Trainspotting

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

Doesn't get more JDM than this.

Shooting the Shooters.

More shots from the Canon 20D

My S14 - Yuki (famous Instagrammer) - Betty Boop's severed head.

I was given a free Canon 20D recently. I've taken it out to play from time to time, and for some reason, there is something about the look from it's 13 year old sensor, that I really like.

Outside the local Autobacs

iPhone 7 Plus -  Lightroom app - raw DNG.

New Old Toy #RandomJapan

A friend of mine left Japan and was throwing out his old Canon 20D. It still works great so I appropriated it and have been having a good deal of fun with it. 

It's over 13 years old but it's still an APS-C sensor with Canon colour. 

It does lack some recent conveniences like video and Auto ISO.

But I still enjoy shooting it even more than I do my Sony a7S

While the sony obviously kills it in the outright quality department.

The 20 D does have a character to it.

That I love.

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.

My car is dead. Punkspring is dead. I'm not dead... yet.

Work is doing everything it can to kill me though, so it may not be too long now.

Music:
* one of the tunes from the Into Infinity project
 - http://intoinfinity.org/

* Sayonara
 - Manny Marx
 - http://mannymarx.com


Camera:
 - Sony a7S
 - iPhone 7+

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

NSX - Carporn

One of the best looking cars of all time.

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

The most wretched den of scum and villainy in tokyo.

And that's why I keep going back to Kabukicho. 

They are trying to Gentrify it.

But the grime is too thick, and the lure of flesh, too strong.

It's become safer but I don't think it could ever truly be a safe-space.

And in a city that's actively trying to kill of everywhere that is remotely fun. 

And replacing it with corporate friendly, entertainments for the boring, mainstream masses.  

It's the scummy corners like Kabukicho that will be the last refuge for proper fun, in central Tokyo.

Yoyogi Park in springtime #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.

Tokyo, Tokyo and more Tokyo.

The reason why peeps love Tokyo completely evades me. It may possibly be a better city than any other city in any other country on Earth, but it is by far the single worst place in Japan. Do yourself a favor when you visit Japan. Have the balls to skip Tokyo. You'll see and experience much more real Japan for it.

Follow me on Periscope:
https://www.periscope.tv/DarcNoodles


Music:
* Jens Kiilsofte - Dance of the Pixies
 - MachinimaSound.com
 - https://machinimasound.com/?s=dance+of+the+pixies#

* Manny Marx - That's far enough.
 - MannyMarx.com
 - https://mannymarx.bandcamp.com/track/thats-far-enough

* Jens Kiilsofte - Ecstatic Wave
 - MachinimaSound.com
 - https://machinimasound.com/?s=ecstatic+wave#


Camera:
 - Sony a7S
 - Sony a7RII (rental)

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 Holy Land

Mt. Haruna. Known to Initial D fans as Mt. Akina. The most famous mountain known to drift.

The imperial moat on the day of the Tokyo Marathon

Grind Chaos 刺 vol.2

Finally finished editing the Photos from the latest Grind Chaos (2017-03-11) So far, I've put the best colour shots in the gallery here: http://bit.ly/GC-17-311

Here are a few teasers... I'm not gonna lie, It's some of my best work yet. If you're squeamish, it may be NSFL, Possibly NSFW too.

There's plenty more in  the gallery here: http://bit.ly/GC-17-311

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)