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

Yep, not my type so that's why I was looking at the guy seriously though, I have no interest in guys

 

He indeed seems to be packin'.

I took a sun flower shot the other day. Will post it soon.

 

I thought I would share this with you.
My fiance had to go to Japan for a few months to help take care of her sick grandmother.
I usually stay at her parent's house when I'm in Japan, but I thought I would take a solo
road trip up to her grandmother's to see her.


I took some pictures along the way and thought I would share with you what Japan outside
of Tokyo looks like.


Now, I did stop at quite a few game shops but I won't be showing too many pictures of
the inside of these shops in this thread. I plan to make a separate thread for just game shops.


The road trip goes from Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture (where I used to live) to a small town called Kanagi in
Aomori Prefecture. The distance is about 240 miles which should take about 4 hours IF
I took the highway. Since highway tolls in Japan are very expensive, I took the surface
roads which doubles the time. I just wanted to take the 'scenic' route anyway.


I took it slowly over the course of 2 days since there were many places I wanted to stop.
The first leg goes from Sendai to Kitakami City, Iwate Prefecture. Day 2 goes from
Kitakami to the final destination, Kanagi Town in Aomori Prefecture.




Most pictures have a short description written on top.






HEre is a half-assed map. The blue line shows the bullet train route.
The red line shows the route I drove.





It begins here, San Francisco International











Land Ho! Japan from the sky.
















Taking the bullet train to Sendai.








The view at 150MPH.









Arrival at Sendai 2 hours later.










Quick dinner at my favorite Japanese fast food, Yoshinoya.







Check into the hotel, Back to the Future II is on TV!











The hotel's free Japanese breakfast of champions.









Toyoko Inn is the best chain hotel. Clean, no frills and cheap. If you go to Japan, stay
at a Toyoko Inn. They're a great value.







Took the train a few stations down and waiting for my ride to pick me up.







There is the car I am borrowing for this journey. A 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid.
My friend owns a car shop and he always lets me borrow one of his dozens of cars.





Macchan makes sure everything is in working order since they haven't used this car in months.












Here we go, as you can see on the upper left corner I have 383km to go!







First stop, Seagull Game Shop. I love this chain. Always a great selection of retro and used newer titles at great prices.







And we are off...







NExt stop, Mandai Shoten. These are the retro game (among other things megastores.





Picked up Crisis Force and Caladrius.







The weather is getting bad.







A boost of energy for the road.





These are one of the many yards where cars destroyed by the tsunami are kept.





The backup cam is useless in the rain!





Stopping off at Book Market (used game shop), Doki Doki and Hard Off (Recycle shops).







That is one nasty Famicom.





Engrish lives.





Weather is getting worse.







Time for lunch at Sukiya. This place is another great Japanese fast food chain.








Another Hard Off







...and another Doki Doki.


















Bathroom break at Lawson.





Gundam Cup O Noodles and Gourmet Doritos!








Weather is clearing up.





Stop to check the games bargain bin at TRU.






Stop at Mansaido, which is just like Mandai Shoten.





Japan's most wanted poster in the bathroom. Great poop time reading material.





Arrive at the Toyoko Inn in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture.



Bought a lot of stuff during the first leg of the drive.





7AM, let's go!










Stopping at another recycle shop, in Morioka.





Nothing but ricefields for miles and miles.





Another great recycle shop with a massive selection of retro games. Yorozuya.







I was here at Yorozuya for a bit over an hour. This guy was playing when I arrived,
and he was STILL playing Super Mario World as I was leaving. Screw work, play games.





Japanese taco truck!







Tempted to go to Book Off...





189km to go!





Morioka, Iwate Prefecture's capital city.







Stop off at another Hard Off





Lunch @ Handaya.






Mount Iwate in the background.





Postcard moment.





Stop for gas.







What I love about Japanese gas stations is they almost always supply free
plastic gloves. If you're like me and hate to touch gas pumps, this is such a great idea.
Much more convenient than using the paper towels back in the States.





























Entering Akita Prefecture.





I found this recycle shop in the middle of nowhere here in Akita Prefecture.






Not much of a selection of games. $15 bucks for a Saturn.







More of the same scenery. Good thing I have hours of podcasts to ease the boredom.










And finally, Aomori Prefecture.





These roads are fun!



















Last shop stop before arriving. Game Souko in Goshogawara.





Strange things are afoot...





Got some lemon tea to beat the heat. I love this stuff.





Small town traffic jam.





We are almost there!







And I finally arrived at Grandma's. They were nice enough to give me the garage.





Inside Grandma's house.







And here is the stuff I have been buying off Yahoo auctions piling up upstairs.







...and finally, end the day with some yakiniku for dinner.







Thanks for joining me!

 

Nice -- can't say I'd have done the same thing. Hate driving, and riding in cars. But, looks like you enjoyed it. I like the Circle K caption.

 

Hah, then we are probably about the same age.

I am the opposite. I LOVE driving, especially in Japan. I have probably driven to every corner of Honshu except Shimane and Tottori.
I understand though. Japanese drivers can be really bad (jisans in kei trucks) or crazy (uyoku rejects driving big trucks).

 

Bloody hell, that was one hell of a drive. Noticed you were breaking the speed limit quite a few times in those photos too Try that in Kita Kyushu and they'll have you for sure. Been caught many a time in Kita Kyushu where I work. Doing 65kph in a 50kph zone. The police here are right arse holes. Never been caught in Shimonoseki / Yamaguchi where I live though.

Looks like you had fun anyway. Brings back memories when I used to do something similar although not over such a long distance.

 

I guess in Tohoku the police don't care as much. EVERYBODY speeds up there. Back when I lived there, I followed the speed limit for a couple weeks after moving there. I noticed any one who was behind me would tailgate me and everybody else would speed past me. So after that I just pace everybody else. I just make sure I am not the fastest driver on the road. On a 60km/h road, people usually go about 90 to 100km/h of all lights are green...err..blue.

I had a radar detector/speed trap/speed camera warning thingie I bought at Autobacs and I guess it helped. I slowed my ass down every time the lady in the device would tell me something was coming up. It was annoying every time I drove within Tokyo because there are so many speed cameras.

I got stopped by police ONCE in the 7 years of living there, and that is because I had illegally tinted the passenger and driver side windows pretty dark. He didn't ticket me though. It seemed he was more interested to see if I was up to anything suspicious and used the windows as an excuse.

 

Lucky man. I've lost my license twice because of the idiot police down here. It really ticks me off too because I drive really well yet I see very bad drivers every day yet the police do nothing because they are driving slowly. Yep, shitty drivers are safe drivers according to the police here while anyone that drives 10kph over the speed limit is a killer

I also have one of those speed radars built in to my rear view mirror. I went for the best one which wasn't cheap but it's saved my arse many a time so over all a good saving.

 

Fantastic shots!

I can't imagine that in Japan there's a "Japan's most wanted poster"!

Free breakfast looks good, LOL for Back to the Future II "YOU ARE FIRED"! Ahahah, beautiful moment.

 

All of these mother fucking pictures were taken on a Yashica GSN. 1300 yen + shipping on Yahoo


Kamakura Beach Footbridge (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


From Above (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Sunflowers (1) (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Dean and Deluca (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr

Kenchouji (1) (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr

 

Very cool! Are those asparasausage beer flavoured gourmet doritos? That's just too awesome.
Have to ask, why is there more than one town flying the American flag?

 

That was one hell of a roadtrip hashiriya1 !!

Awesome pictures, looks like you had fun , can't wait to see the pictures from the game stores you found on your way.

 

For 1300 yen plus shipping they are amaziong shots. In fact, they are very good shots even if taken on modern hardware.

 

GaijinPunch proving that gear means fuck-all when it comes to taking a good photo.

Sweet photo-journal, hashiriya1

 

If anyone wants to get into film, this series is the perfect entry.

Pros:
Dirt Cheap (almost literally)
Sharp Lens (mostly 45mm, 1 35mm, and 1 or 2 40mm)
Shoots in Ae mode only, which is how I shoot 90% of the time
Great build. You can feel the craftsman ship!

Cons:
You have to wade a bit to get one in top condition
Max ISO speed is sometimes "low" if you shoot night. Some models go up to 1000. Some 800. I think all go really low though... lower than film today is produced!
Only way to compensate exposure is to change the ISO setting, and with few exceptions (I think 80 to 100) they are all done in full stops.
Never know the exact shutter speed, which can be useful to know if you're shooting a moving target

I got the GT (I think) which is the 35mm one. Need to take it out. Might do that today.

A much better in-depth read.
http://www.yashica-guy.com/document/chrono.html

 

A few shots from Saturday night's trip to the bar.


ice steam at night by Yakum01975, on Flickr


Saturday Night by Yakum01975, on Flickr


monorail station by Yakum01975, on Flickr


taiko duo by Yakum01975, on Flickr


I am king by Yakum01975, on Flickr

 

love the saturday night traffic photo. I've got a thing for neons in Japan. Keep up the good work guys!

 

I went to see some fireworks


Multi by martindesu, on Flickr


Purple/Green by martindesu, on Flickr


Big Bang by martindesu, on Flickr


One of the best by martindesu, on Flickr


Lighting up the riverbank by martindesu, on Flickr

 

We have the big fireworks show on the 13th between the coasts of Honshu and Kyushu. I'll be doing a 1080p video of it with my nice lens. Should be very impressive.

 

More B&W. This time, pretty cheap film (Fuji Film Neo Pan 400). Pretty cheap camera (Minolta X-700), and a pricey for it's age (32,500 yen from probably the late 60's) lens... the Minolta Rokkor 58mm F1.2. It's awesome. This roll was mainly a test to make sure the body and lens were calibrated correctly. I'm pretty happy.


Lennon Glasses (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Kaneda Watch (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Canned Coffee (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Fashionable Smokers (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Laid Out (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Vogue Phone Check (BW) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr