The Holy Land

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

Shot in the back #RandomJapan

Souvenirs for Initial D fans #BecauseJapan

Mt. Haruna in Gunma Prefecture is famous for playing the role of Mt. Akina in Initial D. 

For the tiny town atop the mountain this means a good deal of tourists head up there to drive  the legendary mountain pass, take their ladies on dates to the lake and buy souvenirs, like these Initial D cookies and cakes. On a Shoot for Takasaki City, I had a chance to go up there during the day for a change, and (as I wan't driving) didn't blast past the town at pace, on my way to the ura-haruna mountain pass (which is an epic driving road) as I used to do back when I lived at the bottom of this mountain... So I got to take these pics ;)

ヤンキー馬 #RandomJapan

Daruma, Gunma, tripping and more... | 7 Days 7 Minutes (2015-06-22)

I went back to Gunma in this week. I missed it so much thjat I flooded this 7 days 7 minutes with footage from there. It's also, one of the most random 7D7M episodes I've ever made.

Music:
"Chillin'" by DJ Russell CrossFire 

 "Illumination" by Little Light 

Going Home

東京で人は多いけど人間は少ない。
In Tokyo there are many people but very few human beings.
~me

That's what I said over dinner the other night in Shibukawa when explaining to my mates why I was so unbelievably overjoyed to be there. In the 2 days back home I had more meaningful conversations about life, history, politics and cars with more different people than in the previous month the zombie apocalypse that is the capital. 

One truly doesn't appreciate how awesome a place is till you leave it. The people, honesty, generosity, delicious food, clean air, hot springs , driving, scapes and fact that it is all true and real. I love that little town on the confluence of the Tone and Agatsuma Rivers. It has truly become my home. More than anywhere else, It is there that I want to return.

One Day back home.

I had a freelance job that sent me to Gunma. It gave me the chance to recharge my mind and give me a much needed boost to get through my new life in the capital cesspool. I stayed the night with Yoshitatsu and managed to meet up with Tatsuya and Tsubasa. Talking cars and shooting the shit till 2am in the freezing cold brought back so many good times!

7 Days 7 Minutes (2013/05/20)

Monday: New CD (Korpiklaani - Karkelo)
Tuesday: Amazon sent me gifts
Wednesday: X-Box whut?
Thursday: Spectacular view from the top of Mt. Haruna
Friday: Follow Friday: World how it is https://www.youtube.com/user/Worldhowitis
Saturday: Karaoke Live (featuring Ibara)
Sunday: Blood Dragon mu~~fu'kurs!

Reggae and Ramen (It's Not Sushi 08)

You never know where life is going to take you... In a field on Mt. Haruna there lies a most awesome ramen shop with a vibe that i have not felt since the last time I was at Cool Runnings back home.

月家 La-Men Café and Soul Bar
If you are in Gunma.. get your ramen on! Live music every Saturday Night.

Shots #91 Ikaho at Night

And there was light.

Another year has come to an end and with that comes another trip to the top of Mt.Haruna to see the illumination. We once again made our way to the top of the mountain to see the spectacular.

Shots #68 Mt. Haruna

Mizusawa Shrine

Located somewhere on Mt. Haruna’s thighs is the little village of Mizusawa. Famous for it’s udon and it”s shrine complex.  Being only 15 minutes away from my house I have made a number of visits to the various udon establishments there. Though I always knew the shrine was there, I never had any inclination to go there. Till my lady said she wanted to :p

Initial D Tourism

A friend of mine from SA (Currently living in Tokyo) came to Gunma for the first time. I took him to school and let the Kids grill him for a day. They were well pleased with the distraction.

Over the hills and far away…

Long drive 2 of this year. It was mind-blowingly good. Intense and Hectic, But good. We started up Mt.Haruna and were greeted by the perfect driving weather, clear blue skies and warm sun (while the windows were closed anyway) and perfect visibility. We stopped off at the primary lookout point on the main touge and were stupefied at Just how far we could see. I have never been up there during the day when it was that clear… And I have been up there many many times.

Let there be light.

The lady and I took a trip up the mountain to see the Illumination at Lake Haruna.

The town and part of the lake atop the mountain was turned into a magical illuminated wonderland of LEDs and snow… more after the jump ;)

Black and beautiful by the lake.

No... not what you may have imagined. if I got your hopes up, I apologize. Let me make it up with these pictures instead.

After shooting footage for the next episode of Shin Yamato Damacy, Allen and I rolled over to Haruna-ko to have a little bit of a shoot with our sexy beasts.

Shots #10 Haruna-ko

When the weather approaches in the mountains it always feels more awesome.

Old School - Yoshioka

 
It was cold… We were done at the Komochi Orphanage for another shweet session with the kids and Hisami decided to take us to a piece of ‘real’ Japan. So up Mt.Haruna we climbed… in the snow… on my balding normal tires. It actually did get a bit scary towards the end. But somehow we made it.

It really was cold…
So basically this place is an old school tourist house to give people a taste of what Japan was like in the good(bad) ol’ days. It looked Idyllic. Taken straight out of a post card. A warm fire in the the centre of the room. wood and paper and all the trappings of a medieval Japanese dwelling.


They had some blunted Katanas for short people and some holey umbrellas for posing for photos under.

It was actually really cool…

and cold.

But it was still very much one of those ‘Its great to be in rural Japan’ moments. It gave the perfect dose of nostalgia for the romanticised myth of the way things were to leave a fuzzy warm haze (and wood-smoke odour) lingering around me for the rest of the day.

Haruna Illumination

The last post for this decade.
The other night (thanks to the amazing weather we had) I was able to drive up my mountain to go see the Christmas lights. The roads were fine, the anti slip sand salt made traction at high speed a little bit of a problem, but the traffic ensured that there was nowhere for me to go at high speed.
It was freezing cold. There was no snow on the road but on the sides of the road it was piled quite deep… I got up to the top and decided to see what was so great about the Haruna Christmas lights.

need I say more?

lots of pretty lights… pity the 7d is only arriving next month :(
I didn’t stay long. it was very cold and my toes got numb so yeah.