FD on the Shuto

I love driving in Tokyo and I love the expressways (when I am not getting lost on them).

So much better than the train though so much more expensive as well.

I was just cruising on the Shuto Expressway to Daikoku PA when this guy strolled past. No racing or anything, just a cool car.

Daikoku Halloween

We went through to the greatest car show in Japan that isn’t a car show with the expectation that large numbers of people had planned to pull through, but sadly the panda brigade got wind of it and decided to be dicks about it. In the short time we had however we did get to see a few sweet rides.

Will have to go back again on a regular Saturday night.

Daikoku Parking Area (大黒PA)

On a little man made island off the coast of Yokohama lies a wondrous place. A simple parking and service area in Kanagawa section of the Capital Expressway. It is special for two reasons. Firstly, Its big, which is rare in that part of the world. Secondly Its isolated, but easy to get to. This has made it the most famous gatheration point for auto aficionados in the Tokyo  area. Every Saturday night, a simple patch of tar turns into a mini Auto Salon. I had taken my car to Tokyo… It was a Saturday, One of my car loving buddies was along for the ride… Why not check it out? What I found would make the charos at Blue Lagoon shit their diesel jean pants! TWICE!

Suma-Kobe-Hyogo (I can’t find an appropriate song title for this one)

 
Hung over after a rather epic night at Club Giraffe in Osaka. Takeyasu picked us up in his little yellow plate and took us for a ride. We first secured ourselves some accommodation for later that night. Deposited the luggage and went on little trip.

Through the highways and byways between the two cities, we made our way to the sea. Vast, wide and salty. One forgets Japan is a tiny ass little Island because when you live in landlocked Gunma.
  

It was long overdue.

There was this bizarre fishing pier jutting into the bay. which let us get a pretty nifty view of the surroundings… Yeah. What surroundings? but it was pretty damn awesome nonetheless.

We spotted Suma beach from the pier and we decided to head over there.

“Strand has bigger waves… but the local birdage made up for it”

Suma is a Japanese anomaly. The Sand (though a little coarse) is sand colour as opposed to the dodgy black volcanic sand that seems to be standard here. It is sealed off and enclosed by piers and break waters so you can’t go too far out and get yourself in real trouble. There were no real waves. not by South African standards anyway. Hell, even Strand has bigger waves than Suma, but the local birdage made up for it.

Capped it off with sundowners before heading back into Osaka that night for one last sleep in Kansai.
It was the perfect end to a perfect holiday in the most awesome place on earth.

I love Kansai and I cannot leave Japan till I have tried to live there for a little. It has given me a goal to push for… Now I just need to decide how much longer to ride the JET gravy train before I jump off.

Tokyo Expressways

When they move they are the best highways on earth. as beautiful as the city itself.

However movement is something that one cannot really associate with the Tokyo expressway system. While there are some amazingly efficient trains which take care of the needs of most of the  city’s travellers, peeps need to drive and for the day to day getting of things around the bustling metropolis, these arteries are vital parts of the city’s life.

But in order for any artery to be efficient it needs to flow. Like an ever increasing percentage of the local population cholesterol is a problem here too. Due to the narrowness of the beltways and the almost un countable interconnecting loops, curves and interchanges there is always a pint where the traffic chokes. 

 

and if you add the scatterbrained antics of the drivers scenes like this are inevitable.

 

Though it is not all gloomy when the blood stops flowing you get the opportunity to do and see things that would not be possible when going with the flow. We played Janken with a number of the other poor souls who were stuck in the clog. and I personally thoroughly enjoyed the architecture.

 

We also discovered some ingenious ingenuity :p

The barrier reflectors have little propellers with brushes attached so that whenever a car drives past at pace, it spins the contraption up and it keeps the reflectors clean and visible. Who’da thunk it?

 

The discovery however was indicative of the pace of things sadly. If you factor in the entire trip from Shibukawa to Odaiba (for the Tokyo Anime Fair) it took us nearly 6 hours for barely 130km.

but it was all worth it in the end :D