First time travelling to Japan (PIC HEAVY AND A LOT OF WORDS!!!)

[stienerv2]

You need an international drivers permit which was around $40 from memory? This can be purchase from any NRMA branch. You will need a passport photo and current drivers license.

[PG_DC5]

You need an international drivers permit which was around $40 from memory? This can be purchase from any NRMA branch. You will need a passport photo and current drivers license.

yeah i have one from my recent trip

[Toddxxx]

One thing I regret was not getting an international license when I went over

In other news another update should be up tonight

[Toddxxx]

TRAVELING TO HAKUBA

So after a late/early finish to the night before with our new friends we all dragged ourselves out of bed and made the short stroll to Tokyo station to catch the 6.50am Shinkansen (bullet train) service to Nagano station.



We still didn't know if we were actually going to go anywhere at this stage but luckily when we arrived at the station we found out no more snow had fallen and the lines had been cleared overnight So after grabbing some snack/breakfast for the trip (for me it was more boss coffee haha) we were we finally Hakuba bound!

Before we left Australia we booked our JR rail passes (roughly $350 AUD a week) for unlimited use on the Shinkansen, JR local trains, JR buses and JR ferries. With this comes the extra bonus of reserved seating so you're always guaranteed a seat on the trains and not squished into the non reserved section. Over the space of the 2 weeks we easily used more than this amount so the passes were a great buy!

Shinkansen tickets



The Shinkansen leave Tokyo and run to Nagano station multiple times a day. The trip time varies on how many stations you stop at but it's roughly just under 2 hours. Through the first part of the journey the trains only operate at half speed through the suburban areas. The further you get from Tokyo the further apart the buildings become and multistory units becomes houses. Eventually as you move into the rural areas you're greeted with vast open spaces and the full speed of the Shinkansen.

It was nice to just sit and stare out the window and watch the towns fly by. While still In the suburban areas I would occasionally catch glimpses of cars such as skylines (r32,r34,r35), soarers, toyota crowns, rx7s and the odd Porsche 911. At one stage you even pass a workshop by the train line which was full of beat up Nissan Silvia's.

In Australia these cars would be parked in garages to hide it from the sun and rain and other elements. In Japan there's no such option and these cars were all parked outside covered in snow from the storms. Crazy! No photos sadly because as quick as they appear they are gone.

When we reached the rural areas the full extent of the snow storms could be seen. Vast open areas just blanketed in white







A little while later we came to a stop at Nagano station.



Our journey to Hakuba wasn't over though. Our next part of the journey was to catch a bus from Nagano station to Hakuba (about 1 hour.) Seeing as we caught the first train out of Tokyo after the lines had been closed for 3 days there were A LOT of people at the station trying to catch buses. We were actually really lucky and got on the second bus. While waiting I got hungry and decided a boss coffee wasn't enough for breakfast. The only problem is once you leave Tokyo and head to smaller towns less English is used. I decided to yolo it and picked something off the shelf and it ended up being delicious!
It was rice with pork (I think) wrapped around it and marinated in a beautiful sauce and sesame seeds.



A photo of our new group (I'm on the left) that my girlfriend took while waiting for the bus.



Eventually the bus arrived and we stowed all out suitcases and gear underneath and took our seats. It's roughly $10 to ride the bus from Nagano station to the main bus depo in Hakuba.

Packed lines waiting for buses



Nagano square



The bus ride takes you through the mountains from Nagano to Hakuba and a lot of the roads were still closed due to the snow and only had one lane open. The bus ride itself is beautiful and you take in some pretty amazing scenery on the way up.



River/dam system which is man made to take the water away when it becomes spring and all the snow begins to melt. Not too different from our snowy hydro system here in Australia. These vast water networks stretch the entire way up the mountain all the way into Hakuba.

They love their toyota crowns in Japan. They were EVERYWHERE!



As you get closer to Hakuba the Japanese alps begin to rise high into the clouds. It really is a beautiful place.



Snow/ice sculpture of a seal at the Hakuba town entrance. These we everywhere throughout the town.



Arriving at Hakuba bus depo not long after was a bit of relief. 24 hours late and a host of changed plans and delays but we we finally made it! We called our hotel and they sent a shuttle down to collect us. We booked the holiday through my friend who is a travel agent and said we wanted a nice place that had breakfast included. The place he organised for us to stay at was insane! We later found out that it's the number 1 hotel in hakuba and is 5 star prestige rated. I know why now!

The hotel is called 'Tokyu Hotel' and I do recommend staying there if you get the chance. Everything was amazing. The staff, the room, the services but the best part though was that we were 250m from the main lift of happo one (one of Hakubas 7 ski resorts).



It was around 10am when we finally arrived in Hakuba and both my girlfriend and I were itching to get on the snow and board. We both have our own gear but due to the fact we were traveling for another 10 days after the snow we decided to hire boards and I didn't take any of my clothing as I wanted an empty suitcase for car parts haha. We used spicy rentals located in the Wadano village and a 5 minute walk from our hotel. Again I recommend them if you ever go to Japan and need to hire gear. Their prices are really cheap and their service is great!

You can see in this photo just how much snow falls in Japan. My girlfriend isn't short (she's about 175cm) and the snow is piled beside her. That's just in the village too. Not in the actual snow fields! Hakuba actually receives an average snowfall of 12m!



Wadano village was actually the athletes village during the 1998 Olympics. It's basically been turned into all different hotels and accommodation now. There's restaurants and bars scattered throughout the village and its really nice.





I'll leave it there and the next update will be all about the amazing snow Japan has to offer.

[spacemaster]

Thanks for sharing... Great info... Signup for tokyo this July.

[Toddxxx]

Thanks for sharing... Great info... Signup for tokyo this July.

Haha all good man. No one was really reading so I stopped posting.

Great man! You'll love it
Any idea where you're going yet?

[spacemaster]

Going to Tokyo and Kyoto... We have only 1 week and a bit...

From your post, I guess I will visit Upgarage and maybe autobacs... Just wondering should I buy SLR camera over there ?

[plAythiNG]

Hey I jsut came back!!!

Dont both going to standard autobacs. Go to super autobacs.. same but bigger and better.

upgarages are alright too, but only go if near by!

def buy a camera over there. being a foreigner you will save 8% no tax required, and some places if u pay witha VISA card, you can get another 6% off too!!

Bought m sister in law a new decent P&S digital camera... and we paid half price compared to the price on ebay.com.au!!!!

[JupiteR]

other places that is definitely recommended? hitting japan for new years

[Toddxxx]

i loved the osaka/hiroshima/kyoto area of japan. So much diversity and interesting things to see in those areas.
Tokyo is cool but to be honest after a few days myself and my girlfriend were a bit over the big city/shopping/neon light thing and wished we spent more time in the before mentioned areas.

i may do a couple more updates on this now that ive read it again haha

[Toddxxx]

Agreed with what Alex said dont bother with small autobacs/upgarages. If you go to Tokyo bay super autobacs that will be enough. It has everything the smaller autobacs have + much more.

[Toddxxx]

Coming back here and reading my past updates has made me want to recount more of the trip. Not just for you guys to read but also so i can come back here in years time and read about my adventures and not just have pictures to look at but words to read too.
Now back to the trip.

We had arrived earlier that morning in Hakuba after being delayed due to the previous snow storms. Japan, even on the main island receives incredible amounts of snow fall. Ive been snowboarding for about 7 years now and Australian seasons produce about 1.5m-2m depending on how good the season is. Japans average snow fall is around 12m!!
This is the picture that originally drew me to want to travel to japan to snowboard.



This picture is no lie! Literally some of the roads around Hakuba looked like this! This is the best snow i have ever ridden on. There was so much powder everywhere. I made the comment that that was more powder on the groomed runs in Japan than there is in the back country in Australia. If you ski or snowboard i would recommend going to japan one day.

Anyway enough talking. The next 4.5 days for my girlfriend and i consisted of countless hours of shredding some amazing Japanese snow. Not many pics were taken but ill just pic dump what i have and if some things need explaining ill put a little blurb with those pics.

enjoy















Where our hotel was situated in the village (right on the snowfield) we just had to walk 200m from the entry and were presented with this each day



Speaking of our hotel. Within it was a Japanese restaurant that we ate at most nights. One of the highlights was the final night when i ordered the full 8 course meal. Everything that was brought out was amazing and so fresh. I was definitely full at the end of that night!

Here is a pic of the menu for the meal.



entrees and assorted extras



main beef dish which you cook yourself at the table



A pork dish from another night brought out on a hot stone slab.



more food related posts but of a different kind haha
As most of you are aware vending machines are everywhere in Japan and in Hakuba its no different. There was literaly little huts with just vending machines inside them haha. Vending machines have two different drink colours on them. The first is blue which represents cold drinks and the other is orange which represents hot drinks. Basically all i ate (well drank) during the days snowboarding were these corn soups in a can. They were delicious and about $1 aud each! I couldnt get enough haha





These hot chocolates were a solid choice as well!



Ill leave it there. I may do another update tonight on our journey to Osaka and visiting j's racing.

[spacemaster]

Please do...

@Playanything, any particular shop to buy DSLR camera ? How do we claim tax free ?

[Toddxxx]

Please do...

@Playanything, any particular shop to buy DSLR camera ? How do we claim tax free ?

Currently watching game of thrones so I'll start writing up in a sec

[Toddxxx]

We left our hotel in the early hours of the morning to make our way down the mountains to Nagano station to catch our morning Shinkansen on route to Osaka.
With not much sleep the night before thanks to some partying/goodbyes with our friends most of this train trip was spent making up for that lost sleep. The trip from Nagano to Osaka takes about 4 hours with quick transfers so this was plenty of time for us to rest up.
Most of the trip is spent in the Japanese country side passing farms so we didnt miss much haha

Shinkansen pulling into Nagoya station



Leaving the lovely Japanese Alps behind



After a few hours sleep we woke up just before entering into Osaka and i quickly snapped this pic.



A transfer to a local JR train later we were making our way to Namba which is where our hotel was situated.
Namba is a medium sized station in Osaka with only local lines running through it but the place is massive! Even the size of this station makes our lager stations in sydney like central look like their bathrooms. Our hotel was located at the number 23 exit and it literally took us 10 minutes to walk from one side of the station the other to reach it. Upon exiting up to the surface we were presented with this.



See that raised motorway above. That is actually part of the Osaka loop (yep the actual Osaka loop that is famous for all the Kanjo racing). This part of the loop passed right past our hotel. A year earlier a friend stayed in the same hotel and had a room overlooking the loop and actually caught a few Kanjo racing past. Sadly our room was not overlooking the loop (even after asking the front desk to move us haha)

We arrived just before check in time so we were lucky to be able to get our room early to drop our stuff off and head back out.
When organising the trip with my girlfriend i negotiated car related things into it and today was one of my designated car days haha. Coming to Osaka i knew the two main places i wanted to visit were js racing and tactical art.
Both workshops are located in smaller suburbs surrounding Osaka so to travel out to them you need to catch local trains. Js racing was our first stop and is located in Ibiraki. About 30 mins from Namba.

Traveling out to Ibiraki though the different suburbs of Osaka is definitely a cool experience. Seeing all the shopping centres and housing along the train tracks definitely gives you an insight into the way the Japanese live. Upon arriving at Ibiraki station we had to navigate our way through the streets to J's racing. J's racing is about a 10min walk from the train station across the road from the hospital. At one stage we got lost and had to ask for directions. We went into a barber shop but the man who owned it didnt know much english so he got his wife who is a teacher to come help us. When we told her where we wanted to go she informed us that we were going the right way and walked us back outside. We thought she was just going to point which way to go and that was it but she pointed towards he car and told us that she would drive us the rest of the way. This is what i love about Japan. The people there are so kind natured and willing to go out of their way to help you.

Two minutes later and we were outisde J's racing. With many thanks we said goodbye to the old asian lady and my fan boy experience started haha
Being a massive js racing fan boy that i am i HAD to visit the workshop when we were in osaka no questions about it.
i had added hisaaki (president) on facebook a few months before heading over and had talked briefly with him once or twice. funnily enough when i introduced myself he remembered who i was and and thanked me numerous times for making the way all the way from australia to visit the store. (crazy!!!!) There was that Japanese hospitality and kindness again.
We had a long chat, i bought some parts
-j's racing thermostat
-j's racing thermo fan switch
-j's racing ETD heat shield
-j's racing oil filter stopper
-j's t shirt
and i asked about exhausts and other parts for the future and even got to have a look around the workshop at js demo car and another customers car which were both getting prepped for a track day the following weekend. Was an excellent experience and i recommend any Honda fan to visit if they make their way to Japan/Osaka.

Hisaaki was one of the nicest people i have ever met and was totally welcoming and his hospitality was amazing. From greetings to the tour of his workshop to booking us a cab to Tactical Art as we were leaving.

Now for the pictures

Few happy snaps of myself outside J's racing and with Hisaaki and the Js demo car





few of J's racing demo cars/customers cars parked outside. The yellow s2000 is actually a customers car that J's look after.



i love this car and the way the gt bodykit looks with just paint and no livery. Ive always had a soft spot for non livery race cars.







J's demo car (the one from all the hot version videos)



Js racing CRZ



Can you say hyper revs?
Literally every single Honda model hyper rev made. Most of these are doubled up as well!
Was tempted to take a few issues that i dont have :P



Ill leave it at that and update on the next visit to Tactical Art tomorrow