of this place that I took the pictures in.

To start off this little feature I'd better introduce some of the food. Of course there's the obligatory beer which has some grilled spring onion and sausage near it. Just behind the beer you can see torikawa which is chicken skin and dango which is meat ball. Both of these are covered in a sweetish type of source. Next to them there's some dry curry rice which is very hot yet delicious. The dish looking all lonely in the corner is grilled pork. There was some daikon (radish) and eggs but I eat them.


Below you can see some fried fish with shreded cabbage. Yep, the Japanese love to eat raw shredded cabbage. Actually I love that stuff. The actual fried fish taste quite nice with the lemon squirted all over them or at least would have done if I hadn't eaten the lemon :lol:


The menu for this place is dotted all over the walls. Below you can see just some of the menu. The rest of it was pasted on another wall :lol:


This is the main dude that runs the place. He's big, bald and very fast ! He never stops moving as you can tell in this picture. When he's not moving he's knocking away beer while cooking. The other staff are an old woman and an old guy who looks about 90 !! And he smokes near the cooking grill all the times !!! This doesn't bother the customers though. Remember, the dirtiest shit hole has the best taste. Actually all the plates and glasses are very clean :smile:


The guy in the picture above loves motorcycle racing which you can tell by the amount of idol posters associated with the sport, dotted all over the walls. The picture in the booth where I was sitting is below.


I originally wanted to take more pictures and a video to show you how small this place was but I forgot my SD card

Yakumo

 

Ah Yakitori - my absolute favourite meal! The best way to have a months worth of salt stuffed into you in a couple of minutes. Agreed about the shitty to quality ratio, plus when you hit yakitori you want to eat a lot - can't do that in a 400 yen a stick place.

Presenting - I pretty much ate all this myself...



Aww I miss japan so much. Bottle of something, nama beer, shocking amounts of very salty food, it is all good.

Oh and needless to say ogura can only make the meal better. Unless your with someone, in which case comparison may make your date seem rather lacking.

 

YUM yakitori, but yakumo wheres the Takoyaki love???

Mmmm takoyaki, its on my list of things to do before i die (^_^)