7 Days 7 Minutes (2014-08-18) Driving through Akita, Fireworks, Udon and more...

00:00 MONDAY Train Zombies (Shibuya, Tokyo)
01:00 TUESDAY The Boonies (Yuzawa, Akita)
02:00 WEDNESDAY Driving Akita (Akita)
03:35 notTHURSDAY Trippy Noodles (Mitsunashi, Akita)
04:35 FRIDAY Fo Shiga ma Nigga! (Nagahama, Shiga)
05:30 notSATURDAY Akita Shinkansen (Daisen, Akita)
06:00 SUNDAY Fire Flowers (Kawasaki, Kanagawa)

Friday Music: Mama by The Living 

For the full tracklisting of what I was listening to in the car on Wednesday, hit the jump.
Ive stuck the location links in there too.

The Great East Japan Tour

I've been busier than a former AKB girl turned hooker over the last few weeks, and the places I've been generally didn't have connectivity or I didn't have the time to use the connectivity to blog. I apologise. 

I left for Shibukawa, Gunma on the 9th, and rode the 50cc 6 hours on the backroads to get there. I stayed with Yoshitatsu that night and the next morning we pulled out at 2am to go to Nikko Circuit for the DRiFTWiRED1 drift event. 

When I got back The Cat told me that her grandfather wasn't doing well and the next morning I got the call that he passed away. I met up with her and her sisters in Takasaki, Gunma we went back to Nagano for the funeral and proceedings.

After the funeral, I hopped the shinkansen back to Gunma and participated in the Shibulawa Dashi Matsuri. Which is and was one of the highlights of my life when it comes around every 2 years. It was good to be home. 

After 2 days of festival and a day to replace the Chain on my bike, I rode back to kawasaki and barely had a day to recover some semblance of sanity before hopping a Shnkansen for 5 hours to Akita in the far north.

I interviewed the heads of the Yamamo Soy Sauce company and a maker of Inaniwa Udon (one of the best known types of udon in Japan)

Back on the shinkansen to Kawasaki where I had a night in my own bed before heading west to Nagahama, in Shiga Prefecture, on the shores of Like Biwa, Japan's largest lake. 

The work was to interview the management team at Top Seiko, one of the world's most precise ceramic and tungsten machining companies. 

I then tool a look around the Kurokabe area, near Nagahama Station, where one of Japan'a oldest downtown shopping areas has been preserved and still serves the same purpose. Lack of money prevented me form taking too much time there. 

I hopped back on the shink and finally headed back home where I am now putting together a craptonne of articles, images and videos  over the next 2 weeks before getting on more trains and heading to more exotic destinations.

not my actual route or transport method but accurate sense of scale

Japan, How It Is - Ogres from the Frozen North

I had about 30 minutes to walk around Akita station before I needed to catch a shinkansen so I only had time to talk about the ogres that were pretty much everywhere!

7 Days 7 Minutes (2013-12-16)

 

MONDAY 00:00:00 - My cam timing is off.
TUESDAY 00:01:00 - More Tech Woes
WEDNESDAY 00:02:00 - Mission Mungness - Yokohama to Osaka to Akita in a day
THURSDAY 00:03:00 - North of the Wall
notFRIDAY 00:04:00 - Freestyle BMX
SATURDAY 00:05:00 - Forever Alone
notSUNDAY 00:06:00 - Sheer Beauty

 

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