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Tokyo
Auto Salon 2006 Trip
January
11 - 16, 2006
Aloha race fans! This month, the Drift Session is heading back to the
motherland: JAPAN! Join us in our first-ever, multi-part series documenting
our trip to the Tokyo Auto Salon as we check out some of the fastest cars,
hang with some of the coolest drifters, and perv out on hot asian girls.
Tokyo
Auto Salon Video PART 1
right-click, save-as
Part 4, Sun. January 15, 2006:
Woah,
I totally forgot about these pictures that I took in Japan. We went to the
Tokyo Auto Salon on Friday and Saturday January 14 & 15, but Sunday and
Monday were free days for us to check out Tokyo.
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Here's the view from
the top of our hotel the Meredien Pacific in Shinagawa. I actually
took this picture from the top floor mens' bathroom. One entire wall
is a ceiling to floor window that allows you to look out over Tokyo
while you're taking a whiz. It almost feels like peeing on all the
little people. For the most part, the hotel was really nice and not
too expensive. Most of the staff seemed to speak decent English and
the hotel caters to overseas business travelers. Only downside was
that there wasn't any thermostat controls in the hotel room so after
taking a shower, the room heats up to 90 degrees and 100 percent
humidity. |
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For
our Sunday off, we decided to head to the Akihabara district
of Tokyo. It was a short train ride from our station and this photo
is pretty much right after we got off the train. We were greeted by
a bunch of people who apparently are trying to pass out
advertisements in the form of a small tissue packet with a flyer on
the back. I raided one of their boxes and grabbed a ton. Hey, free
tissue. As you can see from the picture, Akihabara is a pretty busy
area. On weekends, tons of Otaku (super nerds) come into the area to
check out video game shops, buy toys & models, and other pretty
geeky things. Oh yeah, there's also tons of porn shops. |
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Snapped
a shot of Otaku Mike checking out various toys and models in some
small hobby shop in Akihabara. Mike's been on the lookout for
an original Megatron Transformers toy in the box. We were actually
able to find one at a clandestine underground toy shop, but it was
going for over $600. |
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In
that same hobby shop we also found an entire section of hentai anime
models. First thing we're looking at Initial D toys, next thing we
know, BAM! Anime ass all up in our faces. Pretty funny. |
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While
walking down the street in Akihabara we didn't see too many
"tuner" type vehicles, but this S15 was parked on the
street. A little too "fast & furious" for us, but oh
well. |
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Got
a shot of Otaku Mike here in an underground porn store. Not kidding,
the store is actually underground in a large basement area of a
building. I think there were toy stores and hobby shops up above.
Interestingly, quite a few porn shops we saw in Japan were connected
to toy and model shops. Just check out the ridiculous selection
these guys had at their shop. The wall in front of Mike is the
"dating-sim" section of the store housing all of their PC
video games that allow players to role-play various dating and sex
scenarios with female anime characters. |
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On
Sundays, the main street through Akihabara gets shut down so that
everyone can walk in the street like a large mall. It seems like a
lot of people were out and about trying to promote some kind of
product, act, etc. right on the street. The group of guys here were
breakdancing and handing out flyers to their next gig. |
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We
wandered into some multi-story building to check out what a Japanese
video game arcade looks like. The first floor was dedicated to
crane-type prize games. The second floor had simulation type, DDR,
Guitar Hero type games. The third floor had the games you see here.
Unlike American video games, Japanese video games are shorter so you
sit in front of them on a small stool so you can lounge while you
play. Games were around 100 yen each. |
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Here's
a shot of Mike in the streets of Akihabara. As you can see behind
him, the streets have been blocked off to allow foot traffic. |
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