Kegon Falls 華厳の滝

Kegon Falls, Nikko, Tochigi, Japan. At the heart of winter.

Frozen

Looking like a Black metal album cover.

Deep.

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

Shots #98 Do sunsets ever get tiring?

I was sent to Tochigi prefecture by “Highlighting Japan” to interview someone for a future article and so I got to go back to Japan (albeit for only a few hours) The return to Tokyo was a rather sad train ride but the sunset was rather spectacular.

D1 East Series. Round 1. Nikko Circuit 2013-04-21

Shots #95 Beast Reborn

Yoshitatsu Kaneda’s 470hp Nissan Silvia S15 has been reborn!

Driving to Ofunato

I have been scarce again of late but as per usual I have good enough reasons. I just got back from my second time volunteering in Ofunato, Iwate Japan. The next few posts will cover that in depth…

On the 20th, I got up at a leisurely time and prepared everything I needed at a stately pace. It was hot and I didn’t want to stress. Headed off at a decent pace on the Kan-etsu expresway music pumping to match the pace of the fast lane. Hit the Takasaki junction and climbed onto the Kita-Kanto expressway  an even quicker dash across the smooth, sweet new tar that cuts across the bottom of Gunma and Tochigi. Things were going good onto the Touhoku expressway through the gentle curves up toward Utsunomiya and that’s about where it ended.

More Nikko Circuit Action

So the SYD episode is fairly self explanatory but if anyone wants to see more, enjoy these pics:
I also got to ride shotgun with a Pro D1 Driver… now THAT was EPIC!!!

Shin Yamato Damacy ep. 4

Oops, we did it again!

We hit Nikko Circuit to watch Yoshitatsu go sideways and secided to make an ep of it! Nao was there too! Best bit is Yoshi got his D1 Street Legal license because of his performance in this event. He is now semi pro!

WAY TO GO BUDDY!



you also get some bonus footage this time!