Trainspotting

Shinkansen... Because sometimes GT-Rs are too slow.

Doesn't get more JDM than this.

I need to move back to gunma.

Every time I go back it's like I never left. I have real friendships that have stood the test of separation while I've been away. The beauty of the surroundings. Drivers on the road that don't suck. The strait-talking zero-BS way of life. I miss it so much. I'll give up everything in a heartbeat for any job that pays halfway decently back in Gunma.

Painful Skyline

From Wikipedia: Itasha (痛車, literally "painful car") is a Japanese term for a fashion of individuals decorating the bodies of their cars with fictional characters of anime, manga, or video games (especially bishōjo game or eroge). These characters are predominantly "cute" females. The decorations usually involve paint schemes and stickers.

It is what it is. I have no words. If you like it, good for you, I suppose. 

Painful 180SX (Akihabara UDX)

From Wikipedia: Itasha (痛車, literally "painful car") is a Japanese term for a fashion of individuals decorating the bodies of their cars with fictional characters of anime, manga, or video games (especially bishōjo game or eroge). These characters are predominantly "cute" females. The decorations usually involve paint schemes and stickers.

I daresay it doesn't look terrible on this 180SX. If only the character depicted was an adult woman, not a child, because you know the owner has had a long session with 'Mrs Palmer and her five daughters' while looking at pictures of that character.

Painful Swift (Akihabara UDX)

From Wikipedia: Itasha (痛車, literally "painful car") is a Japanese term for a fashion of individuals decorating the bodies of their cars with fictional characters of anime, manga, or video games (especially bishōjo game or eroge). These characters are predominantly "cute" females. The decorations usually involve paint schemes and stickers.

While the thought of driving one of these things is rather painful. I must say. This is designed and wrapped well. I quite like that pearlescent green pattern.

Grind Chaos. Slow-mo-Kabukicho. First Sakura of the season.

Work has been hell, and as a result, this is late. Sorry.
It takes a lot to edit anything of my own after wrecking myself editing client work.

Music:
 - Shadows of the Mind
 - Waltz of the Undertaker
 - The Arcade
All tracks from: MachinimaSound.com
 - https://machinimasound.com/



Camera:
 - Sony a7S
 - Sony fs5 (rental)

Car: Nissan Silvia S14 Q's

Social:
 - https://www.instagram.com/darcnoodles/
 - https://twitter.com/darcnoodles

Passion:
 - http://darc.jp
 - http://bit.ly/darcjp666
 - https://www.instagram.com/darc.jp/
 - https://twitter.com/darcjp666


work:
 - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDYQOcu6MwS-z_gNvYa67Aw

wheat

I found  a cool old photo from last year that I forgot to post. Rural Japan is rural.

Increasing wealth at the expense of the city's soul. #Tokyolife

In the end it comes down to money. Many of the old homes are owned by old, lower-middle income earners. When a person dies, their descendants are taxed on their inheritance. In other words. If the owner of one of those quaint Tokyo homes dies, their kids will be taxed for their property on the extremely over-inflated land values of central Tokyo. The kind of money that no regular person earning even a moderate salary in Tokyo could ever afford.




Those families either have to give up their inheritance for a pittance, which is then snatched up by the greedy real-estate developers, bulldozed and turned into apartments for the rich, or to pay for the property, People are forced to take new loans on their property despite it being theirs, burying them in debt with no real hope for the future as salaries continue to spiral downward and Tokyo land values continue to shoot upward.

The government knows this. They could easily fix the law to support the people but as anyone following the Fukushima, Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo Olympic scandals can clearly see, Neither the Tokyo Metro, nor the Central Government gives two shits about the regular, hard-working members of society. They only care about enriching themselves and the giant companies owned by their friends and families, at the expense of the people they should be serving.

So while you're strolling the backstreets of Tokyo, lost in your fantasies, know that what you're seeing is likely not going to be there for long, and all the small, local, vibrant, individual parts of Tokyo that made the city what it was, are going extinct.


Photos from Iwamotocho (Between Akihabara and Kanda)

Shinjuku Friday Night #TokyoStreets

  自分の写っている写真で削除してほしいものがあったら私に連絡ください。If you want your picture removed, please contact me.

Mountain hairpins, Tokyo Expressways, Monkey Business #7Days7Minutes (2016-02-06)

The only place I feel sane these days is when I drive. I need to get as much of that in as possible because I'm likely not going to be able to afford to drive soon. So till I have to sell my camera, computer and car, You're going to be getting a lot more driving too.



Music:
*Olivaw - EVIDENCE
 - https://soundcloud.com/olivaw/evidence

*kulimu - Amari wakaranai kedo (feat. irish4t, Tsurutin)
 - http://ccmixter.org/files/kulimu/13575
 - licensed under a Creative Commons license:
 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

*Aoki 1
 - Into Infinity
 - http://intoinfinity.org/

*Different Heaven - Nekozilla
 - Distributed by NoCopyrightSounds
 - https://youtu.be/6FNHe3kf8_s
 - Download: http://nocopyrightsounds.co.uk/video/different-heaven-nekozilla/

*The Living - Fe Agite
 - http://www.bullafey.com/

*iakwardlobster - Laser Armageddon
 - Liquidata Royalty Free Music Pack


Camera:
 - Apple iPhone 7 Plus
 - Sony a7S

Social:
 - https://www.instagram.com/darcnoodles/
 - https://twitter.com/darcnoodles

Passion:
 - http://darc.jp
 - http://bit.ly/darcjp666
 - https://www.instagram.com/darc.jp/
 - https://twitter.com/darcjp666

The company that inspires loyalty in me by paying me less than minimum wage and working me ragged:
 - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDYQ

Flashback to 2010 - Flowers for the Broken Spirits Live.

I miss this band.

Click image for a gallery of my flashbacks (facebook)

Follow these social accounts for more of my live music photography and the Japanese underground.

YouTube - http://bit.ly/darcjp666

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/darc.jp/

Twitter  - https://twitter.com/darcjp666

Driver Portraits - Daikoku Parking Area Dec 2016

Those of you who follow my Japanese underground instagram account or follow my facebook page will have seen these, and my previous portraits like them. If it's your first time seeing my [driver portraits] series, the basic concept is that all the cool cars are nothing without the people who build their hearts and souls into them. Everyone shoots the cars, which are just secondary representations. The true creativity, beauty, passion and soul of a vehicle is the person behind the wheel.

If you want to see more of the people that mainstream Japanese society shuns, and the amazing things they do, check out my instagram account or follow my facebook page.

Low Honda - XXR - Much shiny

Morbius would appreciate this Honda...

Me? I'm not a big fan of FF cars, but I like the way the light played off this one's wheels. In the end my photographer's calling was stronger than my dislike for torque steer. If I keep posting pictures of cars, this is going to become a car blog... One thing is for certain, unlike all the other big brand car-blogs out there, I would pay contributors fairly... and would probably make no money because of that.

Why is it so hard to make a decent, fair and honest living without having to rip people off in the process?

Mount Japan. Because Fuji.

Small-town carshow - Chikuma, Nagano #RandomJapan

The cat's old man took me here the last time I was in Nagano because   I like cars. It was good to see a gathering like this in small-town Nagano, The only sad thing is that most of the rides weren't actually local.

Music:
Asahi by Tanada Band (The Cat's father's band)

----------

More of my stuff here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darcnoodles/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/darcnoodles

More from the Japanese Underground:
web: http://darc.jp
YouTube: http://bit.ly/darcjp666
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darc.jp/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/darcjp666

Lazy Sunday in Okutama #TokyoStreets

Sake, sunsets and sado-masochism #7Days7Minutes (2016-05-23)

An ever so slightly more VLOGish video with a touch of good booze and good old fashioned BDSM.

Music:
Manny Marx - Complications https://mannymarx.bandcamp.com/track/complications
Manny Marx - Some People https://mannymarx.bandcamp.com/track/some-people
http://mannymarx.com

Psykick - Monsters http://ccmixter.org/files/Psykick/36019



More of my stuff here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darcnoodles/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/darcnoodles

More from the Japanese Underground:
web: http://darc.jp
YouTube: http://bit.ly/darcjp666
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darc.jp/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/darcjp666

Kitamoto Nights #RealJapan

When I meet people, even people from Saitama, and tell them I live in Kitamoto, more often than not, I get asked where (the hell)  that is....

Which means we chose the perfect place to move to.

On patrol - The Sony a7S owns the night #RandomJapan

I know the camera is only a part of the image making  process. Give me a shitty camera and I'll still give you an excellent image. Conversely, give the average Taro a Hasselblad and you'' get a blurry 50 megapixel duck-face selfie. But there are times when the technology becomes more than just a medium with which to create, but actually enables creativity in conditions that other cameras just can't handle. IS0 32000 in the outskirts of town, surrounded by rice fields. Lit only by a single, weak, incandescent streetlight. I have always been a fan of shooting in low light, but with my a7S I no longer shoot at night... I own the night.

Shibuya #RealJapan

Before i lived here, I wasn't much of a fan of the Fuji/Sushi/Geisha/shrine images of Japan that Japanophiles, tend to spam the internet with. Nowhere on Earth is anything like the postcard, but the inability of visitors here to see past their sakura tinted glasses bugged me, after 8 years in Japan, it positively vexes me.

It may be one of the best places to live. I know I don't want to live anywhere else. But all the 'japanese culture' that the tourists shnarf like cocaine no more real than the twisted right-wing nationalism that Shinzo Abe is trying to force down everyone's throats. It's all a facade. Thick white makeup covering a pockmarked and blemished face.

I do my damndest to show the reality of this place, through well composed and quality Photo/videography. Sadly, if there is one universal truth about the vast herd of snapchatting baboons infesting the globe, it's that the last things anyone wants to see, are reality and quality.