"Bloke trip" to Japan...

[BrettZZR]

WARNING: My passion is Honda cars - I am busy preparing a CRX race car to replace the one I destroyed when I ran out of talent during an event a year ago. Much of this thread is about cars - Honda cars in particular. But there is a fair amount of bike stuff, and in particular we stopped in Kobe to visit "Kawasaki Good Times World" so I figure there would be a few people on here that might enjoy a small sample of the 1000 odd pictures I took. If this isn't you, don't read on...

So for his 21st birthday at the end of last year Neil (my apprentice/spanner boy/parts washer/car nut/nice young fellow) got a trip to Japan with his Dad and favourite 'uncle' (that be me!)

Okay - got so many pics and not terribly well organised etc. If you want to see something specific, then let me know, or if you have any questions...

Went in our trusty rental


to:


Saw this In the carpark:


The Civic challenge was an unexpected bonus




Along with the Porsche Cup supporting the main event


My camera is no good at distance work and even worse with moving things, so apart from this one, I can post a flurry of blurry pictures of the Super GT cars, but I’ll rather sort through some of the video clips because to appreciate the Honda HSV10, you have to HEAR it!


Bunch of cars in the paddock area including my first sighting of an 86:

[BrettZZR]

Next it was onto the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima

These travel 300+kmh and there is very little sensation of speed. Much like being on a jet.

The peace park in Hiroshima was informative without being inciteful, and I don’t mind admitting I was moved to tears



It was also a strange sensation to stand and strike the gong and feel the emotions it’s deep tone brings up – and to know that my father stood at the same spot and had done the same in 1970.

It was a sombre experience and one I will remember for the rest of my life.

But back to bloke-trip stuff! Our Laptop had enjoyed the Shinkansen so much, it had decided to remain on the train and was picked up by the cleaners at the far southern tip of the Japanese mainland – Kagoshima. I volunteered for the 5 hr round trip to go fetch it. Ate in a fabulous local restaurant – and told them I wanted Sashimi and left it up to them what they brought:

Sensational!

Arrived back in Hiroshima on the red-eye Shinkansen the next morning, a bit late for the Mazda factory tour, but they accommodated me with smiles all round:


The monstrous 787 racecar:




One of the wonderful meals – you pick and assortment of dishes of all sorts of stuff (less than half had arrived when this pic was taken) and you fry it up on the plate and garnish with sauces etc. Fabulous.


On the way from Hiroshima to Tokyo, we stopped at Kobe (outskirts of Osaka) to see the “Kawasaki Good Times World”:


A ZZR1100C model – a bit earlier than my D model


Kawasaki "Hein" - the most advanced fighter produced by Japan during the war, and the only liquid cooled one:


Goes back a bit:


Couple of bikes that influenced me in my youth:




Mike had one of these back in SA

[BrettZZR]

And then Tokyo...

After working out the train system in Tokyo:

(pretty damn full-on, and rush-hour was nothing short of amazing), we took a mono-rail (actually run on truck tires, but driver-less)


to the huge Toyota facility called Mega-Web and starting out at the fantastic "History Garage":










And a huge area with Current Toyota cars and interactive displays and lots of stuff for the kids etc

[BrettZZR]

A quick stop at Spoon:


Including their engine prep area




And on to Type-ONE garage, down the road:

[BrettZZR]

Then on to:














These stickers he gave us are apparently "not available to the public" at all. He kindly (though was rather embarrassed to) signed Neils Tee-Shirt too.


I didn't know MUGEN did a lot of work with Honda bikes too (more later)


And yes - a B20 with a dry sump

[BrettZZR]

Then more in Tokyo






Decided not to mess with these boys:




Random building in Shinjuku:


I'll just chain the ol'bike up here:


And a day trip to:


Where they had a tuning day for bikes on the go. Mugen CB1000RR anyone?

There was some serious money about - a guy with a road regoed Ducati, sitting in the back of his van that he used to transport the bike there, with a genny running and tire warmers on it! This looked pretty good:


Then, the the big reason for going there for the day:

[BrettZZR]

Asimo was doing his thing! I was more excited by this than I thought I'd be. I'll post a video clip once I work out how to edit it.



Oval pistons, 8 valves per cylinder - pretty amazing in the "metal":


Pretty much what my first "big" bike looked like


Pretty much NOT:


Two wheels, one headlight Honda - it's a bike, right?
Nope:

[BrettZZR]

I remember watching Ron Haslam riding this thing with wishbone front suspension!


Not ONLY Hondas in the collection


Transverse V12 of an early 60s Honda F1 car:


A shrine to one of the masters:


Just awesomeness!

[aardvark]

Wow, that's a bucket load of photos to post!!! Thanks for doing it, it was a good read and looks like it was a great trip.

[TyM2Go]

i going to go out on a limb here and guess that u jizzed in your pants with each look at the different hondas unfortunately i cant understand your interest in the vitz ugly looking thing in my opinion. thanks for sharing enjoyed the pics

[dutchy]

Looks like you thoroughly enjoyed your trip. Thanks for sharing. I feel sorry for anyone who's visiting your place for the next 12 months and asks "how was your trip?", you'll be sitting them down to three hours+ of photo slide shows and explanations

I'd love to see more of Kawasaki good times world (with write ups of course )

[robracer]

Awesome Post Brett! language wasn't a barrier? I cant imaging trying to decipher the signage etc, I would have to message Cath

[philbo]

Awesome.
Have thought this week about going to Japan myself and having a wonder around

[Benno]

I'm right into my Rotaries - seeing the 787B is like seeing the pinnacle of rotary engineering.

Fantasic trip!

[BrettZZR]

I have heaps more photos, but I’m trying to find an easy (lazy) way to make them available – Imageshack “slideshow” seems to be crap and slow. I’ll get something right soon. Similarly I have a handful of low res vid clips which I need to edit and post.

Mugen and the Honda Collection Hall were Jizz-worthy round every corner! I have no interest in the Vitz/Yaris, but took some record shots in the place for recording the trip. I’m thinking Neil will look back fondly on even the crappy photos. Actually, so will I.

So I’ll put up an ‘album’ or ‘slideshow’ for each of the days/visits including one of the day in Kobe and KGTW – no promises on write-ups, but I’ll answer any questions that I can.

Yep – better grab a beer at my place because you will sit through all the pics from two cameras and an iPhone, and video clips of random countryside… Heh!

Two weeks before we left I bought a Japanese language course that is CD/mp3 based. Listened to it every time I was in the car, and with some pride I can say I was able to have some basic conversation, and certainly cover greetings and basic requests. That, along with the universal gesturing hand signals got us through our discussions even with the few people that seemed to know no English at all. Mostly they would know a few words and everyone without exception was helpful and tried to assist these big hairy Gaijin to find what they were looking for. The written word in Japanese is a whole other story and I can say with confidence that there is not a single Japanese script character that I can read/recognise.

I wish I could have spent more time looking at the 787B’s monster rotary engine, but I was still in catch-up mode after being late. I’m sure there are more pics of the car and it’s engine, I’ll see if I can post em for you.